FauxSteMarie

I have a French family in Compiegne who wants a home exchange, preferably in the Washington, DC, area for the month of August 2007.

What happened is this: We had been negotiating and a sort of deal was struck, but they put me off about buying airline tickets. To an experienced exchanger that smells like a "back out".

A couple of days later an offer came in from Vienna, Austria, and I accepted that one.

The French people have a lovely house. Compiegne is 80 km north of Paris and would be a good location to visit some of the cathedral towns or go into Belgium. I was planning on a side trip to the Battle of the Bulge sites as part of the swap had it occurred. You could also go to Verdun and Nancy from Compiegne.

The family has two older teens and a car is included in the swap. There are no pets to take care of.

They do want the deal for the entire month of August (I know difficult to get away for that long for most Americans).

After I told them I was going to Vienna, they claimed I had misled them. Of course, I thought the exchange was not firm. Apparently, I had misjudged them and would like to see that they get what they want because I feel badly about the whole business. I do not want to be known as a "jumper" (someone who commits to a home exchange and then "jumps" for a better offer). In fact, the house in Compiegne is much nicer than the teeny apartment I will have in Vienna, but the Austrians already had tickets because they are doing a complicated trip and going to NYC first.

I told the French people I would do what I can to help them out. If anyone is interested, please email me at [email protected]

Home exchange is a wonderful way to travel. I have exchanged in Europe 14 times and 32 times over all.

Eleni

FSM, which home exchange site do you use? do you have experience with more than one and, if so, do you have any preferences among them? thanks, e

Eleni

Never mind FSM! I found the other thread in which you addressed by precise questions!

FauxSteMarie

I use both Homelink and Intervac. I have belonged to both since 1990.

annetti

I did a home exchange near Compiegne in 1995. We visited the chateau and the town several times. It would be a wonderful exchange. There is an incredible amount of things to do in the area. Michelin's Green Guide lists tons of 2 and 3 star attractions. We were there for 5 weeks and ran out of time before we ran out of things to do. Paris is doable, too for a day trip. We would drive to the outskirts of the city (can't remember now the metro stop) and take the metro in for the day. By the way, FauxSteMarie, I do not think you over reacted, the Compiegne people were not being forthright with you and dragging their heels. You can't read minds. They could as easily gone the other way and dropped out of sight. It's nice of you to try and find an exchange for them. I had a similar experience with a French couple from the Loire Valley. In our case, we had only exchanged one e-mail with them after the query letter, when we wrote back that we had accepted another exchange, they were furious. Nothing definite had been decided. I did search around for them and linked them up with some friends of ours, but other than an e-mail from the French exchangers wanting my friends' address again, they were too angry, I suppose to ever thank us. The exchange between them and our friends did work out well, though. You might want to post on the Homelink discussion page to help them out, too. Good luck.

FauxSteMarie

They were listed with Intervac, not Homelink.

It is hard to know what people are thinking when you are trying to negotiate a deal. My take on it was that the French people were abrupt. Their take on it was that they thought they had a deal. No deal is final til airline tickets are bought in my opinion. After all the deals I have done, I have seen everything.

I am very happy about the Vienna deal, but I could have been just has happy in Compiegne. In fact, the house in Compiegne is much nicer than the apartment in Vienna, but I don't care about house size and amenities other than the basics when I am exchanging. I exchange for the location. A house swap is just a place to stay. When I do a deal, I am wary of people who do not want to buy tickets right away because they (a) might be having second thoughts or (b) might be also dealing with someone else that they might prefer. You can't read minds and you do want to be honest.

annetti

Because the Compiegne people have not bought plane tickets, I would let the matter rest. They still have plenty of time to arrange an exchange for August. You've given it a good shot, tried to get them an exchange. Forget it. Perhaps, in the end you were lucky not to have made the exchange. They may have been difficult to deal with. Enjoy Vienna.

annetti

FauxSteMarie: I have done about 14 exchanges, all in Europe, except for two in Australia. I have tried to arrange US exchanges, but it never seems that I contact people who are interested in trading within the States. Did you use Homelink and Intervac for trades here in the States or is there another exchange agency you listed with? It would be nice to occasionally take a shorter flight for a vacation. I live in Southern California, but would love to trade in the US NorthEast once in a while. Thank you.

FauxSteMarie

Annetti, I have done everything I need to do for the French people and will let it go. If I end up assisting them, that would be great, if not, they will find something else.

I have belonged to Intervac and Homelink since 1990. I often do home exchanges within the US, but, unless you live in San Diego or near one of the national parks away from the coast, I am sort of exchanged out of Southern California for awhile. I have spent considerable time there including two exchanges in Long Beach (same people twice; they have grandchildren near me).

Homelink has more listings in the US than Intervac does. Homelink also has more Australia and NZ listings (but I have never gotten a deal there). Intervac is heavier on Europeans.

Most of my exchanges have been in the US and Canada (Halifax, NS; Qualicum, Vancouver Island, BC; Calgary, Alberta).

In Europe I have exchanged in

Ashford (Middlesex) England
Scarborough, England
Edinburgh, Scotland
South Queensferry, Scotland
Montmorency, France
Tours, France
Nancy, France
Rome, Italy
Berlin, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
St. Georgen, Germany [Black Forest]
Scheidigg, Germany (Bavaria in Allgau)

And, now, of course, I am going to Vienna, Austria, next summer.

jrecm

FauxsteMarie and Annetti
Do you ever get any of The Europeans to exchange beside June July and August? I had a wonderful Hampstead, London Home exchange last year in August. I would prefer any other time but summer vacation. We Just joined Homelink last year and loved how it worked out. Any luck any other time of year?

