Home Swappers Newsletter: Issue 10
May/June 2001
http://www.homebase-hols.com
Newsletter Archive: http://www.homebase-hols.com/news.shtml

Home Swappers Newsletter is published bi-monthly to provide information on home exchange holidays for current and recent members of Home Base Holidays, enquirers, Newsletter subscribers and journalists. If you do not want to receive further Newsletters please send us a message with 'Remove from mailing list' in the subject line plus your name in the message:

mailto:homeexchange@btinternet.com

Topics Covered:
  1. Maverick TV Seeks Volunteers!
  2. (a) Vavo Home Swap Forum
      (b) Exchange Story: Sussex, England to Ghent, Belgium
  3. (a) Special 40% Renewal Discount Offer
      (b) June Directory Deadline: 19 May
  4. What's New at Home Base Holidays
      (a) Stanfords' Maps & Travel Books
      (b) New Features on Website
      (c) Profile in 'The Guardian'
  5. Exchange Arrangement Tips
      (a) Sharing Photos
      (b) Copying Sample Exchange Agreement
      (c) Late Exchanges
  6. Prizes!
      (a) March/April Prize Draw Winner
      (b) Free USA Rail Passes
  7. Recommended Websites - Focus on Travel with Children
      (a) Family Travel
      (b) TravelforKids
  8. Home Swappers Archives
  9. Newsletter Contributions
10. Subscriptions

1. Maverick TV Seeks Volunteers!

Maverick Television are currently looking for enthusiastic home swappers to take part in a series for Channel 4 in the UK:

Whether you are a first-timer or an experienced home swapper, if you'd like to share your experiences we'd love to hear from you!  We're looking for swaps to or from the UK (to anywhere in the world!) anytime between the end of May and the end of  September.  In particular we're on the look-out for trips anywhere in June, to Southern Europe in August, and to Australia or New Zealand in September.

This series will give a real insight into the unique perspective that living in someone else's home gives you on holiday, and why home swapping is such a growing phenomenon.  We will NOT be taking over your holiday, but we do want to add to the fun and adventure of your trip - the filming is very relaxed and low-key, with two people and small handheld cameras, and at the end of it you'll have a very professional holiday video!!

If you are interested, or want some more details, please contact Tom, Chloe, Vanessa or Jack on +44(0)121 771 1812
or email Tom: tom@homeswap.freeserve.co.uk

2. (a) Vavo Home Swap Forum

Home Base Holidays member, Jan Strange (also known as 'Butterfly'), is leader of a forum on home swaps and lets for Vavo, the largest portal in Europe for the over 45s. Check out Jan's forum - a great place to share your experiences with others:

http://travel.vavo.com/homeswap.asp

    (b) Exchange Story: Sussex, England to Ghent, Belgium

Jan Strange, Vavo's home swaps forum leader, is an experienced home exchanger and here describes her family's exchange to Ghent:

'When the opportunity to visit the mediaeval city of Ghent with our then five-year-old daughter, Jasmine and her little friend Emma arose last Easter, we jumped at it. It meant we would exchange our three bedroom semi near the Sussex coast with a family with a three-year-old son who owned a similar home in Ghent, for a week over the Easter holiday period.

Arriving in Ghent tired but happy after a hard day's travelling, we found our Ghent homeswappers' house to be clean and spacious and I even had an Internet service so that I could visit Vavo! They had kindly left us with basic provisions and a meal with wine for that evening, as we had done for them. There were even some chocolate Easter eggs for the children. The girls loved their bedroom and couldn't wait to 'park' their favourite teddies and go exploring. Our host's brother met us and showed us around and explained where local shops and places of interest could be found.

Ghent became both rich and famous through its cloth industry in the 13th and 14th centuries. During the 100-year war it was caught in the conflict between France and England. It seems that this has made its citizens quite feisty. If the forbidding Castle of the Counts offers any clues, the battles for this city must have been both fierce and frequent.

Visitors are advised to see Polyptych by Jan van Eyck (15th century) in the St. Baafs Cathedral, walk to the St. Michael's bridge for a stunning view of the old town's historic buildings, and the towers of St. Bavo, the Belfry and St. Nicolas church, and to buy a pot of mustard at the Tierentuyn shop. It's worth the half-hour journey to Bruges, too. With two small children in tow, we were unable to do many tourist 'things', such as visiting the medieval castle in the middle of the city but we did manage a walk by the canal when it stopped raining.

