Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Follow-up on checking how long home exchange offers are in circulation

The Q & A post last week, How to avoid the disappointment of out-of-date, unavailable home exchange offers, was based on an enquiry received that day from Jill from Auckland, New Zealand. Jill was naturally cautious about joining another home exchange service after finding many listings on other sites to be out-of-date. Jill wrote:

 

‘Thank you for your very informative letter and such a quick response. We will now join your group and make contact with the Glastonbury exchangers.  We thought you might think us a bit cheeky asking, but after our other experiences we were a bit wary. You have reassured us and renewed our faith in the idea of home exchanges.’

 

I’m pleased to report that Jill did join Home Base Holidays right away and I believe is currently in negotiation to arrange an exchange with the member in Glastonbury whose listing was of most interest (the members were looking for an exchange to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup 2011 and so it looked a potentially very good match). Let’s hope it all goes well for both parties!

 

 

Jill’s home (pictured above) is situated handily to the Bay of Islands and the famous Rotorua with its thermal parks. Also the Coromandel Peninsular with its beautiful white sandy beaches backed by a magnificent native bush clad mountain range. Read full home exchange offer and see more photos.

 

As with any major international sporting event, accommodation near the RWC venues is bound to be at a premium. Home exchange offers in the area will be very popular and so it is a good idea to list your home in New Zealand, or start looking for an exchange there, early to avoid disappointment. Most members will mention within their descriptions if their homes are in areas likely to be popular during any major event or if they are looking for an exchange to attend an event. To locate such listings, use the Keyword Search function, entering the main phrase (in this case, Rugby World Cup) and search.

How to avoid the disappointment of out-of-date, unavailable home exchange offers

Q: Re HE24044 - We're interested to know if this listing is still available? The reason for asking is that several of the sites we have looked in to have listings that are no longer viable or so old to be of no use. If it is still current and available we will be happy to pay the fee and become members. Regards, Jill, New Zealand

A:  Thank you for your enquiry about a Home Base Holidays listing, HE24044. On a quick skim through the member’s mailbox without reading private mail in full, it appeared that he may have arranged an exchange this year but not as yet one to New Zealand in 2011. We can never guarantee that the member will be interested in your offer but it does seem like there would be a good chance that he would be if your home is near any of the Rugby World Cup venues and is available during RWC. When members have arranged an exchange and are not currently looking for further exchanges, they can indicate this in their listings (you will see a little suitcase symbol beside such listings). This avoids members wasting time sending exchange offers to those who aren’t likely to be interested at this time.

I am sorry to hear that you have found many listings on other home exchange sites to be out of date. We know how disappointing this is and so keep our own listings as up-to-date as possible by having two membership options only (one and two years), with listings automatically hidden on the expiry date if not renewed on or before that date. All listings include both the registration (join) date and the expiry date (this information is near the end of each full listing) as it’s very important that site visitors are able to see exactly how long any listing has already been in circulation. If you look at the Glastonbury listing, you will see that the member joined on 11 March this year and his membership expires on 11 March 2012.

A note re exchange dates shown in listings: when browsing listings you will see either one or two ranges of dates (months and years) when the member would like to exchange or ‘Open to Offers’ if they can be flexible on dates. Although members can update their information, including exchange dates, whenever they want, some don’t do this and so you will see that in some of the older listings (none older than two years), that the date field is blank, meaning the exchange dates are past and have been automatically deleted. This doesn’t mean such members won’t be interested in further exchanges but is an indication that they may not be looking for another exchange at this time.

I am very sorry to hear that you have been disappointed with several home exchange sites that display very out of date listings for exchange offers unlikely to still be available. This superficially boosts the number of listings, and unfortunately many potential members and the media don’t look beyond the total number of listings claimed. We believe this is a very bad practice that discredits the niche home exchange industry (and would like to see it exposed).  Home Base Holidays publishes a more modest number of listings but, knowing that all members, having paid a membership fee to show their commitment to arranging exchanges, plus making available only current listings no older than two years, this provides a much better service for members.

Note: if you can’t see join and expiry dates in listings on other sites you check out, or there are many listings showing either no exchange dates, out of date offers, or months without years, give the site a wide berth!

I do hope that you will decide to join Home Base Holidays (www.homebase-hols.com) so that you can contact the member in Glastonbury with your home exchange offer. As Home Base Holidays is based in London, there are many listings throughout England and I hope that you will find others of potential interest too. Please get in touch if you have any further questions.

Will my email address be visible to other home exchange members I contact?

The simple answer to the question is, no – never! Home Base Holidays’ members’ email addresses are not shown in messages you send to other members as you will use the messaging system in your private member area to send and receive messages.

 

With so much junk flooding our in-boxes, it is definitely not a good idea to share your email address on any membership site that doesn’t have a similar private messaging system in place (Long established home exchange agencies did have problems with a few toe rags in the past, even some unscrupulous new agents who joined in order to compile mailing lists to promote their wonderful new free home swap services – cheeky! As a result, most agencies introduced messaging systems long ago to protect their members’ privacy).

 

Although Home Base Holidays members now take for granted that their email addresses (and all contact information) will not be disclosed to other members until they themselves are ready to share such information directly, it’s worth a reminder to those ready to join Home Base Holidays but understandably need reassurance that their private information will be safe.

