Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Untours: Free Access to a 'Local Expert' Offer

Home Base Holidays is a member of CHECtravel, a USA based organisation that requires high standards from home exchange member agencies. CHECtravel has passed on the following offer:

'UnTours.com has asked us to send them the names and email addresses of home exchangers who may be vacationing in any of the following cities this summer:

London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Florence, Venice, Umbria, Barcelona, New York, San Francisco or Santa Fe.

If any of your members are traveling to any of these cities and wish to have free access to a "local expert," UnTours.com is conducting an experiment they may wish to participate in. It is our understanding that UnTours.com plans to be charging between $100 and $200 for this service in the future. We only have three slots left to give away, so please hurry, first come, first served.'

I can't guarantee that this offer will still be available but if it is of interest, please contact us right away, giving your name, User ID and the city you will be visiting. Enter 'Untours offer' in the subject line.

Getting away from it all - A Morocco Tour in the Atlas Mountains

Guest post written for Travel the Home Exchange Way by The Adventure Company:

I was thinking about killing two birds with one stone this spring by organising a house swap and enjoying a Moroccan holiday at the same time. There can’t be many countries better for stimulating activity holidays than Morocco, but many of the traditional homes in the mountains are extremely remote and not really suitable (or available) for swaps. You can however still experience this beautiful unspoilt wilderness and the simple but charming types of accommodation with an adventure holiday in the Atlas Mountains. This has to be the most memorable adventure holidays to date.

From the moment we left Marrakech in April and ventured towards the expansive Atlas Mountains, I felt a sense of relaxation. The silence as we approached the foothills served as a sharp contrast to the manic, vibrant city we had left behind. I have been drawn back to these Mountains a few times over the last few years; quite often on foot trekking with friends.

We arrived at the range on our second day the friendly guides also had a decent command of English, this helps to make a trip like this run smoothly.We headed into the foothills just below the High Atlas Range and soon settled into the scenic surroundings. This area was draped with emerald forests interspersed with wide open spaces and stunning views. A high point was a picnic by a mountain lake. The Muleteers had gone ahead with the heavy baggage and much needed water to set up lunch. The food was good; the lunches being the most enjoyable, consisting of a spread of salads, sardines, cheese, bread, lentils or pasta, which we ate under the shade of a tree.

Trekking through this region enables you to see mountain villages up close and in depth, I felt in tune with the simplicity of the daily routines; these remote mud hut villages were enchanting. We stayed a night in a "Family" house which was great fun, we were well looked after and entertained with Berber drums and singing! The inhabitants’ hospitality was amazing, and they were as eager to learn about our lives as we were about theirs.

We also spent 3 nights in a rustic Auberge which was very simple but comfortable. I would suggest taking extra layers of clothing as we are not used to the cold nights and even in April the temperature drop dramatically in the late afternoon.

The walk through the Olives groves of the Asni region on the fourth day of the holiday was superb. We passed more mud villages as we ventured around the fabulous Kik plateau; especially picturesque during the spring as the run off from the higher mountains feeds the flora and the area was carpeted in colourful alpine flowers.

My personal highlight was the trek to Ouirgane, and the beautiful village itself nestled in the Mountains with lovely restaurants and fantastic views. This was a great place to finish our trek and relax before I headed back to Marrakech! This was a getaway with a difference, definitely worth a go.

This post was written by The Adventure Company. Visit our website to find out more about Morocco Holidays and other adventure holidays.

Choosing the Best Photos to Compliment a Home Exchange Description

Recently I touched on a rather delicate point in the post, Can Home Exchange Offers be 'Deceptive by Omission'? hobiej left a very thoughtful comment on that post (as she always does). Here is a quote:

'Looking through listings that are page after page of the front of suburban homes however accurate bores the pants off me. Don't mislead but if you explain that your front of page photo is the beach/castle/medieval town centre a couple of kilometres away I think it's fine. If you have a particularly pretty house then by all means use a front of house shot, otherwise please think twice. From my point of view context is what I need- if you live somewhere unpronounceable that no-one more than twenty miles away, let alone 4,000 miles away has heard of I think you need to show imagination in your listing photos.

Please think twice as well before putting in photos of your lounge from 4 different angles- I'm sure it's nice but one shot is enough. Use the other three for the local park, steam train, countryside. Your number of offers will probably triple as people realise what they can do near to your house.

I'd better say at this point that I use a main photo of the view of my town (Dartmouth) taken from a viewpoint a couple of minutes walk away. I explain that in our listing.'

I would add to hobiej's comment that photos of interiors do little justice to the home if very dark or bleached out (it is tricky getting good clear interior shots, especially when the sun is beaming in through large windows obscuring the view that is a feature!). hobiej is spot on in her suggestions to use a variety of photos to show not only the home on offer (unless the location is well known/the home is truly spectacular) but also attractions close by, detailing distances within your description.