Although we had a lot of rain, we nevertheless spent a happy week, exploring the area, sampling the restaurants and shopping for knick-knacks. The children enjoyed playing in the garden sandpit when it did stop raining one morning and feeding the fish in the garden pond.

A quick clean up at the end of the week and we were on our way home again. We were very pleased to learn that our exchangers also had a very nice time, although the weather in England had been appalling! And I was happy to receive an email from them saying how enjoyable our arrangements had been.'

Jan's home is in a seaside village in West Sussex, England and she is 'open to offers' for the family's next exchange. Check out Jan's listing: HE11463.

3. (a) Special 40% Renewal Discount Offer

Members: has your listing expired or is it due to expire shortly? The summer months are an ideal time to join or renew membership as your exchange offer is available both to members still looking for exchanges this year and also to the 'early birds' making plans for 2002. We are now offering members a special on-line renewal discount rate of £22.80 for a full year's membership and publication in the next print directory (note: new and renewal listings received after 19 May will be published in the November 2001 directory, the first for the 2002 season).

http://www.homebase-hols.com/login.shtml

Follow the links to renew on-line. Forgot your User ID or password? Contact us: info@homebase-hols.com

    (b) June Directory Deadline: 19 May

Home Base Holidays publishes three directories each year - in November, March and June. A substantial proportion of members do not have internet access and rely on the directories to search for exchanges (each directory includes all new listings since the deadline for the previous directory). Join by 19 May to have your exchange offer published in the June 2001 directory:

http://www.homebase-hols.com/join.shtml

4. What's New at Home Base Holidays

    (a) Stanfords' Maps & Travel Books
Home Base Holidays is now a partner of Stanfords, the UK's leading specialist retailer of maps, travel books and travel merchandise. Use the interactive search box on the site to search for books and maps for your chosen destination or special interest:

http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/stanford/t.asp?id=1033

    (b) New Features on Website
At the time of writing the next phase in the on-going development of our website is nearing completion. As soon as the new features go 'live' both members and visitors to the site will see a number of new features to make browsing the listings and searching those with specific criteria easier and more intuitive. There will also be changes to the listing form including a box to add links to other websites. We would encourage members to add the URLs of sites giving information on their local areas and also a personal site when available as this is a good way of providing more information and photos of your home and area. Membership forms will also be available in French, Spanish, Italian and German to make it easier for members with limited English to take part.

    (c) Profile in 'The Guardian'
I cringe when I visit websites with profuse descriptive 'About Us' sections which provide a little too much information (do I really need to know that a webmaster has a pet dingo?). However, some background information is reassuring and helps overcome the problem of the faceless nature of the internet. Although I don't recognise some of the quotes attributed to me in a recent profile article in 'The Guardian' newspaper perhaps it does give some insight into the background to the development of Home Base Holidays. - Lois Sealey:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/jobs_and_money/story/0,3605,458002,00.html

'About Us' information/photo on the Home Base Holidays site:

http://www.homebase-hols.com/fhea.shtml

5. Exchange Arrangement Tips

    (a) Sharing Photos
In the March/April issue of Home Swappers we included an article on sharing photos with other members and advised against sending photo files as attachments to email messages without checking first with the member. Thanks to Edinburgh member, Alastair Maclean (HE7113) for this additional comment: 'If people are using their company email address, many companies (like mine) actually block jpegs and mpegs at the server due to the virus risk, so not only will the picture not reach the intended recipient but the rest of the mail will also be blocked.'

