Home Swappers Newsletter: Issue 12
September/October 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 'unsubscribe' in the subject line plus your name in the message:

mailto:homeexchange@btinternet.com

Topics Covered:

 1. Member Exchange Story: Italy to Iceland
 2. 2002 Season: Join Now!
      (a) November Directory Deadline - 13 October
      (b) Renewing Members - 40% Discount
      (c) Extra Discounts - New Member Referrals & Media Appearances
      (d) Update Your Listing
 3. Home Swap Tips from Members
      (a) Exchange Home Videos
      (b) Swimming Pools - Shared or Private
      (c) Post-it Notes on Appliances
      (d) Using Cell Phones Abroad

 4. Questions from Members and Subscribers
      (a) Determining How New a Listing Is
      (b) Arranging Long-Term Exchanges
      (c) Problems Finding Listings with VH User IDs
      (d) Subscription Payments in Currencies Other than Pounds Sterling
      (e) Why Not an 'Open' or 'Free' Site?
 5. Recommended Websites
      (a) Fabulous Travel
      (b) Actual Travel
      (c) Travel with Your Kids
      (d) Buy Property Abroad
  6. Home Swappers Archives
  7. Newsletter Contributions
  8. Subscriptions

Note: Members may view any of the exchange listings mentioned in the newsletter by logging on and searching by User ID in the member area:
http://www.homebase-hols.com/login.shtml

Non-members may view the listings by using the following link, click on View the Listings, Detailed Search, enter HE + the number in the Find Listing by Member ID box: http://www.homebase-hols.com/preview.shtml

1. Member Exchange Story: Italy to Iceland

Daniela and Luigi Fossati sent the following report on their recent exchange to Iceland. Check out the Fossatis' very attractive listing, HE11615, in a rural area in the Italian Riviera.

'We have just returned from a very successful swap with a couple in Iceland, who enjoyed a bit of Italian sunshine in exchange for the mystical sub arctic midnight sun. We have had a great time visiting that most unusual country. For us it was like the moon on earth: amazing and wild, full of lava fields, volcanoes, waterfalls and glaciers. We also sighted great numbers of exotic seabirds living in colonies on breathtaking cliffs and shores. We swam in pleasantly warm geothermal pools and went for a sightseeing flight over the country. Perhaps the most agreeable surprise was discovering the Icelandic people: they are like their country - cool on the surface and very warm inside, proud, independent and self-reliant. Gastronomy was one of the hot points, even for us Italians; in fact we ate some of the best fish dishes we can remember.

Our exchanging partners have told us that they enjoyed their stay as well, and they'd have stayed longer if they'd had the chance. Another positive point was that our dog made friends with them at once, despite prior worries. We promised we'll go to Iceland and they'll come to Italy soon again.

Thank you Home Base Holidays for giving us this opportunity.' - Daniela & Luigi

2. 2002 Season: Join Now!

    (a) November Directory Deadline - 13 October 2001

Home Base Holidays publishes three directories each year. Both directory and internet members' listings are published in one directory and included on the website for a year. The first directory for the 2002 season will be published in early November, followed by further editions in March and June 2002.

The largest percentage of members now use the website to search for exchange offers rather than the print directories but it is still worth joining or renewing in time to be listed in the 'early bird' November directory as this gets your exchange offer into circulation both on-line and in print well ahead of your 2002 exchange dates. The November directory is sent to all directory members joining up to mid May 2002.

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

   (b) Renewing Members - 40% Discount

Membership expired? Renew on-line at £22.80 for internet membership, a 40% saving.

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

Contact us if you don't remember your User ID or password: info@homebase-hols.com

    (c) Extra Discounts - New Member Referrals & Media Appearances

Many new members join on the recommendation of friends or colleagues who are already members of Home Base Holidays. Please direct anyone who may be interested in home exchange to our website or use the 'Tell a Friend' form on the site to pass on the URL by email. We are also happy to send brochures to those without internet access: http://www.homebase-hols.com Your contacts can then enter your name in the 'Referred By' box when they join on-line (or on the print membership form) and you will be credited with a £7 discount on your renewal membership subscription.

We also appreciate the number of members who are willing to discuss their home swap experiences with journalists or who take part in radio or TV programmes. Let us have details of any media appearances you have had in the last year before you renew your membership and we will give you a code to enter in the Promotional Code box on the form to claim a further £7 discount on your subscription.

