Are you old enough to remember the enticing ads to get you to sign up to book clubs, as in ‘Sign up and receive four hard cover books of your choice for only £1’? In the easy to overlook small print there was a condition that, from what I recall, you bought at least six more books from monthly selections during the year. This didn’t seem too onerous when I signed up. The problems came when I tried to cancel the membership after fulfilling the obligation. The monthly books, and bills, just kept right on coming despite many attempts to cancel. As I remember it years later, it took many frustrating attempts before the message finally got through that I was no longer interested in receiving the expensive books!
Less than honest marketing by book clubs may (I hope) be a thing of the past but it's now easier than ever to sign up to websites only to find yourself automatically charged a large subscription fee that you may either have been unaware of or simply not remembered to cancel in time before the payment is taken.
It's quite common here at Home Base Holidays for us to be contacted by people very interested in home swapping but also cautious about signing up after bad experiences where they were automatically charged a hefty membership fee on other home exchange websites. One common issue seems to be people signing up to 'free trial' memberships only to be automatically charged a very substantial fee at the end of the trial (often finding it near on impossible to get a refund). Another annoyance, people being enticed by home swap sites displaying memberships at low monthly rates only to miss the small print that the full 12-month subscription will be taken as one big payment. Ouch!
Home Base Holidays:no automatic payments
We really value our members and so, here at Home Base Holidays we never take automatic renewal payments and so you will only ever be charged a membership fee if you actively choose to continue as a member. This also helps to ensure that all our listings are genuine up-to-date offers.
How our membership options work:
Free Trial Membership:if you opt for our free two week trial membership, you won’t be asked for payment details and so you’ll never need to worry about being charged a fee at the end of the free trial. Your home swap listing will automatically be hidden if you do not actively choose to continue your membership.
Full Memberships and Renewals(six month and one year): card and PayPal details are not stored by Home Base Holidays. You will receive a reminder email when your membership is due to expire but you will never be automatically charged a membership renewal fee. To renew your membership you will need to log in and go to the checkout page. If you do not renew your membership, no payment will be taken and your listing will automatically be hidden.
Home Base Holidays:home swap accommodation
For well over 35 years, Home Base Holidays has been helping members arrange home swap accommodation. Search thousands of home exchange vacation offers
Swiss swap: the beautiful city of St Gallen, Switzerland
It's always great to hear members' home swap experiences! Here we have the trip reports of this summer's home swap between members Bea & Kaspar's from St Gallen, Switzerland and Christine and Peter's from Usk, Wales.
Home swap: Usk, Wales >>> St Gallen, Switzerland
"From the moment the home swap was agreed we had lots of very friendly and informative messages from Bea - these continued throughout our home exchange period and so I really felt I knew the person whose house we were were staying in. Switzerland is of course beautiful and the weather in was just lovely. The apartment was clean and very comfortable. We really enjoyed preparing some of our meals and eating them from either of the home's two lovely balconies. We also exchanged cars, which was very useful and easy to drive on roads that are far from overcrowded.
The helpful people at the Tourist Information Centre in St Gallen advised us to buy a Bodensee Card Plus, aimed at visitors and which, once purchased, gave us free entry into most of the cable cars and Lake Constance ferries, not to mention tourist trains, museums, the nearby chocolate factory and numerous outdoor pools. This was certainly a good buy. We really enjoyed the local walks suggested by Bea, the area has so many lovely places to explore. Local buses and trains were also very easy to use.
I would highly recommend a home swap to Bea and Kaspar's lovely home. They took great care of our home and fed our cat, fish in the pond and wild birds too. Thanks Bea and Kaspar for a wonderful swap!"- Christine
Home swap: St Gallen, Switzerland >>> Usk, Wales
"Thanks so much for your lovely comments Christine! We so much enjoyed being in your home, and relaxing after a fairly busy two weeks in Brighton, London and Brackley. Your house is so clean and comfortable and the garden with the two seating areas is a dream! We were there during a heatwave, so finding a cool shady spot n the garden was a great relief - we spent quite a few lovely hours reading and dozing there.
