Home Exchange

You could try www.Homeexchange.com

I've never used them but know a couple people who have and they seemed happy with it. They do charge an annual membership fee for the service. Like anything else, check it out thoroughly.

There's also www.exhangehomes.com
and www.homeforexchange.com

Would love to hear how it works for you.

Have a great trip!

We are going to do our 5th home exchange this June. All four previous ones were great experiences. We've used Intervac, Home Link, and Home Exchange. I found the homelink.org site the easiest to use. All allow non-members to browse their listings, and we decided on the basis of which looked to have the most promising choices for our target country. With all these services, you make your own arrangements; they simply make the listings available to members. Here are few few tips from our experiences. The more flexible you are about dates and places, the greater your chances of getting an exchange. That being said, the largest number of offerings are during school vacation times. Don't set your heart on Italy; you probably won't get an exchange there. Too many American want to go there. Most Italians don't want to go so far from home. AND, while I'm sure that some Italian listers have a bona fide desire to visit the U.S., what a distressing number of them really want to do is rent you their second home. You'll wind up wasting a lot of time communicating only finally to be told that my mother (father, sister brother . . .) isn't well, so I can't exchange; but I have a place to rent. If you have more questions, PM me. I'd be glad to help. House exchanging is a fabulous way to travel!

Rosalyn, interesting insights. We have set up our first exchange for this Christmas with people living in a fabulous, amazing former monastery in Amsterdam through Homeexchange.com. We had several experiences with 2 other Amsterdam couples who said they wanted to do the exchange and then suddenly we didn't hear from them (not very polite!), so we are hoping that this goes as planned (I like a lot of communication and the assurance that the other party actually bought their airline tickets!). We have gotten several offers for next summer from Italy, but now, after your comments, think maybe we should look more closely at the German offers since we would love to go to either country. We have gotten many amazing offers from all kinds of places, as near as California and as far as Beijing. I have communicated with many people via email (I ALWAYS write back, even if we can't do the exchange they propose) and have always heard really nice things about home exchange experiences from seasoned exchangers. Since you already own your home, it seems like a great idea to use it as an asset to trade for another equal place to stay. All of the houses we've looked at to exchange are far nicer than anything we'd want to pay to rent (we will need enough room for 6). By trading our houses, we will each save thousands of dollars/Euro and have plenty of money left to spend on other parts of the trip. Exchanging lets you live like a local AND save enough money to do it all over again next year!

Very helpful comments. Are car exchanges usually part of the deal? I'm a little uncomfortable about that.

One of my friends here in Germany (she is American) did this home exchange last year between here and New Mexico. She had her 2 kids with her and she loved it. She has a house between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. I believe the car was part of the deal, but I could be wrong on that. I think I would be leery too. My gosh, if someone is saving that much money on rent, they can afford to rent a car. I would love to do this, but we just have an apt, and not a nice home like most people expect. Just checking the website though, I saw AMAZING homes over here in Germany. Made me want to exchange right away!

Sue, we are including our cars as part of the exchange.We were initially reluctant,but gradually changed our thinking.We were surprised by the cars people in Europe were offering us,like Jaguars and similar cars far nicer than ours.We can use our exchange partner's car in Amsterdam,but feel that with their excellent public transportation,we don't want to bother with driving.However,where we live, it would be imposible to enjoy our area without a car.We promoted our home as a winter ski destination.Renting an all-wheel drive SUV large enough for 4,with a ski rack would be extremely expensive here.At first,the idea of letting a stranger drive our car was scary.But then, we reasoned,we let our teenagers, and even one's boyfriend,drive our cars.A middle-aged Dutch physician would probably be a much lesser risk any day.Our cars are all several years old and all have had their first dings and scratches,so I'm not overly protective anymore.Throwing the car into the package made us far more marketable for an exchange.Accidents can happen to us or anyone at anytime,but that's what insurance is for.We have decided to take the risk.And Jo,there are lots of apartments on Homeexchange.com!We would love to stay in an apartment in a city(we love cities, which is a completely different life than we live here).I just look for places with enough beds to accomodate our group.If my husband and I were traveling with no kids,we would happily stay in the smallest one bedroom apartment.The range of accomodations is huge.People would LOVE to stay in a Frankfort apartment.I'm sure you would have no trouble finding a great exchange.I'm excited about this new way to travel,trading with others.A lot of trust is required,but I know we will always treat other people's things with great care and will do anything we can to make our exchange family's trip to America as wonderful as possible.Our exchange family will meet our friends and neighbors,experiences hard to come by on a traditional trip.