    (d) Update Your Listing

Exchange dates now out of date in your listing? Make best use of your membership by updating dates and any other information when needed. If you have arranged (or had) an exchange this year and don't yet know your next vacation plans, tick the Exchange Request Fulfilled box on your form (and click Continue at the bottom of the form to save your changes). This will keep your listing visible but will let others know that you can't consider exchange offers at present. Untick Exchange Request Fulfilled when you are ready to again receive and send exchange offers.

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

3. Home Swap Tips from Members

    (a) Exchange Home Videos

Daniela and Luigi Fossati, HE11615 (report on their exchange from Italy to Iceland above), sent the following good suggestion:

'One tip we find useful in case of  "complicated" houses is to shoot a home video and show what would be difficult to express with words. This would also help in giving driving directions from, say, the motorway exit up to the living spot. What is recommended is to stick to the essentials and avoid overlong - and boring - unprofessional sequences. It would be nice to include a welcoming address by one of the local contacts, possibly the person trusted with handing over the keys. This would make him/her immediately recognizable and familiar. Of course one should check whether the swapping partner is equipped to see the home movie: it would be pointless sending an 8 mm video cassette to someone with VHF equipment only. In this case one should copy the original onto a VHF cassette or whatever format can be viewed'.

    (b) Swimming Pools - Shared or Private

Most members will assume when a member offers a swimming pool as part of an exchange that this will be a private pool. Although most members (especially those unable to offer the same in return!) will be happy to have access to a pool shared by others in a housing complex and are unlikely to be put off considering the exchange, it is important to let members you contact know if the pool you are offering is shared. Equally, if you are arranging an exchange to a home with a pool, and if it is important to you, ask if the pool is private before agreeing to an exchange.

    (c) Post-it Notes on Appliances

Although we, and other home exchange agencies in the First Home Exchange Alliance group, provide detailed Guidelines (see link below) on preparing a home before an exchange, we do occasionally hear from members who find that there are no instructions left in a home on how to operate household appliances, etc. Member Ruth Choi from Maryland, US (HE11465), sent us this timely reminder after her first exchange to Paris: 'Would you encourage all exchangers to leave "post it" notes or notes, on how to use washing machines, where the trash bins are, and the collection day, etc. Since we have a large house with pool, dog, etc, we left "post it" notes everywhere, and a complete document explaining everything. A little bit of planning and thought goes a long way. It's not that guests won't be able to figure out things, but who wants to spend their vacation trying to do so. Luckily we were able to communicate with our exchangers by email.'

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

    (d) Using Cell Phones Abroad

In the July/August issue we passed on a question from California member Cherry Hastings (HE10866) on whether any members have had experience in swapping cell phones. We have not to date had any feedback from members who have done so but did receive the following tip from London member, John Connell (HE10221): 'Concerning cell phones abroad, I believe, although I didn't try it myself, that in Australia you can buy a Sim-card with prepaid calls under a local mobile phone number, and simply substitute it for your own Sim-card while you are over there.'

If other members have contributions to this, or any other topic that could be of interest to other home exchangers, please do contact us:
info@homebase-hols.com

4. Questions from Members and Subscribers

    (a) Determining How New a Listing Is

Recent London member Sally Gritten (HE11930) asked: 'Is there an easy way to determine if a listing is new?'

However you do a search listings are arranged in chronological order with the most recent listings first. The newest listings (joined or renewed in the last month) will have a yellow 'new' logo on the left of the brief listings you first see (10 per page) when you search. When you view a member's full listing (whether as a member or a visitor to the site) you will see their join date (Registration Date) in the information below the description. You can tell from this how long the listing has been in circulation. Don't ignore those which have been in circulation for some time though as, if you don't see 'Exchange Request Fulfilled' at the top of a listing, the member could well be interested in your exchange offer.

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

    (b) Arranging Long-Term Exchanges

When you search the listings you will see that, although there are a number of members who want exchanges of 6+ months,  most members are looking for shorter vacation periods, which makes it harder to find suitable long-term exchanges. Many members (especially retired members) are able to be flexible on length and/or dates and such members will indicate 'open to offers' under Length of Exchange. However, you need to contact such members directly to find out just how long an exchange period each is able to consider. http://www.homebase-hols.com/preview.shtml

Members who want longer exchanges sometimes arrange one 'longish' exchange, if not able to find an exchange for the full period, and use other accommodation for the remainder of the period. Others arrange more than one exchange; this takes careful planning but can be done given enough time to arrange before the exchange period. You will also see that some members offer homes (often second homes) for rent as well as exchange and others offer hospitality so you may be able to arrange a lengthy stay by using a combination of exchanging and paying for accommodation.