When we could persuade ourselves to go out we walked Usk’s fascinating Blue Plaque trail, visited the Museum of Country Life, enjoyed the shady nature trail and various other walks along the river and up to the castle, drove to Ledbury (lovely hotel there called the Feathers), and visited Monmouth and Raglan Castle by bus. We discovered that although Usk is tiny and very rural, it’s really easy to visit a lot of great places by bus. You buy a day ticket and off you go! Usk is delightful, full of flowers and friendly people and excellent places to eat. I must also mention that Usk has an excellent taxi service run by (I was delighted) a fellow South African!
We’re very impressed with idyllic south Wales so thank you for a completely delightful swap and the lovely online chats. Please give our regards to Alfie, who made us so welcome, and to the fish that nearly ate out of my hand after just a week, and the hedgehog that honoured us with an evening visit, and the birds that ate the feeder empty as fast as I could fill it. Home swapping does put you in touch with the nicest people!" - Bea
Rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange free accommodation by arranging a holiday home exchange. Sign up to the Home Base Holidays two-week free trial.
Q: My husband and I love the idea of home exchanging but are yet to arrange one. Several years ago we signed up to a free home exchange website and sent out messages to quite a number of members. However, it became clear to us that the most of the offers shown on the website were old inactive listings, even some that looked fake (we saw a home in London with no description and just one photo - a photo of a giraffe!). So, our first attempt at home exchanging was an unsuccessful one but we're now keen to try again. Most of the home exchange websites we have looked at have lots of nice homes but how do we know that they are up to date genuine offers?
- Best wishes, Sue (Scotland)
A: Thank you for getting in touch and great to hear that you are interested in home exchanging. Really sorry though that your first foray into home exchanging was an unsuccessful one. Unfortunately, we see it more often than not where home exchange sites choose not to hide or remove old / inactive listings. This superficially boosts the number of listings shown on the website but we believe it is a bad practice and is misleading to potential members.
As mentioned, we know how frustrating it can be, scrolling through home exchange listings only to find out that most of the listings shown have not been active for months (even years). Therefore, at Home Base Holidays we try to focus on keeping our offers as up-to-date as possible. Our longest membership period is our one-year option, homes are then automatically hidden on the expiry date if the member chooses not to renew their membership. We charge a modest membership fee (our six-month membership is just £29) - even with such modest fees, members that have paid to sign up to a website are far more likely to be actively looking to home exchange than on free websites, such as with your previous experience. The membership fee also adds a reassurance that the listings shown are genuine offers. We do offer a two-week free trial membership so that people can try out our service before committing to a full membership, but again, if not renewed on or before the expiry date, these trial membership are also automatically hidden.
Home Base Holidays expiry dates
It's worth noting that people arrange successful home exchanges using a variety of different websites and so there is not a one size fits all. Do some research and even sign up to several sites until you find a home exchange service that works for you. When choosing which home exchange site(s) to sign up to, look for sites that clearly display membership expiry dates on all listings so that you know the offers shown are up-to-date active offers.
Home Base Holidays:home swap accommodation
For nearly 40 years, Home Base Holidays has been helping members arrange home swap accommodation. Search thousands of home exchange vacation offers
Guest post by Home Base Holidays member and experienced home exchanger, Jean Bucknall:
August 2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of our very first home exchange and since then we have completed ninety more! Especially for those of you for whom home exchanging is still something you’re not quite sure about, let me give you a brief history of our experiences over the years.
