Home exchange
 

Has anyone had any experience with HomeLink (or any home exchange program) and do you have any advice? We are negotiating with a family in Paris for a small house.
Thanks!

I don't know HomeLink, but my guess is that any well-established exchange directory would have lots of advice to offer about the things you need to bear in mind. I've done several long weekend exchanges with other European cities, and a long one to Canada, very successfully, and my thoughts are:

Take your time to get to know each other by email, and check that you have similar lifestyles and expectations. My guess is you will find almost any French house will have smaller and probably fewer appliances and conveniences than you're used to. But you will also need to explore what sort of people are involved, their tastes and so on (if your house is full of white carpets and fine porcelain, don't swap with a family of teenagers, and vice versa). Ask youselves: is either party expected to keep an eye on pets or gardens? Whereabouts exactly is the house, what is local transportation like, and if a car is needed, how will that be organised? What sorts of things are they interested in doing in America that you could help research for them, and vice versa? Have you swapped pictures of the houses and outline information about the locality?

Patrick,
Thank you for your most thorough answer.

There's a lady poster who does it all the time Faux? something. I think Scarlett knows who I mean.

Something like FauxSteMarie, probably with some underlines, and her nickname before was Lauren_ and don't remember what else. Lauren_Kruntz??

Here is the thread on home exchange

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=1328877

but Lauren has a different nick now.

THANK YOU!! I am going there now.

Author: LaurenSKahn ([email protected])
Date: 04/20/2004, 07:51 pm
As a result of a recent thread on this topic, I have received some email about home exchange. I did a search for old threads to move appropropriate ones to the top where some may find them interesting.

I have done 25 home exchanges including 10 in Europe.

I've been using Homelink for three/four years. I, also used Intervac. Try reading Homelink's discussion board for questions and comments. Very useful. Exchanging is all about trust and asking the right questions. Make sure you don't take anything for granted. If you are worried about something, ask, don't assume. By and large, I've had great experiences and am doing an exchange to Germany this year. A small house in Paris sounds wonderful to me. Good luck.

Thanks, everyone, for your helpful advice. We are using HomeLink. We started late, end of May, for this August and, hopefully, will be going to Paris. I had not, though, looked at their discussion group and doing so was very helpful in clarify our thoughts on a car exchange, shich will probably will not do. I let you know how the final negotiating works out. It's been fun, so far!

Virginiafish: As you saw from Homelink's discussion board, finding an exchange without car exchange is hard. You may find that the Paris exchanger may be very disappointed if a car exchange is not part of the offer. I prefer not to do car exchanges and it is a lot harder to arrange an exchange if we do not offer the car. Hopefully, the Paris exchangers do not have a car and so it won't have to be part of the deal.
Good luck.

Well, we have settled our plans for going to Paris and have decided to do the car exchange, also. Thanks for your help everyone!