Quick couple of questions - has anyone used this as a method of holidaying? How did you find it? Any nightmare stories?

I'm thinking about this as a possibility for the future and I'd like to hear others' opinions on it (and the houses you got)

We recently exchange with a family in Belgium, and found it great. No problems, no horror stories and we look forward to trying it again. We used Homelink for our connection.

You're not going to find much here on home exchange but there's plenty of info out there on this wonderful way to see the world. The home exchange community treasures the word respect (do unto others etc.) so, chances are, you can meet wonderful people who really value the opportunity to stay in your home. Of course, it helps if you have a 5-star property on Sutton Place. I've made some wonderful friends participating in home exchange and I've practically given up on hotels in certain cities. I just love it.

Hi Keith: There are a few items on this board relating to home exchanges, including my own posting from last September in which I provided a link to an article in my hometown paper. I've never participated in one of these exchanges myself, but they sound great.

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2002/09/14/fTravel.html

Dale

Highly recommended. It helps to be able to offer a place in Hawai'i. We are three-time exchangers through Homelink.

Fully agree that it's do onto others as you would have them do onto your own home.

We spend a lot of effort making sure everything's in perfect working order, the windows are clean and the house spotless. We exchange with families with pets, that way they take care of ours, we take care of theirs.

We have been well rewarded for our efforts.

I've just come back to London after 6 weeks home exchange to Vancouver and Toronto. It was fabulous. Apart from the savings, it is a very different experience to be able to come back to a proper living room and kitchen at the end of the day, and be able to explore the shops and streets from a resident's point of view. For a nosey parker like me, it's quite fun to look at other people's houses and imagine how I would have laid it out and decorated it. Saving on accommodation meant I could spend on a hotel for side trips, e.g., to Montreal.

I had no problems at all - I would hardly have known anyone had been in my flat (apart from the odd bit of food in the fridge that I wouldn't have bought and some of the kitchen gadgets being in a different place).

There's no special secret - any of the many directories and websites for exchangers will tell you much the same:
- look for people with a similar lifestyle and attitudes: if you're a single aesthete in a house full of white carpets and Meissen porcelain, don't swap with a family of boisterous children, and vice versa
- take your time to get to know each other, to find out what you can about each other's house and locality, and to sort out practical details in advance, such as phone bills, computer use, how you're going to organise the key-swap and what to do if travel plans are upset
- make sure there's a spare set of keys with a neighbour who could also be a port of call in case of problems and emergencies
- prepare information about how local services and the household equipment work.

I've done a couple of swaps before for weekends in Paris and Amsterdam and had no problems there either (though the week after I'd committed myself to the first exchange there was a TV thriller about an elaborate plot involving a home exchange!). The downside (if it is one) is that you have to do a really thorough clean before you go, move your personal stuff and treasures into storage and make space for their clothes. You also have the prospect of cleaning their place when you're ready to leave, but I found that a great incentive to be much more fastidious than I would be at home.

I, too, have had a successful exchange through HomeLink. We are now great fans of home exchanges. Not only do you get accommodations, and often a car, for free, you get a cultural immersion experience, getting to know everything from exotic appliances to groceries, neighbors, and your exchanger's taste in music!

I would strongly recommend that first-time echangers do an exchange with an experienced exchange family, who can help walk you through hte process. There's a lot of getting-acquainted involved in developing that trust and karma.

I would also strongly recommend that you write up detailed instructions about operating your appliances including things like how full to do the washing machine ( Europeans who are used to front-loaders will overfill US top-loaders) and how much detergent to use, etc.

Dale,
Thanks for the link to the great article.