Jo - I agree with Terry, I would have no problem at all exchanging my home for an apartment. I'm sure you could find someone willing to exchange. :-)

Rosalyn - great information, thank you for sharing your experiences. It will give the rest of us some insight when we get ready to do a home exchange.

Terry - good point about the cars. Did you have to do anything different with your car insurance? Public transportation is not a great option for visitors to New Mexico so I think I would have to allow them to use our vehicle as well.

Do you have a local contact for them if needed and do you open your entire home or do you have a room or closet that is locked and private? (I've run into this in homes in Europe so just wondering how you're doing it.)

Karen, we spoke to our State Farm agent (who was somewhat less than thrilled about our car trading, but said it's totally our decision) and he said that in the state of Oregon there are no other options in insurance. Our car is insured, along with anyone who has our permission to drive it. We couldn't get another, extra coverage add-on policy or anything. So we'll just relax an hope for the best. We have good coversge.

Also, we don't plan to lock up anything. We have to trust people. We lock our cars and bikes on the streets to prevent thieves from anonymously stealing, but I will consider our exchange family as welcome, invited guests with whom we've developed an email, long distance friendship. If we kept loaded guns in the house (we DON'T keep any guns!!!) or something potentially dangerous,of course we'd lock them up. My biggest concern will be anticipating all of their potential needs and helping our new friends have the best possible vacation in America.

Also, I plan to have my fabulous, friendly next door neighbors/best friends always available to help. Even with a new house, anything can go wrong. We will have two couples checking in on our exchange family, ready to handle any issues that come up, offer travel advice and help make them feel welcome.

Terry - sounds like you have all the bases covered. You sound like an awesome (albeit absent) host! :-) I'm sure your exchange family will have a wonderful time.

Thanks for the info on the insurance...I have the same insurance company.

Thanks, Karen! You should probably check with your State Farm agent since our told us that laws regarding coverage vary by state.

It's funny...everyone asks me if I'm worried about people in my house breaking things, etc. Actually, that's the farthest thing from my mind. I worry about making sure the place is absolutley spotless so innocent strangers don't see any of our messiness! I'm having my daughters(16 and 20)fly out a week before my husband me (they'll backpack in Germany) so I can clean up after them without having them undo any of my work. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist... (sigh)

We have exchanged cars in all of our house exchanges. I'm always a little nervous about it; but so far all's gone well. Jo, we traded a 4 bedroom house for a 1 bedroom apartment in Copenhagen, and we had a fabulous time. I'm sure many older people like us have the attitude that they only need enough room for two. We wouldn't want to have to clean up a bigger place.

I love all the back & forth exchange of information!
I've noticed a curious thing about the travel desires of Europeans: they vastly prefer New York, Florida or LA. I think the NW is a wonderful travel destination -- rugged beaches & deserts, mountain hiking & ferry boats. So, Terry, how do you attract people to Bend (another lovely place but not well known)? Do you just throw out your pitch with a mouth-watering description & hope to attract interest?

Sue, that's pretty much it...you describe what your area offers, give them some links to check out, and try to entice them. Most Europeans say they want to see the famous things because that's all they know about. However, I'm sure many Europeans also want the "back door" experience and would love to experience less tourisy parts of America, just as we love seeing less traveled parts of Europe. Seattle will be any easy sell, though, because it has been featured in many movies. You'll have no trouble attracting exchangers to the fabulous city of Seattle!

Terry - That's a very good idea! We have an International Balloon Fiesta event here in Albuquerque every year during the first week of October, give or take a few days, and that might be the perfect opportunity for us to make an exchange. I could put together a calendar of events and try to "sell" my exchange that way. :-)

Karen, special events and festivals are also a great marketing idea. I'm sure you will have no trouble attracting people to Albuquerque!