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'My husband and I always wanted to spend a summer in Europe. After the birth of our first child though, we weren't sure how we'd really do it. Most friends warned against it, saying it would be too difficult to travel that long and far from our home in Los Angeles with a toddler. But it was something that we had wanted to do for a long time so we continued to play with the idea, searching into options that would be affordable for us.

Then we heard about the home exchange concept and looked online for how we could make that happen. We came across Home Base Holidays and found the site so user friendly. After we had read about a few homes that looked good to us, we signed up and started looking further at homes and cities we'd like to see. We were flexible on dates and our length of stay, so we narrowed it down and sent offers to members in 4 or 5 different countries and waited for responses. We focused on homes that had children our son's age so that when we'd get there he'd have an appropriate bed and toys to play with.

We received a few positive responses - one for a non- simultaneous stay in Holland (they will come to our home this year!) and one for a swap in Hamburg. So we mapped out our summer abroad. We had a friend in Spain that we stayed with for some time, then we stayed a couple of weeks in Holland and then a week in Germany. The Dutch people were on another holiday in Australia when we stayed at their home, but we met the neighbors who were great and we had a very comfortable stay in their home. Our son had lots of toys to play with and they left notes on things we could do as a family.

In Hamburg the family actually met us at the airport and we stayed at their home for a few nights while they took us all around the city, even setting us up with their babysitter. We made some great friends through that stay and are hoping to visit the family again this year, and they plan to visit us in LA in 2008. We email them frequently and our son often talks about their two boys.

The entire summer was fabulous! I would highly recommend doing a home swap to anyone looking to travel with a family affordably. It made travelling easy and we made great friends. My husband even made some work contacts through the German family as both men happen to be in the same business! We knew this ahead of time because we were able to read their profile. What a great experience!' - Leslie

The Home Base Holidays website is currently under-going another upgrade. One item, already enabled, along with a new photo display in listings, is the facility to now include up to eight photos. If you are a member and want to upload additional photos, or change any currently displayed in your listing, log on to your member area and click Manage Your Photos. *Note: upload photos in order, starting with Picture 1, which is used both for the small thumbnail photo shown in search results summaries and to provide the large format photo display in full listings.

We had a number of ideas in mind when considering how to improve the listing and photo format. First, we wanted to continue to enable members to still write lengthy descriptions (if wanted) but to minimise the amount of scrolling needed to view each full listing (important if you are browsing through many listings). Second, we wanted members to be able to add more photos but decided against an unlimited number on the grounds that it's better to include a selection of your best photos that give a good overall impression of your home than to risk members' eyes glazing over as they click through too many. The photo shown is from a recent exchange offer in Sydney, Australia (HE19623). Check the listing to see the eight photos displayed - a good mix of attractive, bright, internal and external shots.

You will now see that there is one large photo in listings with small (thumbnail) versions of each photo arranged neatly around it. As well as reducing the amount of scrolling when viewing listings, this avoids the need for too much mouse clicking - you merely need to glide your mouse over the small images, 'shadowing' each in turn, to see each photo enlarged (my poor mouse hand often hurts from too much clicking and I hope this feature will help us all avoid RSI).

Nick, our programmer, is still working on the current upgrade and, although much of the work is behind the scenes, there will be further visible changes soon. Check the Information for Members in your member area for updates.

(i) Take the time to compile an enticing exchange offer message, being as flexible as you can on dates/length of exchange, and including information on your home, area and family. Include your User ID within your message as well as in the subject line to make it easy for members to find your full listing.

(ii) Prepare an informative, standard message to copy and paste on the contact forms in listings, adapting your message for each member you contact. Personalise your messages by addressing a member by name and referring to their exchange offer - what has particularly attracted you to their home and area and why you are interested in their exchange offer. Offer to answer any questions they have and to provide references from past exchange partners if you have exchanged before. Ask them to reply even if they can't consider your offer or aren't able to make a quick decision. If you are contacting members whose first language isn't English, it will attract their attention and make your offer stand out if you can at least begin your message with a sentence or two in their native language, giving your location and dates you can exchange.

(iii) Check your email regularly on your ISP's website before downloading to your own email programme. Always skim through mail that has been filed in your junk folder before deleting it in case any replies to your exchange offers, or exchange offers sent to you, have been filed there. It is an increasing problem for ISPs to sort the enormous amount of spam most of us now receive, with more spam making it into in- boxes and more 'good' messages filed in spam/bulk mail folders by mistake.

