Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Home swap tip: Non-smokers only please!

Many non-smokers are happy to swap homes with considerate smokers who agree to smoke only outside their home, perhaps on a patio/in the garden. However, if you or a family member are very sensitive to smoke, you won't want to exchange to a smoker's home. To restrict search results to homes of non-smokers, use the Advanced Search and tick the box beside 'Non-smokers' before clicking search.

Home swap tip: Good photos to make your offer stand out

Good quality photos can be one of the best ways to make your home swap offer stand out.

 

Tips for Shooting Interiors:

• Tidy your home: put away clothes, clean off countertops and fold the towels. Clear away the clutter and remember - less is often more.
• Natural light: if possible shoot in natural light without the flash. Choose the time of day when the sun illuminates the room. However make sure your photos are not too dark.
• Framing: select the best possible portion of a room to photograph. If your camera allows try setting the lens to a wide angle to frame as much of the room as possible. 

Tips for Shooting Exteriors:

• Allow space: frame your home so that you include some extra space around it - this gives the building context.
• Keep the sun behind you: try to shoot with the sun behind you so that your home is not cast in shadows.
• Time of day: utilise softer early morning or late afternoon light. If you have a garden you could try to take photos just after it rains - this can make your blooms look rich and bright.

50 home swaps: from a palace to a caravan!

"We started home swapping before the Internet, in the days when people used to write real letters - and it worked! Since then, we´ve done more than 50 swaps and we've converted our friends and neighbours in Andalusia to home exchange.

We only have nice stories to tell about home swapping and are still good friends with our very first home exchangers in New Zealand. We´ve stayed in amazing homes, including a palace, a vicarage, a barge, a motor caravan, and swapped with lots of interesting families - violin bow makers in Amsterdam, Freudian psychiatrists in Vienna, film makers in Paris, a vicar in Cumbria and even an osteopath in Costa Rica.

Our 9 year-old twins, Sam and Sid, love discovering their new homes, each time asking for limits: where they can't go, what they can't touch or how to recycle. Now they help us choose the new families to contact and I feel that soon they'll organise the home swaps themselves :)

We now want to swap house and life for a year with a family from Edinburgh. We hope to arrange one or more exchanges from three months to a year from August/September 2014."

Christine C (Andalusia, Spain)

 

See the family's home exchange offer, a former 18th century convent, in rural Andalusia.

Home swap tip: the last minute tidy up

A home swapper recently wrote about the following dilemma: 

"I have found that the end of the holiday can end up with a last-minute competition to leave the house in a cleaner condition than you found it. This is beneficial, but can be embarrassing if your exchangees beat you in the game. Our first exchange guests washed and dried all the bedding, which was lovely, but we hadn't agreed to this, and all I had done was to strip their beds!" 

It's great that members want to leave homes clean and tidy at the end of an exchange but it is best to agree ahead exactly what both parties will be expected to do before leaving. Most cleaning can be done the day before with just a quick last minute tidy up. Another option is to arrange ahead for cleaners to come to both homes to do a quick clean, laundry and to make the beds - although this is an added cost it is still far cheaper than what it would have cost to stay in a hotel.

Visiting London on a home swap? Tips for eating out well and cheaply from a South London girl!

'One of the many delights of home exchange is that your house swap partners will provide suggestions for tried and tested bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants close to home. Our visitors have enjoyed the varied delights of eating out in Tooting but dining in Central London can be an expensive disappointment. Below are a few of our favourites which we return to again and again (Borough Market in photo):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We love the bar and restaurant in the Haymarket Hotel. Comfortable, classy, and although pricey there's always a dish of the day and a set price theatre menu. They serve a great afternoon tea here as well. Straight over the road, for the more budget conscious is Assaggetti, where you can graze on small plates of food, ordering as you go.

 Afternoon tea is also good at the National Dining Room in the National Gallery, especially if you get a table overlooking Trafalgar Square, and we enjoy drinks, tea and meals at the nearby Charing Cross Hotel, a good place to relax amid the hustle of London. Also in this vicinity is the marvellous Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin's in the Fields.

 If you're shopping in Oxford Street head down James Street towards Marylebone High Street for a wider, and cheaper, selection of eateries.

 Then to the South Bank. Head in one direction from London Bridge towards City Hall and, as well as amazing views of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and a lovely meander through the now gentrified dockland warehouses, you can eat at the wonderful Le Pont de La Tour (wonderful wine shop attached) or head further on to the cheaper Browns which has a large terrace with great views across the river.

 In the other direction, towards the Globe and Tate Modern, there are a couple of good pubs with outdoor seating and Pizza Express. See if you can get a table upstairs by the window. A cheap meal, a priceless view.

 In this area too is the amazing Borough Market (above). Lots of goodies to take home with you and so many options for wraps, burgers and other hot food you won't know what to choose. Eat them on the seats set out in the adjacent Southwark Cathedral Churchyard.

 If you opt for the Marriott Hotel in the Old County Hall you can sup in the old Members' Bar with great views of The Houses of Parliament and eat your food in the adjacent dining room.

 And finally to my especial favourite, the delightful Oxo Tower restaurant. This is for red letter days, like birthdays, and you must book for opening time to be able to specify a window table, but the sight of St Paul's, especially as the sky darkens, will remain with you for ever.

 Maybe a bit biased towards south of the river, but I'm a South London girl.' - Sandra Newnham, London

Sandra and Paul are very experienced home swappers and Sandra is a regular contributor to our newsletter and blog. See her home exchange offer in London. 

Home Swap Tip: communication is key

It's always advisable to find exchange partners that you get on with. Communication is key to arranging an exchange and so while planning your swap do make sure to ask your exchange partners any questions you have. It's really nice to get to know the people you are exchanging with and so you might want to send photos of your family as well as additional information about your house and area. Make sure to talk on the phone (or Skype) as well as communicate regularly through the website during the planning and lead up to your holiday. 

Home Base Holidays members often make good new friends from around the world through their exchanges and it's common to see members choosing to repeat their  swaps with the same exchange partners a number of times.