Travel the Home Exchange Way

Arranging a home swap: make a good impression, upload photos of a tidy home

Don and Rita's stunning home exchange in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Don and Rita, the owners of this stunning holiday home (above) with private beach front in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, are very experienced home swappers who recently shared tips on how members could best use photos to ‘sell’ the idea of coming to stay in their homes. If your home has a view like this, selling your home exchange offer should be a cinch!

Of course, not everyone can offer such stunning views and the majority of homes available to exchange will be smaller (and probably not offer a private beach!). However, what every member should do to create a good first impression is to ensure that their home is tidy before taking photos.

Home swap tip: Don and Rita browsed through a couple of home and garden magazines to get some ideas on how best to display and photograph their home.

 

Tidying doesn’t mean depersonalising your home; there’s no need to hide away family photos, books and interesting items you have on display (the things that make a house a home, not a show home) but rather to clear unsightly clutter, e.g. 

• Make sure beds are freshly made up and covers smoothed
• No clothes, toys, newspapers, junk is left lying around
• Definitely no kitchen sinks and work surfaces stacked with last night’s dirty dishes

Another important point that Don makes is that, with the photos uploaded of their own homes, members are giving an impression of how they may look after a home entrusted to them and the state they might leave it in at the end of the home exchange. Now the vast vast majority of members leave a home exactly as they found it on arrival (often better!) but those all-important first impressions you give of your own home do count.

---

We have covered how to take good photos of your home in previous blog posts such as: Five tips: to make your home swap photos stand out

---

• View Don and Rita’s stunning home swap offer in Russell, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Home Swappers newsletter: discover your next destination

Looking to embrace the cold months or escape to the sun? You will find a home exchange holiday offer to suit you. Check out the latest issue of our home exchange newsletter for home swap tips, offers and member stories. 

---

In this issue of the newsletter:

• Featured home swap offers: Greek island swap on Crete | UNESCO heritage town of Briancon, France | Houseboat swap in Yorkshire, England | Akkaya Lake home swap in Turkey | luxury central London home swap
• Swap stories: our excellent home exchange in Valencia, Spain
• Promotional code: save 15% on your home swap membership

---

>>> View this issue of the Home Swappers newsletter

---

Swap homes for free holiday accommodation Arrange anything from a weekend getaway exchange or even a long term six+ month exchange. Browse thousands of home exchange vacation offers Sign up today: add your home to Home Base Holidays so that you can start contacting other members to arrange your home exchange. Join Home Base Holidays

Travel photo competition: thanks for the wonderful photos

Big thank you to everyone that sent in their photos to our recent home swap travel photography competition. Below is a small selection of the photos sent in by members.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

We also received many fabulous home exchange travel stories with the photo entries. It's always fantastic to hear about home swap experiences and we will be publishing a number of these travel experiences in future blog posts. 

---

Have you been on a home swap? We'd love to hear your experiences! Send your home swap experiences to us to be featured on the blog. Contact us 

---

Interested in home swapping? Sign up to a Home Base Holidays membership (either a full membership or a free trial membership). Once signed up, you can then start contacting other members to arrange your home exchange accommodation and enjoy free holiday accommodation. Find your next: home swap vacation

Q&A: home exchanging over the Christmas period

Q: My husband and I are hoping to visit London or somewhere within easy access to London over the Christmas period and possibly staying until the 5th or 6th January 2019. Most of the half decent hotels and rentals we've checked are incredibly expensive and, as we'd be there for Christmas/New Year, we'd really ideally like to stay somewhere quite nice and welcoming. We've just started looking at the possibility of arranging a house exchange in London, it sounds like it could be a really great option but ...we are total novices in this! We have a two bedroom cottage in Cornwall (not far from St Ives). My question is, how would we go about finding a house exchange and have we left it too late to arrange an exchange for the Christmas period? - Allison, UK

---

A: Thanks for getting in touch! Home swapping sounds like it would be an excellent fit for your travel requirements. Firstly, the accommodation is free (except for the small membership fee) and secondly, you'll get to stay in a real London home over the festive period - far far nicer than staying in a hotel room!

There is definitely still time to arrange a home swap over the festive period but it's best to get a move on and start looking as soon as possible. The first step is to sign up to a home swap website such as Home Base Holidays where you can add details of your home and add your home swap request (London for the festive period). Once you've added your home to the site, start searching home swap offers and then, rather than waiting to be contacted, start contacting any members in or around London whose offers look tempting.

