News

'My wife and I have recently returned from our fourth winter of house exchanges in Australia and New Zealand. This time our three-month trip was planned as a series of seven short stays in people's homes (the only hotel night being in Singapore on the way out).

In arranging such relatively complicated itineraries we have always tried to ensure that only one family is borrowing our house while we are away. We want to be sure that everything is in order for them and we usually manage to meet them before we leave - at least, briefly. This approach does of course mean that all but one of our exchange visitors must come to our home either before or after our winter trip; this in turn implies that we are willing to take several short holidays during the northern hemisphere summer - not a problem, as we are retired. As we now only have one car, it also often means that we rent one for visitors who have lent one to us, since we always need ours to go away in either to France or to visit friends. In practice, we find that few people want to visit England in the winter; the only exceptions have been families with school-age children who want to use their long vacation. If we can find such a family, it makes a convenient starting point for the plan - a 'stake in the ground' in terms of travel dates; other visits can then be scheduled to follow on from this first one. It obviously helps that so many people interested in house exchange are retired and therefore can be flexible; quite a few in the antipodes also have two homes and/or two cars - which helps! Additionally, all the people we now exchange with have access to email facilities - without this, such complex arrangements would be formidably more difficult.

Our most recent winter holiday involved two New Zealanders we had met previously in England (one of whom lent us both his homes), an Australian family who wanted to be in England for Christmas and two other New Zealanders who wanted to come to England this summer; all six of these stays went smoothly and were hugely enjoyable. The seventh scheduled visit had to be cancelled after we arrived in New Zealand and discovered that the house we were to visit (on a hospitality basis - we had accepted an invitation to spend six nights with a couple who we knew had no immediate desire to revisit England) had been sold three months earlier! (we now understood why our emails and our phone calls had not been answered*) This is only the second time we have been let down in this way in seven years - both times by people who had offered hospitality but who turned out not to be committed to the arrangement, apparently because they were not interested in a reciprocal visit. We will, in future, decline such offers!

We appreciate that our way of having winters abroad will not suit everyone - and does cost more than simple, simultaneous exchanges involving homes and cars. However, this is a price we are happy to pay to be able to enjoy Australian weather and New Zealand scenery - not to mention great company in both countries - before returning to an English spring: wonderful!' - Roger Gilbraith, HE3866

*Editor's Note: it was Roger's report on this one unfortunate incident during his series of exchanges which prompted writing the article, Home Exchange Email Code of Conduct, published in the last newsletter.

Undoubtedly one of the advantages of a home exchange vacation is that it cuts out the hotel/rental bill, one of the major vacation expenses for most people. However, from feedback we receive from the majority of Home Base Holidays members, the cost savings are not the main benefit of home swapping. Staying in another member's house or apartment with all the home comforts, getting to know a neighbourhood and meeting local people rather than, as often happens in a traditional vacation, mainly meeting other tourists, are the positive points of home exchange most often mentioned.

The most successful home swaps are between members who know and like each other through regular correspondence during the course of arranging an exchange. There is much less chance of problems or misunderstandings arising during an exchange when people feel comfortable in the knowledge they have similar attitudes to the whole experience of home exchanging and to what will be included in the exchange on both sides.

Although it happens very rarely, occasionally we receive a message from a member who felt someone was trying to push them into agreeing to an exchange that they really didn't want to pursue and that an attitude of only trying to arrange a holiday on the cheap came across rather than taking on board the wider social benefits of exchanging homes. One member wrote recently:

'.... approached me with an exchange offer and I said that I was interested but I never agreed to an exchange. I asked for photos of his property and information on the local area only so that I could have more information with which to make a decision.

Although not the reason for my refusal to exchange, I was not happy with some of the aspects of this exchange offer. I felt he was very cheeky to expect us to leave our car for him to use because he "was on a budget" despite the fact that he had no car to exchange. We were already swapping a three bedroomed detached property in a capital city for a small flat in a town but it appeared that this wasn't enough - he wanted a free car as well!

I think that ....'s main problem is that he is using home exchanging to get cheap holidays and he is upset that it didn't work out with us. I, on the other hand, was looking for a nice place to stay but did not need to exchange as I can afford to pay for accommodation (and a car!) It seems to me that alot of people who exchange have large houses and so apparently do not exchange to save money. I am simply not happy exchanging with someone whose main concern is using my house as a money saving option - that, I feel, is not a fair reason to exchange.'

We recently received the following message which is included here as a reminder to others who set off on their travels some time before their home exchange is due to take place, to ensure they have a way for exchange partners to contact them en route if needed.

'Illness caused my UK home-swap partners to cancel their arrangement with me in New Zealand, but because I'd left New Zealand four weeks before the exchange date I could not be contacted. Prior to this my UK swapper and I had emailed regularly.

My friend and I found a message waiting for us when we arrived in London just prior to moving into the house, and as you can guess, we were quite devastated at the news that we could not do this. The UK is an expensive place to visit; we weren't leaving for NZ until 6th December and it was then early October, so a long time to stay in unplanned accommodation.