When we first decided to give home exchanging a try we signed up with an agency and, in those days, well before the internet was available to the general public, the agencies produced directories. These were rather like telephone directories, but with photographs (initially in black and white, but later in colour) of most properties, together with members’ names, addresses and telephone numbers. The facilities on offer – e.g the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, whether there were pets to care for, the number of people that would be in the party, desired destinations, whether car exchange was possible, preferred dates for the exchanges etc etc were listed in abbreviated form, so one had to learn how to read the listings before one could be sure that a particular property was suitable for your party. Then, having found a property which fitted the bill, one had to write to or telephone the people to ascertain if they liked the idea of an exchange with you. For popular places and times of the year, such as school holidays, finding and agreeing an exchange could be a lengthy process and an expensive one too, if one was having to make international phone calls! Also, the directories were effectively out of date very quickly as the property information couldn’t be changed between editions and one never knew until you contacted somebody whether they had already agreed an exchange for the period you wanted yourself. The last directory we received was in 2010, by which time most members had email addresses and these were available upon request to other members. Nowadays the whole process is so much easier as one’s listing can be changed at any time and the agencies’ messaging systems are a much easier and quicker way of contacting prospective exchange partners. Many people loved getting the directories and it was great fun poring over them dreaming of the possible holidays one could have, but they must have been very expensive to produce and post and, although we initially missed the excitement of receiving them twice yearly, we soon realised that the internet had rendered them obsolete.
Having exchanged letters and agreeing dates we were ready for our first exchange, which was in Paris. We felt very brave venturing abroad for our “trial run”, but it all worked out well. The flat was very conveniently situated just around the corner from the Gare du Nord, but it was on the sixth floor with no lift and Paris in August is very hot and mosquitos plagued us every night. Only at the end of our stay did we discover that there were plug-in mosquito repellents in the flat which we could have used to keep the little pests away. You live and learn! It made us realise the importance of leaving adequate information in the house, so soon after our return from Paris we started work on our “Homefile”, a loose-leaf binder of information and advice for our exchangers. This has grown over the years and is constantly being amended when, for instance, we change items of household equipment or find a new restaurant that we think our exchangers might like to try. It is very important that people know things like where the electricity fuse box and the mains water stop cock are situated as well as the days of refuse collection in your neighbourhood and, in these days of kerbside recycling, what is collected on any specific week. Instructions for plant watering when necessary and where to find household appliances are also included, along with a book of local street maps with shops, petrol stations, restaurants, banks etc marked on the relevant pages.
After that first successful experience in Paris (the first of four exchanges in that lovely city) we felt confident to exchange again both in the UK and in continental Europe, which we did for some years before venturing on our one and only long-haul exchange to Vancouver, where we exchanged with a retired couple. They had different surnames – not particularly unusual - but when we arrived at their house we found that they lived separate lives under the same roof – even to the extent of each having their own kitchen and their own cleaner! On the assumption that they were “a couple”, I had only made up one double bed for them at our house, but they used their initiative and made up one of the spare beds. I now make up all the beds before exchanges so that our exchangers can choose which room(s) they want to use. Vancouver was wonderful, but long-haul flying is not for us and we now restrict our exchanging to the UK and mainland Europe. Apart from the four in Paris, other European exchanges have taken us to many different parts of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, sometimes exchanging cars, but most often travelling there and back by train and using public transport to explore.
Until a few years ago we had two cats so would exchange with other cat owners most of the time, but, if not, we would always check that people were happy to look after our cats as part of the exchange. We have looked after cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens etc over the years, but I must admit to being nervous on one exchange because one of the two resident cats was diabetic and had to have insulin injections twice a day! It was not something I had ever done before, but Phoebe was patient with my novice attempts and most of the time I managed to get the insulin injected correctly. Pets can add pleasure and interest to any exchange, but I always check what exactly is required of us before we finalise arrangements.
Over the years we have made many new friends through house exchanging and have had repeat exchanges with quite a few people in this country and in Berlin. When we are on an exchange anywhere close to other exchanging friends we try to meet up for lunch during our stay and swap stories of our respective swaps. We all have tales to tell – and the lunches often stretch well into the afternoon we relate humorous tales of trying to find houses in the dark, antics of pets in our care and, in our case, the search when we first arrive for a teapot! We have lost count of the number of places where we have trawled through local charity shops to find one, which, having cleaned it and used it during our stay, we then leave in the exchange home in the hope that it will be there for future exchangers to use, if, like us, they prefer to make tea in a pot rather than in mugs.