People will have different ideas about what they most like to see when browsing home exchange photos and descriptions. Part of the fun of home exchange for many is the chance it gives to try out someone else's lifestyle for a short period. But it would seem to be taking this to extremes if you really didn't want to know what the residents looked like so the image of them in their home wouldn't detract from visualising yourself living there! Goodness - would anyone expect their exchange partners to hide away family photos they'd normally have on display around the house in order not to detract from your fantasy of being the owners of their home? I may be wrong but isn't it nice to be able to match an image of the people who normally live in a home with their personal touches - the decor, their choice of books, their CD collection, etc?

The photo above is from a new home exchange offer in Auckland, Waiheke Island, New Zealand. This is a good example of matching photos to descriptions very well, and including a variety of views. But look away now if you don't like seeing who you might be swapping homes with!

'North West facing gives all day sunshine and fabulous sunsets. The house is on a steeply sloping plot with extensive views over the bushed valley towards the bay.

Waiheke Island has beautiful beaches & some world class vineyards & restaurants. The community is very welcoming. The proximity to Auckland makes for easy access to all that city life offers.

We are an active, non-smoking professional couple in our early fifties. A Brit and a Kiwi, we .... have practical experience of property renovation, are keen walkers, sailors and gardeners.'

Read the home exchange offer in full and see more photos, HE22759

'Pets Welcome' in Many Home Exchange Homes

Q: Do all of your members not allow pets? One reason I want a home based exchange is to be able to travel with my pet.

A: Many Home Base Holidays members do allow exchange partners to bring pets with them to their homes. When you do a search, you will see a small black dog symbol beside summary listings in search results that indicates that pets are welcome in the home. To view all current homes which allow pets, use advanced search. Tick the box beside 'Pets Welcome' that you will see near the end of the page, and search.

You will also see that many members offer pet care (so pets can stay in their own homes) too.

The Lux Report: 'Swap your luxury life for another'

"Home exchanges have long been a popular way for travellers to holiday cheaply ... the idea is now finding favour among luxury travellers, who are less interested in the cost benefit and more in the actual cultural ‘life-swap’ possibilities ... The appeal lies in being able to stay in homes that are far better-equipped than the average rental home, and getting ‘insider’s tips’ on restaurants and places to visit so you can get a more genuine experience of a destination."

 

The Lux Report is described as 'the luxury lifestyle resource'. Even during the current economic downturn worldwide, there are still people who can afford the best hotels anywhere in the world but interestingly (as described in this article and from some of the ultra luxurious homes available for exchange on Home Base Holidays), many choose home exchange over other, more impersonal types of accommodation. The photo above is an example of such an offer - a spectacular industrial conversion overlooking Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa (see full exchange offer and more photos, HE20799).

One misconception is that all luxury home owners will only be interested in swapping to homes of the same high quality. Undoubtedly this is true for some but for the vast majority of home exchangers, location is the most important factor in deciding whether a home will suit their needs. So, if you live in a modest home that happens to be in a sought after area (central locations in major cities like London, Paris, Rome, Sydney and New York are always popular), don't be put off from contacting someone with a home exchange offer just because their home looks much grander than your own. Just be honest in your description of your home and you could be surprised - swapping your one bedroom London flat in trendy Spitalfields for a beachside villa with pool in a beautiful exotic location!

Read the full article, 'Swap your luxury life for another'.

Can Home Exchange Offers be 'Deceptive by Omission'?

Wouldn't you love to look out your window at this view every morning? And listen to the waves crashing on the rocks below as you drift off to sleep? If your home had such a view, you would almost certainly receive many offers if you wanted to swap homes!

However, if you can't actually see any great view from your home or, in fact, there is nothing remotely so scenic anywhere nearby, you wouldn't want to imply that there is by including such a photo in your home exchange offer listing. Just as when selling a property it is natural to want to show a home in the best possible light, so it is when compiling a home exchange offer. However, there can be a fine line between 'highlighting the best features' and, as someone recently commented, 'lying by omission' (referring to the description and photos of a home her family had exchanged to). In this case, the photos implied that there was a view of hills from the home when, in fact, it was located in a very built up area. Likewise, photos inside the house didn't show the 'peeling paint, half painted walls and sheets of MDF stapled together covered by a thin dirty rug instead of a carpet in the upstairs hall.'

If you've not swapped homes as yet, you may have stopped reading already! I hope not as reports like the one described above are very rare indeed and most home exchanges are extremely successful. However, as when buying a house, home exchange for a holiday does rely on both parties to the exchange (in this case, both are 'buyers') to have taken the time to research the area, ask questions and generally find out if they are compatible, with similar lifestyles and housekeeping standards, before agreeing to go ahead with a swap. Properties available for exchange are lived in homes located all over the world, and so it is not realistically possible to rate them (as with hotels) in any standard and meaningful way. People don't always have the same idea of what is acceptable in a home - one person's 'charming Bohemian shabby chic' may be another's idea of 'scruffy, down at heel and possibly unhygenic'!

I've touched on more than one subject here (and will follow up in later posts). I would welcome your comments or messages on any of the issues raised - descriptions/photos that may be 'deceptive by omission', describing/rating housekeeping standards, a home exchanger's responsibility to research locations and compatibility of potential exchange partners - and anything else you think is relevant to this discussion.

The photo above is of Big Sur in Northern California and is reproduced with kind permission of Erin from What a Trip (Daily Travel Inspiration).