Information for those new to on-line messaging systems:

1. Once you are a member you will browse the same listings as you did as a non-member only now you will see a contact form at the end of each member’s full listing. The subject line is already completed and all you need to do is write your brief exchange offer message in the box provided.
2. Click Send and the member will receive an alert message to let them know there is a message for them and they need to log on to their member area to read it and reply. The member will also see a link to your listing and a small thumbnail of your main photo.
3. The message you sent will be saved and stored in the Sent folder in your member area. You can delete any messages you really don’t want but it’s a good idea to keep most as both a record of every member you have been in contact with and also so that you can view complete ‘threads’ of all messages sent and received from any particular member – this is invaluable as a reminder of all that has been agreed before compiling a simple exchange contract once you are ready to go ahead with an exchange; your messages will continue to be recorded in the final preparation stages in the run-up to an exchange.
4. When a member contacts you or replies to a message from you, you will receive an alert message by email with the subject line, New home exchange message for you from HExxxxx (the member's User ID). When you log on you will see that there is an Unread message (in bold) in your in-box. Please log on, read and reply promptly to all messages, even if you can’t consider an exchange offer.
5. Although your email address won't be visible to members when you use the messaging system you can, of course, choose to share your email address with another member once in regular correspondence if you prefer to send and receive messages directly (Note: such messages won't be recorded in your member area and so most members, although sharing full contact details once an exchange is agreed, prefer to continue to use the messaging system so that they have a complete record of all correspondence in one place).

Finding a Second Home for a Non-simultaneous Home Exchange

Home exchange is becoming increasingly popular with the lucky few who own holiday homes. Using a second home (sometimes on its own or as an alternative/addition to a primary or only home) generally enables much more flexibility on dates; many second homes are left empty for long periods and so can be made available during a range of different dates  (i.e. for a non-simultaneous exchange), making it easier to find dates that best suit both parties.

 

I say ‘lucky few’ as, although you will see many second homes in Home Base Holidays search results (look for the little '2 house' symbol shown), the vast majority of people who swap homes don’t own one. By joining Home Base Holidays, you won’t limit your range of offers to second homes only. Even if you want to swap a second home, you will very likely find many attractive offers for main (usually, only) homes that will suit your needs on dates and location too. It would be a shame to miss out on some splendid home swap opportunities by restricting your choice to a niche within the still relatively small niche, home exchange, in the vast travel industry!

 

However, it is very easy to limit search results in a number of ways, including to second homes and/or non-simultaneous home exchange offers (and this is a good way to start your search for homes most likely to match your needs):

 

Choose Detailed Search options (members will find this on the simple search page accessed from within their member area). Along with choosing country and any other important criteria:

1. Choose ‘Non-simultaneous exchange’ from the drop down list beside Type of Exchange.

2. Tick the box beside ‘Second home’. Search.

If you choose both options, the search results will show only members offering second homes for exchange who have also indicated they are interested in non-simultaneous exchanges. So, in one easy additional click from a simple search by country, you can limit search results to second homes/non-simultaneous exchange offers! Can’t find exactly what you want from restricted search results? Widen your criteria for a larger choice.

Home Exchange – Feeling “at Home” Away from “Home”

I was delighted to be invited to write a guest post on home exchange for At Home in Tuscany by Gloria, a born and bred Tuscan whose love for her region attracts many readers to her blog. The post, Home Exchange - Feeling "at Home" Away from "Home" published yesterday, is the third in a series on what the expression to ‘feel at home away from home’ means to the various authors. And what better way to feel at home than to swap homes, living in a ‘real’ home in a ‘real’ neighborhood!

 

I began the post with a quote from Home Base Holidays members, John and Marilyn, that I feel sums up the attraction of home exchange very well:

‘Nothing can beat the excitement when home exchange offers are received, unless it is the excitement of exploring a new home on arrival. We love getting to know "our" new neighbours, caring for pets and immersing ourselves in a new environment.’ – from an article in Home Swappers Newsletter, ‘Top Ten Tips from Very Experienced Home Exchangers’

John and Marilyn have had over 60 home swaps so are particularly well qualified to describe the benefits of home exchange! See their exchange offer and home (pictured), a 17th century sandstone cottage with exposed stonework, oak beams and many original features but all modern conveniences, in a tiny village near Appleby in Cumbria, England.

 

Also view Gloria’s exchange offer, ‘an apartment right in the heart of Pisa, opposite the city walls and the world-known Campo dei Miracoli where the Leaning Tower is’.

Read the full article, Home Exchange – Feeling “at Home” Away from “Home”, and please leave a comment on the post if you have thoughts on the topic of what it means to feel at home or, if you live far from your country of birth, do you feel as I do, that ‘home’ can mean more than one country.

Home Swappers: the Home Exchange Newsletter, Jun/Jul10

The new issue of Home Swappers Newsletter is now available. Topics:

• Home Base Holidays 25th Anniversary Quiz Winner!
• Featured Listing: Cape Town, South Africa
• A Note to Home Exchange 'Virgins'
• Start Planning Your Christmas Swap
• 20% Discount Membership Offer for Christmas ‘Early Birds’

Read articles in current and previous issues of Home Swappers Newsletter (published every two months since 1999), in the Newsletter Archive. Subscribe to receive the newsletter as published.