One thing we have learned over the years is not to always look for exchanges in well-known, popular places. Don’t dismiss offers of exchanges from places you haven’t heard of or that you don’t think will be to your taste. Some of our best exchanges have been in unlikely locations which have proved to be excellent bases for town and country walking or, in the UK, for visiting nearby National Trust, Cadw, English Heritage or Historic Scotland properties. We are National Trust and Cadw members and find that now we are retired and can exchange several times a year we are “in credit” with both organisations before the year is half over. In the six months up to the start of July this year our National Trust visits would have cost us over £400 in entrance fees had we not been members – over four times our annual membership fees! It is well worth taking out membership of these organisations if one enjoys visiting historic properties and one has the opportunity to visit several of them each year.
Occasionally, however well planned, exchanges have to be cancelled at short notice for reasons like illness or bereavement and it isn’t always possible to make other arrangements, but fortunately on the two occasions that we have had to cancel – once for a bereavement and once for an injury to a friend who was due to travel with us - we have been able to stay with friends while our exchangers stayed in our house as planned. Both times our exchangers were coming from Europe and presumably they would have lost the money they had spent in advance on airline, rail or ferry fares had they had to cancel their journey because they were unable to stay in our home or find alternative accommodation. We were able to claim on our insurance for our transport costs in both instances, so didn’t lose out. In the last two years we have had two exchanges called off at short notice because of family illnesses within our exchangers’ families, but both were in the UK, so we had not spent any money beforehand other than on things like maps, which we are always happy to add to our collection anyway!
I cannot overstate the pleasure that home exchanging has brought us over our first thirty years - not to mention the opportunity to travel all over the world at a fraction of the cost of holidaying in self-catering accommodation or hotels. When one swaps a home one has the benefit of being able to use the household appliances, the garden and often the car of one’s exchangers – only paying for having one’s name added to their car insurance. We have stayed in an endless variety of homes – from terraced cottages and compact city apartments to ancient listed buildings and big houses with swimming pools and acres of garden. We have exchanged in the winter months and had to buy extra clothes to keep warm and sweltered in the summer months and had to discard the duvet, but all seasons hold their own appeal and our exploration of the UK in particular continues with every exchange. If all goes according to plan we will complete nine UK exchanges this year. We started in East Sussex in March followed by Swansea, Derbyshire, Devon, Rutland, Oxford, Wiltshire, Yorkshire and will finish our exchanges for 2019 in Bedfordshire in October! We already have one exchange agreed for 2020 and I am looking forward in the coming months to filling up the calendar for next year!
- Jean Bucknall
Meet the members, Jean & Paul:
Jean and Paul are both now retired but still enjoy an active lifestyle. Paul was a Chartered Civil Engineer specialising in railways and Jean was a part-time pharmacy assistant. They have been home exchanging since 1989 and have completed over 90 exchanges.
We love hearing about members' home swap experiences. We were therefore delighted to receive the follow trip report from Home Base Holidays member, Marguerite, from her recent nine day home exchange in Portstewart, Northern Ireland.
"We have just spent nine days in Portstewart, with a short sortie to Donegal. We had beautiful weather missing the heatwave here whilst enjoying the Atlantic waves in Portstewart.
Alison's apartment in Portstewart is very comfortable, and ideally placed for coastal walks and beaches. I had seen an excellent documentary on the Irish coast a couple of years ago, which included an episode on Mussenden Temple, so imagine my surprise and joy to find the temple within a short walking distance!
We were close enough to visit Derry and very much enjoyed the city... which definitely merits a second visit as there is so much to see.
A walk to the Giants Causeway was enhanced by advice from a local guide we bumped into... we started the walk from 5 miles east of the causeway, walking one way and catching the bus back to the car, all very easy and enjoyable. Stunning cliff views, not to mention seals, porpoises, hawks and hundreds of painted lady butterflies.
I think this area is one of the most environmentally cared for places I have ever visited, the wild flowers and the fauna were stunning!
One more thing we found very refreshing... there were many many parking places with picnic tables and places to safely BBQ, all clean and most with wonderful views, and all free.
I highly recommend Portstewart and it's surroundings, and a big thank you to Alison for her welcome and thoughtfulness."
- Marguerite
Meet the members:
Marguerite (in photo) is a retired teacher and avid traveller.