When searching for offers on the website, you can search by exchange dates to find members in London looking for exchanges late December to early January. You will see that one of the search options in the left hand search bar is ‘Exchange dates’. Enter your date ranges into this box and then click the small magnifying glass icon to narrow down the search results.Although using the date search option narrows the search results to homes most likely to suit your needs, it is always best to keep your searches as broad as possible so that you do not miss any potentially good swap matches (e.g. some members who may be happy to exchange over Christmas will have left their swap dates as ‘Open to offers’). Also, you can mark your offer as a "Last minute swap" and also search other members that have selected the Last minute swap option.

---

• Find your next home exchange vacation

Home Swappers Newsletter: Autumn & Winter Holidays

There's still time to arrange a home exchange holiday for the autumn, winter and into the new year. Check out the latest issue of the Home Swappers travel newsletter for home swap tips and offers. By swapping homes rather than booking hotels or holiday rentals you'll dramatically cut the cost of your autumn and winter getaways.

---

In this issue of the newsletter:

• Featured home swap offers: Stockholm, Sweden | Gold Coast, Australia | Central London, England
• Five tips: for arranging home swap accommodation
• Photo competition: thank you for the wonderful photos

---

>>> View this issue of the Home Swappers newsletter

---

Free vacation accommodation Arrange anything from a weekend getaway exchange or even a long term six+ month exchange. Browse thousands of home exchange vacation offers Sign up today: add your home to Home Base Holidays so that you can start contacting other members to arrange your home exchange. Join Home Base Holidays

Promoting local attractions: home swap travel tip

If you live in a tourist area or a major city, you may think that potential home exchange partners will only be interested in how easy it is to get to well-known attractions from your home; of course, it is important to provide such information, and details of public transport, but don’t ignore those lesser known attractions closer to your home that you may take for granted or even not be aware of, for example, if you don’t have children living at home. Home swappers tend to be adventurous and open to exploring local neighbourhoods and will appreciate your suggestions which, of course, you can expand on when in direct contact during your home exchange arrangements.

---

 

Anna and Jeremy, along with their toddler daughter and baby son, live in Herne Hill, a suburb in southeast London. They have included in the Home Base Holidays home swap offer a detailed and really inviting list of attractions in their area. See below the description of their local attractions. 

 

Within walking distance… 

• At the bottom of the road you’ll find Sunray Gardens, a peaceful public garden and play-park, with an artisan bakery and coffee shop nearby. The glorious Ruskin Park with wild flower garden, paddling pool and views across London is 10 minutes away on foot and you’ll pass the Grade II listed art-deco Carnegie Library en route. 
• Herne Hill, with its pedestrianised hub, is 8 minutes away on foot. You’ll find a flower shop, book shops, gift shops, artisan bakeries and restaurants amid live music from the street piano. The buzzing Sunday market sells a wide range of high quality food alongside vintage collections and designer craft.
• Herne Hill is directly opposite the magnificent Brockwell Park, South East London’s largest park, with orchard, rose garden, ponds, Lido, large children’s play area and cafes. There is a 600 year old oak tree and a fantastic view across London. 
• Dulwich Village is 15 minutes away on foot, home to the famous Dulwich Picture Gallery, serene Dulwich Park with its American Gardens, bike hire, boating lake and enticing café and ice-cream parlour. There’s also a historic pub in the village, plus more restaurants, cafes and gift shops to explore. 

Within 10 minutes by car or an easy bus ride away you’ll find…

Visit the fabulous overstuffed walrus in London's Horniman Museum

•  The unmissable Horniman Museum, with its natural history and musical instrument collection, gardens, butterfly house, aquarium and panoramic view across London (the famous over-stuffed walrus in the museum is shown in the photo).
• East Dulwich and Lordship Lane; home to a fantastic range of restaurants, including a pastificio selling to-die-for handmade pasta, a lively Saturday street market, plus cinema and boutiques.
• Brixton Village, you’ll find a maze of small, independent food outlets, selling authentic dumplings, pancakes, craft ales, Italian Cuisine, tapas and cocktails alongside unique galleries, clothes boutiques and gift shops. Brixton also has the elegant, refurbished cinema, the Ritzy.
• The South London Gallery in Camberwell, a famous contemporary art gallery, with café, bookshop and landscaped garden. 
• Sydenham Wood: one of London’s best kept secrets, a delightful mix of new and ancient woodland with remnants of Victorian gardens, home to more than 200 species of trees and plants as well as bats, birds and woodland mammals.
•  You`ll of course have all of all London available within easy reach - whilst there is much to enjoy within the immediate local area too.

View the family's full home exchange offer in London including photos of their home.

---

Have a look at your own home swap offer and see if there is extra information you could provide on your area that would be of interest to potential home exchange partners.