To increase the chances of arranging a long-term exchange in a particular location it can also be useful, in addition to joining Home Base Holidays well in advance, to look at other ways of publicising your exchange offer - perhaps contacting the accommodation department at a university in the area or placing a small ad in a local newspaper.

We would be glad to hear from members who have had experience in arranging a long-term exchange. Your experiences and suggestions would be useful for others: info@homebase-hols.com

    (c) Problems Finding Listings with VH User IDs

We reported in the July/August issue (see topic 5(c): http://www.homebase-hols.com/news11.shtml) that one of the two American agencies in the First Home Exchange Alliance, Vacation Homes, had left our group of agencies in early June this year. Current 2001 listings up to this time will continue to be circulated on both our site and the Vacation Homes site until each member's expiry date in order to ensure members can continue to arrange exchanges with each other during this period of transition. Generally this will cause no problems to Home Base Holidays members but there are two instances which you may come across when sending and receiving exchange offers. Please refer to the following if you experience any difficulty viewing a listing when given a User ID by a member or if a member you contact cannot find your listing:

(i) I can't find a listing with a User ID number I have been given - such User IDs will start with VH before the number rather than HE as all Home Base Holidays User IDs do. Ask any such member to forward their listing page by email to you so that you can view their full exchange offer. If they have any problems in doing this please send us their name and User ID and we will follow this up for you.

(ii) A member can't find my listing when I give them my User ID - this will only occur if you joined Home Base Holidays since early June (your listing is not on the Vacation Homes website). Share your full listing with any member who can't access it themselves using your User ID by going to your listing page on the site and forwarding the page by email to them. If you have any problems with this let us know the name and email address for the member and we will forward your page to them.
info@homebase-hols.com

    (d) Subscription Payments in Currencies Other than Pounds Sterling

Q: I do not live in the United Kingdom but see that your membership fees are in pounds sterling. Will the payment be deducted from my credit card in my own currency?

A: Yes. The rate in pounds sterling (plus the rate of exchange and date the credit card company processed the payment) will be shown on your credit card statement along with the rate charged in your own currency. Exchange rates do fluctuate slightly from week to week. Check the current rate of exchange for sterling in a newspaper or use a currency converter such as OANDA: http://www.oanda.com

    (e) Why Not an 'Open' or 'Free' Site?

An 'open' or 'free' system unfortunately can attract some people who may not be well motivated to spend the time and care that's essential to arrange a trouble-free home swap. Most members will feel more confident being contacted by members who, having paid subscription fees and listed their homes, demonstrate a genuine interest in arranging exchanges, than by casual visitors to a site. It is reassuring to be able to view an exchange listing in full on the website before responding to an offer. In relation to the amount of money that can be saved on accommodation the Home Base Holidays membership fee is minimal. Join now and be assured that you will have access to exchange offers from other committed home exchange members, not time wasters: http://www.homebase-hols.com/join.shtml

5. Recommended Websites

     (a) Fabulous Travel

FabulousTravel.com - travel tips, advice, interesting trips and destination and free travel newsletters.  Fabulous Travel - because he who dies with the most experiences wins!
http://www.fabuloustravel.com

     (b) Actual Travel

ActualTravel - the UK's premier travel resource for holidays, flights and hotels. Site of the Month - every month one of the best travel companies on the web is featured. And the Site of the Month in August was - Home Base Holidays!
http://www.actualtravel.pression.com

     (c) Travel with Your Kids

Travel Internationally with Your Kids - offers real tips from real parents on how to travel internationally (or just long distances) with your children.  'We (the parents) got tired of reading guidebooks that either said nothing about taking the kids along, or had advice so generic ("bring along extra diapers") that it was no help at all.  Our site has specific info on carseats aboard the plane, choosing the best seats for families and whole pages devoted to keeping kids busy during a long flight, toilets abroad, dealing with new foods and destination-specific info for families going to London, Tokyo, Bali and other places'.
http://www.travelwithyourkids.com

     (d) Buy Property Abroad

BuyPropertyAbroad.com - always wanted to own a luxury property abroad, but not sure how to proceed?  Look no further - avoid the pitfalls with BuyPropertyAbroad.com. We will guide you through every step of your purchase - from finding the right property to getting your electricity connected!  Whether you're buying for vacations, retirement or letting, we can help - with beautiful, affordable properties available now, worldwide.
www.BuyPropertyAbroad.com

6. 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

7. 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 and 2002

Lois Sealey

mailto:homeexchange@btinternet.com

8. 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 'Unsubscribe' 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