Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Checking the Number of People in a Home Exchange Party

Q: We are considering joining Home Base Holidays and looked at listings. Do the numbers in the Party column indicate the number of people wanting to stay in our place assuming we make an arrangement? Cheers, John.

 

A: That's right. ‘Party’ in search results summary listings refers to the number of people who will be travelling in the exchange party. When you view a member’s full listing you will see the composition of the home exchange party - how many adults and, if children, usually their ages will be shown. You will also see the number of bedrooms in their home and how many people can be accommodated comfortably (members usually give details of the type of beds in each bedroom within their description). This information will help you decide if you look a good match before contacting a member with your home swap offer.

It’s St George’s Day! Arrange a Home Exchange to England this Year or for London 2012

Happy St George’s Day! If you’ve been reading this blog or Home Swappers newsletter for awhile you’ll know that Home Base Holidays is celebrating a milestone anniversary this year – 25 years of providing a home exchange service. We have a great advantage in being based in London, one of the world’s most popular destinations, as our agency is well known here and has the largest number of up-to-date exchange offers in London and throughout the UK. In turn, members from all over the world who want to arrange exchanges to the UK are attracted to the service, with the balance of listings (as crucial as total numbers) in their favour. A win-win!

 

Although London 2012 Olympics is still  over two years away, we are already finding much interest in exchanges during that period. It’s not too soon to start planning your exchange to London (note: there are various venues throughout the UK. See the London 2012 website for information).

 

Now that spring has finally arrived with everything looking fresh and green, this is a good time to check out some of the most recent attractive exchange offers in London. Samples of new offers this week:

 

A recently-modernised 1900s house on 3 floors. Situated in a quiet, tree lined street just 20 minutes walk from historic Richmond and Kew Gardens (a World Heritage Site). Close by are Hampton Court Palace, Ham House, Richmond Park and the tranquil stretch of the river Thames. View full home swap offer, photos and location map, HE20920

 

 

 

 

 

 

A spacious house on the trendy Rotherhithe street in London, just meters from river Thames. We renovated it last year so it looks great. Take the Underground to central London in 20 minutes. There are several bus lines to central London too. It's also close to Greenwich attractions. Riding a bicycle to central London and Greenwich is another option. You can have a pleasant walk along the river to Tower Bridge and London Tower and London Bridge. View full home exchange offer, photos and location map, HE24208

Spacious house with a large garden, a pool table, table football, wireless internet, large flat screen HD tv with Sky Plus, additional tv with Sky, a Wii and a drum kit! Quiet, safe area in SE London only three (10 minutes) stops from bustling South Bank. There you will find Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Royal Festival Hall, National Theatre, Tate Modern, London Eye, Southwark Cathedral and many more cultural sites and experiences. Just a short walk over London Bridge from there to the heart of the West End. View full home swap offer, photos and location map, HE22580

To browse all current exchange offers in London (all less than two years old, most much newer), choose England and London from the drop down lists. Leave the county/state field blank to view all offers in England, or view listings by county.

 

See Visit England for tourist information.

Another Kind Offer from a Home Exchange Member for Anyone Unable to Fly Home

‘Dear Friends, if anyone is stranded here in Ajijic, Mexico, I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to just kick back and enjoy it.  However,  if they are the gainfully (and woefully)  employed and are stuck here,  we, too, have 2 bedrooms to share.’ -  Ann Klestadt, Home Exchange listing HE21764.

 

See Ann’s recent guest post with details of her home, Why Stop at One Home Exchange When You Can Arrange Five in a Row?

Stranded Because of the Icelandic Volcano? Home Exchange Members Offer Accommodation

 It is eerily quiet in London without the regular sound of airplanes passing overhead. This is a pleasant change but the on-going effect on thousands of travellers is certainly not at all pleasant.

 

Home Base Holidays members offering accommodation:

 

‘If there are travelers that are stuck not able to get home because of the Iceland volcano and want to stay in the Washington DC area, I can put them up till the problem passes. I have two bedrooms available in Annapolis MD.’ – Wendy, HE14745

 

Many thanks Wendy! Please see details of Wendy’s home (pictured here) and location. Contact her directly if you are a Home Base Holidays member or, if not, contact us with details and a contact number and we will pass this on to Wendy.

 

If any other members are able to offer home swap accommodation anywhere where travellers may be stranded, please do let us know and we will publicise your offer.

Why Stop at One Home Exchange When You Can Arrange Five in a Row?

Guest Post by Ann Klestadt

 

 

‘For our first venture into home exchanging, I arranged 5 consecutive exchanges with Home Base Holidays members in Australia and New Zealand (I've always been an over-achiever) over a period of 3 months.  We got lots of coaching and encouragement from our many friends who are long-time exchangers,  but nobody has ever experienced what we did!  These were supposed to be simultaneous exchanges,  but only 2 of them worked out that way.    Our Adelaide hostess stayed with an old friend while her husband was off caring for an ill child.  She was near enough to introduce us to all her wonderful neighbors and we spent Christmas dinner with her family.    Our Melbourne hosts stayed in the home with us,  as Ingrid needed chemo and their house was large.  They toured us around for 3 days,  then went off to visit friends and left us their home for a week.  They returned,  to take us to her mother's birthday party and meet the family,  then stayed for the rest of our visit.  They are friends forever.   Our Sydney exchange went fine, but our Christchurch hostess ran off to Adelaide to help her son,  leaving us her house and her dog (not part of the agreement).  The Auckland couple came to Mexico and loved it, even having friends from England from a previous exchange come visit them there.  They came home 2 days early so we could meet.    After 18 months of regular emails to these 5 couples, I felt they were friends, and mourned that we would never meet.  Well,  be careful what you wish for!  We met 4 out of 5.  The other 3 couples will visit in the future.  It's a good thing we have a big house (and a big heart).  We are not deterred.  We have 5 more exchanges planned so far.’ Ann, See the couple’s current home exchange offer in Ajijic (Chapala), Jalisco, Mexico plus more photos and location map, HE21764.   Note: It’s probably for the best that Ann didn’t let us know her plans before launching into arranging a home exchange for the first time – by actually arranging five in a row! We would have cautioned her to perhaps to take on a slightly less daunting schedule for her first home exchange experience. In the event, Ann and husband Charilie proved to be the perfect home exchangers, not only co-ordinating the complex arrangements for five swaps but also adapting to fit in with exchange partners’ unavoidable changing circumstances, making new friends in the process and now already well on the way to organising their next series of home swaps!

Home Base Holidays 25th Anniversary Quiz: Win Free Home Exchange Membership

In case you missed our latest competition announced in the current issue of Home Swappers Newsletter, there’s still plenty of time to send your entry – and you’ll find the answers right here on Travel the Home Exchange Way. Details:

 

Occasionally guest bloggers are invited to write posts especially for us. We're always grateful for these contributions and were really pleased at the high standards of recent posts - two, by experts in their fields, and at least two by Home Base Holidays members in the last couple of months.
 
Join in our 25th year in business celebrations by entering this month’s competition:

 

To win a free one year membership to Home Base Holidays, value 29 pounds (either as a new member or an extension to current membership), send us a message (subject: Competition) with the names of three of the most recent guest bloggers on Travel the Home Exchange Way. Send your entry by 15 May 2010. One entry will be selected at random, the winner informed and announced in the next issue of Home Swappers.