News

'My husband and I have recently returned from our first house swapping experience and we are telling all our friends what a marvellous idea it is. We decided to swap our town house on Bribie Island, Queensland, for a villa in Adelaide, South Australia, and initially made contact via email and then by phone to plan our exchange. We were fortunate to be visiting Adelaide at the time of the first contact which enabled us to meet the couple and see the accommodation first hand.

Since our son and his family moved to Adelaide from Sydney, we have stayed with them many times for a week or two. This time we wanted to stay longer and yet be independent, and swapping seemed ideal. When the time came, our son arranged the exchange of keys.

The Adelaide couple are experienced in swapping homes and are currently preparing to visit England and America. They left bus timetables, maps of the area and plenty of food to tide us over until we got to the shops. We did likewise, leaving brochures on SE Queensland and a street directory for Brisbane. In Adelaide we found the villa ideal for our requirements and they made it clear that they would be interested in exchanging with us again in the future as they enjoyed their five weeks in our home. We are looking forward to another exchange to Adelaide next year.' - Pam Carmichael, HE16060

Rather than buying every small food item while in an exchange partner's home, it's generally fine to use small quantities of spices, sugar, sauces, etc. Most members will have a good clear-out of their refrigerators before the exchange but leave a few basic items - fresh milk, butter, cheese, bread, fruit - and often the 'fixings' for a first, simple meal for their guests. We probably all have a good number of half used items like jam, pickles and sauces that it would be a shame to throw out and which your guests could be directed to help themselves to. If you use any bigger items of foodstuffs while in your exchange home (perhaps you finish a couple of boxes of cereal, use half a bottle of olive oil and all the butter and cheese) you would be expected to buy replacements for these items before you leave. And certainly don't eat all the supplies in the freezer without asking or, at least, replacing everything you use.

Don't be afraid to raise what may seem very trivial points to your exchange partners during your correspondence in the run-up to your exchange. If, for example, you mention that you are happy for them to help themselves to any food left in your fridge and other items that they aren't likely to use much of, that should prompt them to offer the same to you.

Editor's Note: This short article was prompted by questions received recently from first time home swapper, Eva Hreinsdóttir. Read the full article with answers to Eva's questions, on the weblog (link below) and check out Eva's exchange offer, HE16707. Her home is located in a quiet geothermal area (hot springs) in South Iceland, 40 km from Reykjavik.

The last issue of Home Swappers included an article, 'Home Exchange: Much More than a Cheap Vacation', citing one member's reaction to an exchange offer from someone who was 'using home exchanging to get cheap holidays' which, she felt, was 'not a fair reason to exchange'. The following are two responses to this article.

Home Base Holidays member, Henry Grant, wrote:

'I would totally agree that the main advantage of home exchanging is not so much to save money, but to “fit in” with an area and get to know it, without having to spend your entire time in hotels with other tourists, and avoiding the hassle of arranging bookings. I too have had an offer of an exchange with someone who I felt was purely in it to save money, and I turned her down. It took a few emails back and forth for me to get the vibe, and I then decided to pursue the link no further. It’s nice to feel someone wants to come to your home to enjoy the area and find out about it, and you want them to be the sort of people who will appreciate it. I also agree that most of the exchangers I have had correspondence with are able to afford accommodation – but just prefer not to. Certainly that is the case for us, and for the three hugely successful UK exchange families we’ve been lucky enough to have been involved with.'

See Henry's attractive exchange offer in New Zealand (photo of Henry's home above), HE15599

and, from Home Swappers Newsletter subscriber, Margaret Price:

'Even though we are not yet paid members of Home Base Holidays, we love to read about all the exotic homes and places around the world for home exchange. We have a very small home and wonder if anybody would want to swap homes with us as it is not at all like the ones we see in the newsletter. However, maybe one day, we will be fortunate to be able to do a swap and have a wonderful holiday and, yes, it would be partly because our finances are not as we would like them to be and this would be one of the reasons for a home swap.

Your newsletter is one we look forward to and I have even forwarded it to my sister who now receives it from you as well. We have a great time discussing it. Keep up the good work.' - Margaret, Australia

Editor's Note: Henry described perfectly the attitude of most home exchangers, that saving money is only one small part of the exchange experience. However, Margaret, and many others who really do need to count the pennies when travelling, are also welcome as members (and modest homes in popular locations are often as sought after as more luxurious, larger homes).