    (b) Copying Sample Exchange Agreement
A London member recently called to ask how to copy the sample exchange agreement included in the Guidelines to complete and send by email to her exchange partner. Since this call we have added information before the sample form in the Guidelines on the easiest way to copy it but if you have any problems with this please let us know. The sample agreement is just that - you will likely need to adapt it to cover all you have agreed as part of your own exchange arrangements.  It is very important to get all issues covered in writing and approved by both parties to avoid the possibility of misunderstandings later.

http://www.homebase-hols.com/guidelines.shtml

    (c) Late Exchanges
There are a number of ways you can increase your chances of finding an  exchange at fairly short notice: Try to be as flexible and open to offers as you can as this will greatly increase the number of exchange possibilities. Check for the latest listings on the website at least weekly; refine your search by using the Listings Posted search option which enables you to check through listings added since your last visit to the site. When pressed for time, a phone call would be in order to see if the member is interested in your offer rather than wait for a reply to a message. There are many attractive offers from directory members who don't have email addresses; don't overlook these listings. Let us have details of the exchange you want by 28 June and we will include your offer in the next newsletter sent out 1 July to give your offer extra publicity.

http://www.homebase-hols.com/login.shtml

6. Prizes!

    (a) March/April Prize Draw Winner
Subscriber Julia Brown correctly answered the three questions in the quiz in our last issue and wins a copy of the 'AA All-in-One Guide to London'. The answers were: a. Home Base Holidays publishes three editions of the directory each year. b. the sample information sheet included in the Guidelines was written by member Michael Pearl (HE1691). c. Jan Pehrson (HE10017) exchanged her houseboat in Sausalito for a Victorian flat in Edinburgh. Ironically our winner lives in London! Julia writes: 'There's loads of places I've not been in London so the guide will come in handy for days out. Many thanks!'

   (b) Free USA Rail Passes
The fourth edition of the guidebook, 'USA by Rail', has just been published. Visit the USA by Rail website for information and to enter a draw for the chance to win two 30-day Amtrack rail passes worth $1,100:

http://www.USA-by-Rail.com

7. Recommended Websites - Focus on Travel with Children

    (a) Family Travel
The subscriber-only print magazine Family Travel is now on line. The site includes public sections with lots of practical tips, plus a list of around 150 useful suppliers of anything from water purifiers and children's luggage, plus ideas for items to keep children entertained. There is also a noticeboard to post reader reports and queries, and a news page (edited by Dorothy Boswell, founder of Kids Out). In addition there is a monthly travel report, accessible to all visitors, and for subscribers only, access to what is becoming probably the UK's largest database of reports on holidays and travel with children. These range from round-ups on ready-erected camping operators to destination reports on anywhere from Northumberland to Australia, plus run-downs on services for families offered by different airlines. Subscription, handled by a secure specialist system, is just £14.95 a year.
http://www.family-travel.co.uk

    (b) TravelforKids
Planning a trip with kids is quite a bit different than traipsing off solo or arranging a romantic getaway for two. Travel for Kids from Globetracks is a website completely geared towards helping families create their own truly personal and memorable adventures, from Paris to Peru, all in one place.

The Travel For Kids web site is full of ideas on how families can explore and experience places all over the world, with tips on which "must-dos" are the most kid-friendly and how to relax like the locals. Find out what's fun to do in the great cities of the world, and how to enjoy the outdoors, what are fun foods for kids (from gelato in Italy to Inca Cola in Peru) and shopping tips for souvenirs kids will enjoy when they get back home. The site shares travel tips on getting the best exchange rates and "when to scrimp, how to splurge."
http://www.travelforkids.com

8.  Home Swappers Archives

If you miss any issues of Home Swappers you can read back editions on the website:

http://www.homebase-hols.com/news.shtml

9. Newsletter Contributions

If you have had a home exchange we would be pleased to receive your contributions for the Newsletter - short articles about your exchange experiences and tips for those new to the idea of swapping homes. Members' articles include HE reference numbers to give added publicity for their exchange offers. We also welcome questions from all considering home exchange for the first time. Information on travel related websites or other travel bargains which could be of interest to readers of Home Swappers are also appreciated.

Happy Home Swapping in 2001!

Lois Sealey

mailto:homeexchange@btinternet.com

10. Subscription Information

We are very happy for you to forward Home Swappers to friends and colleagues who may be interested in home exchange but the newsletter must be sent in full. All Home Swappers content is copyright and cannot be used in any form without written permission from Home Base Holidays.

To subscribe, send us a message with your name and e-mail address and 'Subscribe' in the subject line.

To unsubscribe, send a message with your name and e-mail address and 'Remove from mailing list' in the subject line.

mailto:homeexchange@btinternet.com

Copyright © 2001 Home Base Holidays

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1985-2001: 16th year providing a home exchange holiday service worldwide