News

'We just returned from our first house swap and we are sold on swapping! My husband and I brought two of my three boys with us to North Carolina. We left the one year old with Nana because of the 6 hour plane ride. The trip was wonderful! We had been e- mailing back and forth with the Yorks for about 8 months. They arranged for us to get the key and they sent us detailed information about the house and the area. They even called to check in once we were there to see if we needed anything.

Once there, we had a blast! We took the kids to the Tweetsie Railroad, a nearby amusement park for young kids, which they loved. We also crossed into Tennessee and rented a boat on a beautiful lake. We took a day and drove to the Biltmore Estate, went shopping at nearby outlet stores, went swimming in the community pool and took paddle boats out on the community lake. The area was beautiful and we got to know the local deer as we fed them deer corn off the deck.

It was great not having to eat out for every meal and not having to sleep with the kids in a small, crowded hotel room. Best of all, saving money on accommodations meant more money to spend on other things! When we tell people we went house swapping on the Internet they think we are crazy, we think they are crazy not to!' - Jennifer Mitchell, California

Now that the Mitchell family has caught the home swapping bug, check out their two homes available for exchange - an ocean view home in Sea Ranch, two hours north of San Francisco (HE15209) and their second home on 1.6 acres at Coarsegold, 45 minutes from Yosemite National Park (HE17166). Also see the Yorks' spacious mountain retreat (photo above) at Deep Gap, 10 miles from Boone, North Carolina, HE14764. Note: this is an example of a non- simultaneous exchange. The Yorks will take their part of the swap in California next May.

The last issue of Home Swappers featured a first Home Base Holidays member's travelblog. Londoner, John Edwards (HE15778), kept a record of his family's trip to New York and California this summer, including two home exchanges, on his California Dreaming travelblog. Since returning home, John has added more descriptive posts and great photos of the trip.

I was pleased to hear from another member, Heidi McLeod (HE16383), before her family's major trip (on- going at time of publication) from their home in New Zealand to Europe. Heidi's blog, Kiwi McLeods on Tour, will keep family and friends (and us!) updated on their trip which takes in several cities - London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Galway, Oxford plus many areas in the UK and Ireland, in a part work related, part holiday/visits to friends trip, including two home swaps in England (in Swindon and Woking).

Although I'm sure Heidi won't have much time to spend updating her blog during the trip, at the time of writing she had already posted reports from their first stop, Dubai and another shortly after their arrival in England. The photo is of Heidi with two year old daughter, Olivia.

Check out Kiwi McLeods on Tour. Visit our own weblog often which is regularly updated with much, much more information related to home exchange than is possible to include in Home Swappers (even a long issue like this one!) Leave comments on posts if you like and send suggestions for useful topics to cover.

'We bought our place in Spain and have totally fallen in love with the flat, the villages and the area. It is in a part of Spain which is so quiet for 11 months of the year. Tiny lanes winding down to the sea, and private little coves, with virtually no-one else there. We are on a headland above a marina, and we can lounge on the terrace and watch the boats come in, from elegant yachts to big gin palaces with crew in matching t-shirts.

A couple of miles away is Herradura, still a very Spanish small town, very friendly and patient with our excruciating Spanish. They have feast days at the drop of a hat and the whole family joins in. We are only an hour from the Alhambra, and are able to visit in the winter when the tourists have gone. Then we can abandon the motorway and return along an old Phoenician road over the top of the mountains. The local hypermarket had a white mule tied to a give-way sign, and tiny villages in the Sierra Nevada use them instead of cars, stabling them beneath their houses. There is skiing in the winter in the snow on the Sierra's and 300 days of sunshine.' - Adrienne Murray, HE17147

Long time Home Base Holidays member, Bridget Poher, writes:

'I read with interest your article on the "whole exchange experience" (see Oct/Nov newsletter). We have just completed a seventh, really wonderful exchange in Bali (thanks to Paul and Elena).

Perhaps a sense of humour comes in useful as well. Two years ago I received an exchange offer from England that we were interested in. I responded, giving details of our website etc. Then I received the following message, I quote:

"Now that we have established a mutual interest, we'd be grateful for more information about the interior of the house. How many bedrooms and other rooms? When re-furbished and how? Do you have mod. Cons. eg dishwasher, washing machine etc? Could you please send some photos of the interior? We have more we could send you if you were interested. What age of car do you have and are you ok with a car exchange? Sorry about the list!"