FauxSteMarie

I have had two exchanges from that list I posted that was not in June, July and August. One was in September and one was over the Christmas holidays. You need to realize that many exchangers have children. They need to swap when the children are out of school--hence the crush during the summer.

The September one was the people in Bavaria with the dirty house and the car that didn't run. Worst home exchange I have ever had. If that had been my first exchange, I doubt I would have done it again.

The December one was in Rome, but I would think twice before going there again over Christmas. We had 10 straight days of pouring rain--and I don't mean little sprinkles. One day we had hail! I was there with a girlfriend and, if we had not laughed we would have cried. Finally, on the 11th day we saw the sun and it stayed nice for the remaining 6 days of the trip. Unfortunately, also on the 11th day I came down with a bad cold. Figures.

When you go in the off season, it is wise to remember that it is the off season for a reason.

Retired people tend to exchange in the shoulder season. With exchanges, however, you can't get fussy. You take them when you get them and be glad of it--and you never end up where you think you would want to go. If you really want the shoulder season, send emails to retired people only.

In the US, I have exchanged outside of the summer, but generally around Christmas or Easter. I have to say that, due to my job (I am principally a trial lawyer but do a few other things), those time periods are easier for me because court is slow during holiday periods, so I really do not hustle for exchanges in May and September-October, but I don't get many offers in those time periods either.

annetti

Hi FauxSteMarie and jrcem: I just this morning opened an email from an exchanger in Montpelier asking for September, but like FauxsteMarie said, they were retirees. I am still a year and a half away from retiring, but I would have jumped on it, being able to travel in Sept. would be terrific.

I found lots of possibilities for trading in Australia through Homelink. It was just a matter of sending out a lot of e-mails. You are right that there are few possibilities on Intervac. When we began home exchanging (1994) we used Intervac and Teacher Swap. I don't know if the latter is still in business. Teacher Swap (before Internet) had a booklet of only a couple hundred offerings. Our 2001 French exchanger pointed us towards Homelink. Our exchangers come from both organizations now.

We've been very lucky with our exchanges, and found ourselves in some very interesting places. You are right that you are often off the beaten track, but that's fine, we discover places that are less touristy and occasionally we make the 3-4 day trip to the "more" popular destination.

I think if you can arrange an exchange with people without children, it is possible to do an exchange in Sept. or the Spring. Retirees are your best options, but we have had offers from non-retirees that look inviting. Good luck.

lnicodemus

I agree with the gist of the posts. I have started a new, free, unaffiliated web site called Know Your Trade (more on that later). To help me learn more about the clubs, I have joined almost all the home exchange organizations. I get tons of requests for exchanges, being based in San Francisco. Most of them are for August, though as mentioned. However, in the past two years I have arranged two exchanges ot Europe. One was to Paris last April (c'est magnifique!) and the next will be Florence this April. Both were single people.
Next, to put a plug in for our new web site, Know Your Trade. We have rated and reviewed all the home exchange clubs, plus offer information about choosing clubs and arranging exchanges on our site. We also offer opportunities for experienced and new exchangers to post on our forum and rate their exchange club. FauxSteMarie has been good enough to try to help get our forum started. Thank you, FauxSteMarie!
Know Your Trade - Home Exchange Made Easy

FauxSteMarie

And thank you for setting up such a site. It is a nice place for exchangers to go to discuss their deals and especially to deal with first time exchanger angst.

I used to write extensively about exchanging. I even had a piece in "The Washington Post" and in a newsletter about France called "France Today". Basically the same piece appeared in a book of ideas for family vacations. Don't get any ideas that I made much money out of this because I didn't. I think for the piece in the book I was paid $35 and two copies of the book. It was not exactly a best seller. Ha!

I hope your site takes off so that more exchanging will be encouraged.

And now I am looking for a deal somewhere in 2008 because I am all done for 2007 having accepted the deal in Vienna. I had better get out the old German phrase book!

pkruger

FauxSteMarie--
I'm about to do my first home exchange. I'm a little nervous. You mentioned a family that had dirty house...In retrospect, were there any clues beforehand?

FauxSteMarie

You know, the only clues were that the people were quite elderly. I think they were just not quite up to keeping up their house or car anymore. They should never have been home exchanging. They also had no computer. After that experience, I am not dealing with anyone who is so behind the times that he does not have email.

In any event, I just finished my Vienna swap (returned yesterday) and had a fine time. There were no problems on either end aside from a mobile phone in Vienna that did not work. The fix for the problem was too complicated and I just called it a day with the mobile phone. There was, by the way, another mobile phone. The only inconvenience occurred when my girlfriend was with me for the first part of the swap. We often went our separate ways as we had very different interests. She loved to shop, for example, and I think it is a huge waste of time when you could be seeing cultural sites. We lost the ability to call one another when one of the phones quit. It was not exactly a global inconvenience.

I do spend a lot of time cleaning and fixing before an exchange. Invariably I arrive at my exchange in Europe and there are all sorts of things that have not been fixed that should have been. In the US or Canada this rarely happens. I can't explain this, but these things never ruin a swap.

Everyone is ALWAYS nervous at the beginning of a swap. First timers are, of course, more nervous. I hope you have a fine time.