However, the couple were absolutely wonderful. They let us stay with them in Ely for a few days, taking us on short trips around Cambridgeshire; they then went on a short cruise while we used their house for ten days. They allowed us to leave our big suitcases with them, and when we picked up the cases to go home, they offered to drive us to Heathrow Airport.

I know the couple were as upset as we were over the cancellation, but they did everything they could to lessen our disappointment and it was doubly appreciated especially as the lady was to undergo cancer treatment.

Because of the hotel costs, extra food costs, etc. the holiday was much more expensive than we had bargained for, but we still had a marvellous time.' - Angela E. Dold (Auckland, New Zealand)

Editor's Note: If your travel plans mean you will be out of touch for some time, leave your exchange partner's a contact telephone number of someone back home who you will call regularly to check for messages. Although it is usually possible to find public internet access, Angela points out in her comment to the full weblog post (link below) that you can't always rely on this, especially when travelling by public transport. At least, if you have arranged some way of keeping in contact, this will give a little time to make alternative plans in the unlikely event that problems with exchange plans arise after you set off.

Taking a Pet on a Home Exchange Holiday

Q: We live in a two bedroomed terrace house and wish to house swop mainly in Europe but with a small well behaved dog. Is this possible? - Estelle

A: Yes, it is possible to take a dog on a home exchange with you provided, of course, that you have the home owner's permission and take care of all the necessary requirements for taking your dog to Europe. Read the full answer on the weblog.

Location, Location! More Important Than a Luxury Home for Exchanges

Q: My wife and I and our two children aged 3 and 5, have a 1400 sq. foot townhouse in Anchorage, Alaska and a 800 sq. foot condo on the big island of Hawaii. I would like to join the exchange program but am concerned that it is more for large luxury homes. Do you think anyone would be interested in exchanging with us? - John K.

A: Although there certainly are many large and luxurious homes in the Home Base Holidays listings, don't let this put you off - lots of members live in modest homes too! Read full response.

Exchanging Homes of Comparable Value? Or Not

Q: Is there any way to ensure that the family with whom one exchanges homes has a comparable home (equal value to protect for each other)? - Joy, Yorba Linda, CA, USA

A: It is of course up to individual Home Base Holidays members to decide who they will consider swapping homes with and, if it is important to them to swap with members with what may appear to be a comparable home to their own, that's fine. However, comparing property values is not the best way to judge a home. As an example: a modest Edwardian semi in a London suburb is very likely to be worth in market terms more than many large, luxurious rural homes with acres of land and swimming pools. More on blog.

A: Some Home Base Holidays members indicate in their listings that they are vegetarians but, if they don't add that they will only consider offers from other vegetarians, it is likely that they are including this information as part of their description (home, area, family, jobs, interests) just to give others a sense of the sort of people they are rather than to necessarily restrict their exchange offer to other vegetarians. Even so, by indicating they are vegetarians, this should ensure the issue of whether it is acceptable for exchange partners to bring meat into the home will be discussed before an exchange is agreed. Rea d full answer.

Summer Home Swaps: School's Out - But Not at the Same Time

Q: I was just reading the interesting stories on your website. Our family of four from Halifax, Nova Scotia would like to travel to England this summer (June 25 - July 25) and I think that home exchange might be the best way to do this. If we become members, is there a good chance that there will be a family in or near London that would want to come to Nova Scotia and exchange with us? - Joan D.

A: Although there isn't a great deal of time to arrange an exchange for late June - late July, you should have a very good chance of finding Home Base Holidays members in London or nearby who will be interested (there are many members in London and the southeast of England generally).

If you are able to consider a slightly later period for an exchange that should increase your choice as many families in England with school age children probably won't want to exchange until late July to the end of August, to fit in with the school holidays here. Most members are able to compromise a little on dates! M ore.

Apologies for the delay in sending out this issue of Home Swappers (or did you notice?!) due to a busy few weeks, including a long awaited visit from my sister and brother-in-law from Canada. That's my sister, Ruth, in the photo, at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. We had a lovely trip taking in the spectacular scenery of Northern Ireland (see the Tourism Ireland website for information).

On our tour of Northern Ireland, staying in farmhouse B & Bs, we met a number of fellow guests. Some, especially Australians, were on quests to trace their Irish ancestors (Ruth and I hadn't done our homework on our Irish connections well enough to make much progress in tracing our own ancestors!) Have you had a home exchange holiday in a specific location especially to work on filling in gaps in your family tree? If you have, I'm sure your story would be of interest to Home Base Holidays members and newsletter subscribers - do send in your stories.

Newsletter Contributions: We are always pleased to hear from members and newsletter subscribers and to receive contributions for the newsletter - short reports on your exchange experiences, tips you feel would be useful to those new to the idea of home swapping and any questions you have on home exchange. Please incude 'home exchange' in the subject line when contacting us as messages with no subjects (or dubious sounding subject lines!) or unexpected attachments may end up in our spam folder and deleted unread. Reading this on the Website? Use the newsletter subscribe link to add your email address and receive the newsletter regularly. If already on the list but not receiving your copy by email, there can be a number of causes:

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Home Base Holidays, London, UK 1985-2005: 20th year providing a home exchange service worldwide