My reply:

"As my husband is French, we all sleep together on the same hair mattress which we drag out from under the table in our single room. It’s snug albeit slightly olfactory challenging in summer. We won’t change the sheets so you get the real French sensation.

We have cold water at the well and tepid water (in summer) at the stream. Thursday is washday in Molineuf. All the local women come along to scrub clothes together. It will be an excellent opportunity for you and your daughters to brush up on your schoolgirl French. There’s plenty of wine vinegar to get rid of the stubborn stains and bicarb for the rest.

The horses stabled under the bedrooms keep us not only warm in winter we use their dung mixed with straw in spring to slap on the walls – Bob’s your uncle – the room’s re-plastered. We’ll plan a new layer in March. The lingering smell in July or August will be proof enough that the rooms have been refurbished for you.

The larder is ideally positioned beneath the window. We’ll leave a couple of goat’s cheeses to ripen there for you. They’re locally called ‘briques de merde’ – roughly translated as ‘shit bricks’ because they’re rolled in - well you get the message."

I daresay it will come as no surprise to you to learn that this was one exchange that never came to pass!

On a more serious note, I would say that home exchanging has profoundly altered the way we view the world. It makes you more optimistic, less blasé about travel and is incredibly rewarding financially, intellectually and emotionally. The "kindness of strangers" is staggering.'

Editor's Note: I'm not surprised this exchange never worked out! Bridget has highlighted (in an unsubtle way!) the importance of both having a sense of humour and also being sensitive when corresponding with potential exchange partners in other countries. Some questions might unintentionally seem an assumption that standards in the recipient's country aren't likely to be as high as one's own. Email is great but it can be the cause of misunderstandings too if you don't give careful thought to messages before sending. Have any other Home Base Holidays members experienced misunderstandings when arranging international exchanges? This could lead to a whole new direction in the on-going discussion!

The photo above is of Bridget's restored 16th century home (HE6223) near Blois in the Loire Valley, France.

More feedback:

'I am now a lapsed member (Reasons for this: I am a solo traveller of 70+. It was whilst on an exchange to Australia that I woke up one night with chest pains and realised my Swappers could arrive back home to the distressing find of a body in one of their beds. I decided it was not fair of me to continue doing home swaps).

I always stated my home's views were not brilliant but the location was - just off both the A1 and M62, so excellent to get to all parts of the UK, with some special places like the Yorkshire Dales and York in close proximity.

As a result I had wonderful swaps for five weeks to Fort Worth, Texas and, two years later, four weeks in Brisbane and two weeks near Geelong. In every case the homes were much better than mine and there were always more people came to my home, but we all had marvellous times in each others' homes, enjoying, probably most, the pleasure of local (always helpful) neighbours and the ability to come and go as one pleased, and never feeling the need to get the best monetary value out of a stay. In fact money was never a considered matter at all and this is as it should be.

If only I could find a travelling companion willing merely to pay their own fares and share food and excursion costs, I would sign up with Home Base Holidays again immediately.' - Alan H F Smith

If you might be interested in joining Alan on his home exchange travels, please get in touch, including 'Alan Smith' in the subject line, and your message will be forwarded to him.

As you know, the primary focus of Home Base Holidays is to enable members to arrange home exchanges (including long term, non simultaneous and weekend exchanges). However, although not as popular, many members are also interested in other options too and these are included as additional choices on the membership form - hospitality exchange, housesitting offered or wanted, bed and breakfast offered and rental offered.

Recent member, Glynis McCauley, who contributed to the article, 'Quality of Homes vs the Whole Exchange Experience' in the Oct/Nov newsletter, commented:

'One other point I would like to make is about the 2nd home that most people seem to have. I have, on various occasions, contacted people about an exchange and although their listed property has not been available I have been offered their 2nd home but at a price, and again I feel that the home exchange idea seems to have gone into commercialism which I feel was not the original intention.'

From another perspective:

'We bought the flat with the idea of renting it part of the time, but now love it so much that we cannot bear to hand it over to strangers. However, our experience of home exchangers makes us feel that they are people that we can trust, so we would be very happy to rent to them without worry. The flat has already had exchangers from Vancouver, Sydney and Cornwall!' - Adrienne Murray, HE17147

Note: this is the Murrays' second home, an apartment in Andalucia, Spain, which is available for exchange (plus rental at certain times of the year at a discount rate to Home Base Holidays members).