(iv) A few ISPs block all messages sent from some other ISPs. If you don't receive a reply to your exchange offer sent via the form on the website after a week, it's possible that the member didn't receive it. Re-send your message using the email link in the member's listing (this will send a message from your own email address/computer). Also, many members now include a second email address. With three methods of contacting most members, most exchange offer messages should still reach their intended recipients if you take the time to follow up on those you haven't received responses from within a week or so.

(v) Here are a couple of posts on the blog that you might find useful: Home Exchange Offers: Waiting for Responses Send Enticing Home Swap Offers ...

(vi) Check the New Listings often (members: log on to your member area to access the link) and contact new members whose listings are of interest without delay before they have had time to agree to another offer.

(vii) If the dates you want to exchange are getting close, log on to your member area and click the link, Boost My Profile, which adds your listing to the separate Last Minute Offers list for a month. Check the Last Minute Offers list regularly for possibiities (direct link in your member area).

(viii) Read the Guidelines on the site for more information

(ix) People can be reluctant to reply to offers which they aren't able to consider. It is much better to receive a short 'Thanks, but I can't consider your kind offer' message than not to receive a reply at all so, set a good example and always respond promptly to exchange offers you receive.

(x) Very Important: Don't send out more exchange offers within a short period than you can easily manage and keep track of. Also, don't keep members who show interest in your offer hanging on while you wait for further responses. If you do receive definite interest from more than one member, make your decision on which offer you want to pursue promptly and inform others you can't exchange with, perhaps suggesting an exchange at a later date if that is a possibility.

Meg, a Home Base Holidays member, sent this important reminder for all home exchangers:

'My husband and I are Australians and last year we had a thoroughly enjoyable three months in the UK and Europe with a total of six house exchanges. Every experience was good but unfortunately I was quite ill for about eight days while in England. I would like to suggest that home exchangers should always leave emergency and other important telephone numbers in a folder or in a prominent place.

I ended up at the local hospital one Sunday evening and saw a doctor in emergency. He prescribed some antibiotics and in a few days I was well and truly on the mend. Fortunately I was able to find the information about the hospital in the local phone book.

I found that most exchangers were good at leaving tourist information and restaurant and take away phone numbers, all very important, but hardly anyone actually left an emergency telephone number or the numbers of local service providers. Since coming home and updating the folder that I leave in my home, I have included the 000 number in Australia for emergencies (Police, Fire, Ambulance) as well as the number for the Poisons Information Centre plus telephone numbers for the local medical surgery, dental surgery and last but not least, my lovely hairdresser!'

Editor's Note: Thanks, Meg, for your useful suggestions. Normally, I would include a brief description of a contributor's own home exchange offer but Meg has informed me that she already has three further home exchanges arranged over the coming months and is not in need of any extra publicity for her offer just yet.

This article was published in the Dec/Jan edition of Home Swappers, with further suggestions on the importance of the final clean-up before leaving an exchange home, in the Feb/Mar issue. This is such a crucial stage in any exchange to ensure the swap ends on a happy note with the home owner returning to a clean home and freshly made beds, which will be much appreciated after a long, tiring trip. Another member sent suggestions on the final clean- up based on her experiences:

'I now arrange for a cleaner/housekeeper who strips beds and does the final clean in the couple of days after I leave my home, and ask that the same be done at my exchanges' homes, particularly at the end of exchanges. I found with my UK home exchange my husband and I spent a full day running around trying to dry linen, make beds, and leave the home spick and span for the owners. We boarded the plane tired and weary and got home to a generally clean home but with unfortunately a stained ensuite shower recess.

When exchanging in Italy last year I used our exchangees' regular cleaner weekly. I understand the cost of using their regular cleaner was no greater than usual for them and at least any deficiencies couldn't be blamed on us! However, I learnt the hard way with our exchangees using our regular cleaner! Because they had children, and perhaps didn't take the small steps I take to reduce cleaning hours (eg spraying shower cleaner every couple of days to eliminate scrubbing; picking up and putting away items which make vacuuming a long task etc), I paid AU$200 more than I usually do in a two week period! My suggestion is, to keep costs down, use your regular cleaner for a final clean/bed linen change rather than stay the night in a hotel; and suggest paying your exchangees' regular cleaner for a final clean/bed linen change etc when you leave their home. Suggest the same to them as well, so you don't have the horror of used linen etc when you return to your home with a full suitcase of dirty clothes in the middle of the night!

As far as exchanging goes, we find we don't need much cleaning up after during the exchange - we eat out, travel a lot, etc, and the couple of rooms we use are easy to keep clean and tidy.'