London has so many fantastic markets, many of which date back hundreds of years. Although markets are places people go to shop, they are an excellent (and free!) places to stroll around and get a feel for real London away from the high street brand name shops. They're also excellent places to pick up arts, crafts, clothing and affordably tasty treats. In this post we are listing our top ten London markets.
London's top ten markets
A foodies paradise at Borough Market in London Bridge
1. Portobello Road Market:
Portobello Road Market is located in London's fashionable Notting Hill. It is the world's largest antiques market with over 1,000 dealers selling every kind of antique and collectible. It's a great day out and you never know what you will find! portobelloroad.co.uk
2. Spitalfields Market:
Old Spitalfields Market is a covered market in Spitalfields, London. There has been a market on the site for over 350 years. After a recent renovation, the market is looking better than ever with a fantastic array of market stalls as well as permanent shops and wonderful places to eat. Spitalfields is sandwiched between The City of London on one side (London's financial district with landmarks such as the 'Gherkin' skyscraper) and trendy Brick Lane on the other side. It's also just a short walk to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. This eclectic location makes it a fantastic place to visit. The market is open every day but the are comes alive every Sunday. wspitalfields.co.uk
3. Camden Lock Market:
Camden Lock Market comprises stalls and shops selling everything from vintage clothing to hand-made jewellery and artwork to gifts, music and food from around the world. camdenmarket.com
4. Borough Market:
A foodies paradise! Borough Market is located next to London Bridge, Southwark Cathedral and just a short stroll from London's tallest building, The Shard. This gourmet food market consists of up to more than 100 stalls selling the best ingredients as well as a wide variety of stores selling every imaginable tasty treat. boroughmarket.org.uk
5. Leadenhall Market:
Located in the heart of London's financial district and just around the corner from iconic buildings such as the inside-out Lloyd's Building and the Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe). Leadenhall Market is not the biggest but is set in a beautiful Victorian building and is well worth a visit. Leadenhall Market
6. Brick Lane Market:
The best day to visit Brick Lane market is on Sundays, though the shops and restaurants are open every day. On Sundays the streets are lined with people selling crafts, fashion, second-hand goods and so much tasty and affordably food from all over the world. There are also street performers to enhance the vibrant, lively atmosphere. visitbricklane.org
7. Columbia Road Flower Market:
Located in trendy East London, Columbia Road is one of London's most visually appealing markets, overflowing with bucketfuls of beautiful flowers every Sunday. Just a short stroll from Brick Lane and Spitalfields Markets. columbiaroad.info
8. Greenwich Market:
Longtime, indoor market with up to 120 stalls for antiques, art & other goods, plus take-out bites. Located in Greenwhich in South East London and next to the beautiful Greenwich park and just a short stroll from Blackheath, one of London's secret gems. Nearby you'll also find the Greenwich Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory Greenwich (home of Greenwich Mean Time). greenwichmarketlondon.com
9. Covent Garden Market:
There are three markets located in Covent Garden's 19th century Piazza, each offering a wide range of craft, gifts and more. Located in the heart of the West End and just a short stroll to London's theatre land and many of London's iconic sights. coventgarden.london
10. Southbank Centre Market:
Located in London's iconic Southbank Cultural district, the Southbank Centre Market includes a second hand book market and a fantastic food market. No visit to London is complete without strolling along London's Southbank and taking in views of the river and the Houses of Parliament. southbankcentre.co.uk/visit/shopping/markets
Free London accommodation
Home swap: stylish home in Wimbledon
One of the biggest budget busters when visiting London can be the cost of accommodation. However, rather than booking a hotel or holiday rental, arrange a home swap in London and you will dramatically cut the cost of your London holiday.
By arranging a home exchange you enjoy free holiday accommodation but also enjoy the space and comfort of staying in a real London home.
Home Base Holidays is a London based home swap holidays website and has a large number of tempting home swap holiday offers.
Home Base Holidays Helping provide travel tips and advice on arranging your home exchange holidays. Do get in touch if you have any questions about home swapping or if you are interested in contributing to the blog.