Questions on travel insurance crop up fairly regularly from Home Base Holidays members, especially from those over 65 who are arranging lengthy house swaps in long haul destinations. As most such enquiries are from UK members, one of the latest money saving articles on the Money Saving Expert website, 'Travel Insurance - cheap or even free' should provide very useful information and suggested companies/policies to best suit individual circumstances (and save money).

MoneySa vingExpert.com is described as 'Ad free, Free to use, Consumer Revenge: it's about saving money on anything and everything – finding the best deals and beating the system.' Do visit MoneySavingExpert.com and, for regular up to the minute information, subscribe to the free Martin's Money Tips E-mail newsletter.

'No Pets' in Home Exchange Offers: What This Can Mean

Q: Hi, I've often wondered this: If home exchange members write 'No pets' does this mean they don't want you to bring pets to their home or that they don't want to exchange with people who have pets? All best, Marcia (Ashland, Oregon, USA, HE14641)

A: This is one of those tick box options on the Home Base Holidays membership form that I admit can be a little ambiguous! Generally, members who indicate 'no pets' mean that they don't want pets brought into their homes. Read full reply.

Number of Home Exchange Offers: Checking for Yourself

Q: What is your total number of clients you have on your home exchange programme? - Brad, UK A: Search by country (drop down list on the main Home Base Holidays search page) to easily see the current number of home exchange listings by country. Only countries where there are current listings are included (to avoid the frustration of doing searches that give zero results). You can check the whole database by not choosing a country first, if this type of result would be of any practical use. Search results will be an accurate count at any particular time and will vary as new members join and expired listings are automatically hidden. Being able to easily check numbers of listings yourself should be better than if we gave you a set figure for the number of exchange offers available (it might be tempting to exaggerate such numbers if you couldn't easily verify this for yourself!) Read full reply.

Editor's Note: Have you created your own weblog to record a home swap holiday? If so, I'd love to hear from you (your experiences would be useful to others). A blog is a very good and easy way to keep a diary of a trip and store photos to share with friends, family and future exchange partners. Travel Blog, a free site specially designed for creating travel journals, is one of the best I've seen.

Swap your home with someone in a country or area you want to visit and you will both enjoy all the comforts of home - for free - with often a car as part of the deal!

This is the introduction to a 'how to' article on home exchange I wrote recently for wikiHow. I came across wikiHow after finding eHow.com as a result of a search on, of all things, how to get rid of moths! I was really impressed by the amount of useful information available on this site. wikiHow enables anyone to share their knowledge on a subject. All the 'How to' articles on wikiHow follow a similar format, with the subject matter given in point form under three headings: Steps, Tips and Warnings. This is a logical, easy to read format that works very well.

wikiHow aims to provide useful, unbiased information on all manner of subjects. As well as writing articles, anyone who registers with wikiHow (free) can edit (add to, change) anyone else's articles. In this way, articles can be improved over time by the contributions of several wiki members. So, if you read my brief 'How to' article and would like to make some changes, please do so!

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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All Home Swappers content is copyright and cannot be used in any form without written permission from Home Base Holidays. However, please feel free to forward the newsletter (in full) to friends and colleagues who may be interested in home exchange (see Forward Email link below newsletter).

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

Sadie Nicholas, a freelance writer, recently approached Home Base Holidays for help in finding an experienced home exchanger willing to be interviewed for a feature on home exchange for the Daily Mail's Femail section. The article is on holiday house swaps that haven't quite lived up to expectations, for whatever reason. One member has already been interviewed for the article but Sadie now needs one more 'case study' - and her deadline is this week!

Sadie assures us that the interview won't be time- consuming, the participant will be able to read the finished article before publication to ensure it is accurate plus will receive £500. Sadie has also assured us that the article will make it clear that the vast majority of exchanges, carefully arranged in advance, work very well indeed.

If you live in the UK, have taken part in home swaps, have encountered any hiccups during the course of an exchange and would be prepared to talk to Sadie (plus have your photo taken outside your home), in return for payment of £500, please send a short report of your exchange experience problem; include your name and User ID, phone number and the best time to call you. Your message will be forwarded to Sadie who will contact you directly (if your message arrives before her deadline early in the first week in August 2005).