In the last issue of the newsletter I included a link to a survey on providing references/rating exchanges. Many thanks to all who took the time to complete the survey, especially for your thoughtful comments. Survey questions were designed to find out what percentage of members use the current system to indicate that they have references available from previous exchanges and also to find out your views on the idea of introducing a rating system and/or enabling references to be added to listings. A few of the main statistics:

References Available (current option)

• 58.33% were aware of the tick box option on the membership form to indicate references are available from previous home swaps
• 63.64% offered to provide references to members they have exchanged with
• 72.73% were offered references after an exchange but only 40% had then ticked the 'Exchange References Available' box on their forms
• 66.67% offer to provide references when contacting members with an exchange offer

Rating Exchanges

• 50% thought it would be useful to introduce a rating system
• 41.67% said they would use a rating system to rate members they exchanged with
• 60% didn't feel a rating system could be fair to all members
• 60% were concerned that a member they gave a poor rating to might rate them poorly in return

A cross section of comments on a rating system:

'It would be vital to know how many people have rated each member and how recently. Also, narrative comments often give a feel for whether the rater is being picky or unfair (see Yahoo's travel ratings, for example). If the worst that happened was that the beds were left unchanged, and that has led to a low rating, I'd want to know that.'

'We have always had very positive exchanges but its clear that our visitors enjoy very different things from a holiday and a rating good or poor is likely to be very subjective - minor problems have added to the fun of a holiday for us but I wouldn't want to rate them.'

'There should be enough interaction with your home exchanger to gauge what kind of people they are. If in doubt, don't exchange!'

'There would have to be a rebuttal site, and it would go on and on. Not a fun way to look for a vacation and new friends. I don't like the idea.'

'I think you need to be quite cautious about this. Every person will have a different understanding of the standards required for each rating level. It can therefore be misleading. The system probably needs to be designed by a psychologist with expertise in survey design. As with eBay, online rating systems can be manipulated and thus become quite meaningless. It may also make things difficult for new exchangers.'

Including References with Exchange Listings

• 44.44% didn't think it would be useful to be able to upload references and display them with listings (22.22% thought it would be useful)
• 66.67% thought that, if references could be uploaded, members shouldn't have the option to display only positive references (33.33% thought they should have this option)

and a cross section of comments:

'I actually think that simply noting that references are available is sufficient. If folks get to the point where they are pursuing a possible exchange, they can then contact the referees for information that is important to them.'

'It may be that, as a condition of joining Home Base Holidays, we all agree to accept e-mail enquiries from members about our previous exchange experiences with other members.'

'If adding references, it will be important to make them as detailed as possible, and to use standard questions in addition to comments. I would want to know the date and duration of the exchange, the number of people in each exchange party and their ages, any special circumstances (cars, bikes, etc), degree of communication prior to exchange, nature of any problems and how they were resolved (or not), and what kind of follow-up communication there was with the exchange partner about the problem(s). I wouldn't allow someone to post a negative reference unless they had first communicated their dissatisfaction with the exchange partner, and I would allow the exchange partner to respond (as eBay does).'

'"References available upon request!" is all that is necessary, it would be up to the individual to ask for them. It's all part of the "getting to know" the other swapper, a part I enjoy. I don't want it laid out, I want to chat.'

There you have it! No doubt we will re-look at the issues of references/rating exchanges again but, for now, it would appear that the general view is that the current system, enabling members to indicate in their listings if they have references available, is the simplest and least problematic option. Any system will only work when the majority of members use it. Therefore, if you are a current member, log on and update your listing if you now have references available. It may be that the thoughts of taking the time to write a reference is off-putting when the best time to do it is immediately after an exchange. However, there really is no need to provide a written reference - much easier to agree to having your name and email address passed on to future potential exchange partners, and answer any messages received promptly when the time comes.

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 include '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:

• Incorrect email address - send us your name and correct address
• Add our email address, homeexchange@btinternet.com, to your address book or 'white list' of accepted messages
• Check your spam/bulk folder before deleting - some 'real' messages can be put there by mistake

Be Alert: If you are a current member, and should ever receive unsolicited (spam) message(s) from an unknown agency which you think could only have got your name and email address from your Home Base Holidays listing, please forward it to us. The private member area on our website is for one-to-one exchange offers between members only, not for any other purpose. It is important to be alert to potential scams on the internet (reputable businesses prominently display phone numbers and postal addresses on websites - and never send spam). Never respond to offers in unsolicited messages - if a 'free' offer seems too good to be true, it probably is! Spammers only continue sending their annoying mailings as, even if only a very small minority of recipients respond, it's worth it for them.

Copyright: 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 (use the Forward Email link below the newsletter).