And another:

'We had contacted one of your subscribers in Rome about a home exchange and, although an exchange per se did not evolve because of scheduling hurdles, we did arrange a rental of her small apartment in downtown Rome for a month. Our month-long stay there was outstanding.' - Doug Ditto, Tucson, Arizona, HE14523

Note: The photo above is of Kaye and Doug's home in Tucson. They are now looking for exchanges in Amsterdam in April 2006 and the UK next summer.

Editor's Note: Although most members still have and list one home only, it's probable that more do now have second homes than was the case a few years ago. Some members list both homes for exchange or list only their holiday home (these are the ones you see in search results brief listings with the symbol of a small house with a '2'). It's unlikely that most people only interested in letting a second home (or promoting more commercial rentals) would find it worthwhile joining Home Base Holidays, a closed site for members looking for home exchanges, rather than list with one or more of the many specialist vacation rental sites. It is disappointing when a member can't accept an exchange offer but, generally, members who offer their second homes for rental in such cases, will do so with the best of intentions, i.e. that this could be an alternative for a member if unable to arrange an exchange. This can be particularly useful when a specific location and dates are needed, especially in popular destinations like Italy. I have noticed that more members, like the Murrays, now offer rental at special discounts to Home Base Holidays members - and this is greatly encouraged!

Very few Home Base Holidays members report problems with insurance when arranging home swaps but occasionally a member (usually in the UK) will have a problem or send a recommendation.

Home and Contents + Car Insurance

Pam Godfrey, whose home is a stone bungalow in the Yorkshire wolds (HE12980), wrote in the summer:

'I have just tackled the thorny problem of covering our home whilst we do our next exchange in September for 77 days to New Zealand. Our swappers will be in our home for 60 of those 77 days and, though SAGA will cover us with no additional premium, they do impose a £500 excess for any accidental damage caused by our "friends" staying in our home and they will not cover their possessions whilst in our home. Though I am glad we can get cover, I am a bit disappointed by their terms. I think most swappers are extra careful with one another's homes/possessions but sheer accidents cannot be avoided. From what I can gather our counterparts do not have the same problems from their end.

SAGA generally have been very good with us when it comes to swapping cars especially as some of our swappers have been of more mature years (however they do impose a £500 excess again).'

Editor's Note: Although we hadn't heard of such a large excess being imposed for accidental damage caused by friends before (family too or any visitors to the home I wonder?), Pam's information could be useful for other older UK members (see SAGA website). I haven't followed this up with SAGA as yet but perhaps other members who have had home and contents or car insurance through the organisation will know whether the excess charge of £500 is standard or whether, for home and contents, this is related to the length of time away from home. The New Zealanders' possessions should have been covered by either their own home insurance or their travel insurance.

We have had previous good reports about SAGA for car insurance. Insurance issues generally seem a matter of balancing the benefits and costs to work out which companies offer the best deal or, in the case of SAGA, at least provide cover for older non- UK drivers (it wouldn't look too good for a company whose motto is 'Serving people aged 50 and over' to discrimate against older people!)

Travel Insurance

'We have arranged an exchange to London next April, all OK at this point and very excited. Our travel insurance doesn't cover if our exchanger falls ill and we can't go through with the exchange. Do you know of a company in Australia that does this type of cover?' - Lynne Hooper, Bridie Island, Queensland, HE17116

Editor's Note: It's great to hear that Lynne has an exchange arranged to London in April. We don't have information on any particular Australian insurance companies which will provide this additional cover although this doesn't mean it isn't possible, for an additional cost, to arrange this as an add-on to a regular travel insurance policy. Perhaps other Australian home exchangers will send us suggestions and recommendations.

You might like to read the first article in an earlier newsletter, 'Planning for the Unexpected', for ideas on putting in place (both sides) alternative plans for the unlikely event that an exchange can't go ahead as planned at short notice.

This post, on travel insurance, on the weblog may also be useful. Although the insurance companies mentioned are in the UK, the points to remember re declaring pre- existing medical conditions would be very important if arranging for insurance to cover your exchange partners falling ill and unable to travel.

Newsletter Contributions: We are always pleased to hear from members and subscribers and to receive contributions for the newsletter and weblog - 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.

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Report Unsolicited Home Exchange Promotions: If you are a Home Base Holidays member, and should ever receive an unsolicited promotional message from an unknown home exchange organisation, please forward it to us immediately. Unfortunately, the internet does attract a few unethical businesses. Any such messages forwarded to us will be followed up and further unsolicited mailings blocked.

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Home Base Holidays, London, UK 1985-2006: 21st year providing a home exchange service worldwide