house swap experiences

Nelly,

I'd be a bit nervous about that type of arrangement. I've heard a few "nasty stories" from people that have tried it, and were less than pleased with the experience.

Hopefully one of the group here will have some information for you.

Cheers!

We just did our 5th house exchange this past summer, and I am a great fan of this method of travel. I have a few suggestions for you. First of all, I think you won't find too many people who are interested in just a week. Most want 2 weeks or more. Even co-ordinating two exchanges seems complicated to me. We have used intervac.com, homelink.org, and homeexchange.com. All operate pretty much in the same manner. I suggest you go to their sites and browse their listings. You can then join the one that seems to offer the best potential for you. Be aware that lots of Europeans don't list until after the 1st of the year. One other point: you'll have better luck if you don't expect precise equity in an exchange. We, for example, traded our 4 bdrm, 2 bath house for a small 2 bdrm apartment in Copenhagen. We consider it to have beeen the best swap we've done. Europeans tend to live in smaller quarters than Americans (though that is changing), but often have vacation homes, which can even be part of an exchange. You can pm me for more information. I'll be happy to answer any specific questions you have.

I know you asked this quite awhile ago, but I just found it. I exchanged my home in NJ (yes NJ) with three family's: Andalucia, Spain; Tuchan, France and
Versaille, France. We had absolutely no problems with their homes or with my home upon our return. Home Exchange is fantastic! You just need to get to know the people and make sure you find them trustworthy before you go. I spent about 10 months conversing with my exchange families before the trip and really got to know them. Actually, the family in Spain ended up not being able to use my home (she was pregnant) and she still let me use her beautiful 5 bedroom casa with inground pool in Andalucia. My exchange partner outside Paris even fronted the money to buy my family of five TGV tickets because he was able to get them for 1/2 the price that I could get on-line. Pretty amazing, don't you think. My favorite website is www.homeforexchange.com It's by far the nicest. I've looked at all of them. It is true, most people who are going to travel from far will want at least 10 days in your home. I am in the process of planning my next home exchanges in 2011. I can't wait! You really get to live and meet locals when you live in the home of a local; they usually hook you up with friends and family members.

Thanks for the encouragement, I am working on getting our house listed, and the tickets are purchased!

Nelly, check out info on house swapping experiences here on Rick's website under "Graffiti Wall", next to "Travelers' Helpline". Scroll down to "Archived" topics and look at "House-Swapping Stories". I am also interested in the home exchange concept. Hope it works out for you.

I haven't done a house swap yet but hope to in the future. I'm surprised no one has brought up problems with swaps in Italy.

I'm not sure if it's here or on other boards where I've seen multiple complaints about house swaps in Italy.

The swap fell through at the last minute due to a family emergency "but they were able to find you a house to rent for your stay." Apparently many responders from Italy are simply rental agents whose goal is to rent you a place. For some reason, Italy is the place that always has this complaint.

I don't want to rain on your parade but think you should be prepared.

To address Brad's point: We have run into the problem you raise when trying to arrange a swap in Italy. So much so that we don't even bother with looking at Italian listings anymore. Fortunately for us, the "family illness" ploy came up early in the negotiations, and we just said no. Some of the house exchange companies offer an insurance feature to protect yourself against cancellation, and I think that in the future we'll join one that does. After all, sometimes real situations occur that require people to back out of trip plans.

very interesting (and nervous-making). Thanks for the heads up.

Hi Nelly,
We have our vacation home on homeexchange.com and have done one swap in England and are looking at Italy now. I would definitely recommend it but also have a few suggestions.
1. Know what's impt to you- I am pretty anal (ok very anal :)) and the house we went to was covered in pet hair and dirty. My son, who had never had any pet allergies before, was on Benadryl the whole plane ride home. Lesson learned: No pets and preferably vacation homes where people tend to have less stuff. I also pay close attention to the pictures....if it looks dirty and messy for the pictures, it probably is. Again this may not bother you but it did me.
2. Plan on sending out A LOT of inquiries before you find a match. Many people don't respond at all and it is more difficult than you'd imagine to coordinate. I would also agree w/posting about weeks- with a qualifier. I think it depends on the distance you are traveling. We are looking at a long weekend swap in driving distance but would want 2 week trips to Europe because of the distance.

The people we swapped with were very gracious and accommodating. And this time I will follow my instincts!

thanks for the post, Michelle. I have been working on this diligently since my original post, and have found the advice on this board to be dead-on. For the benefit of others, here's my experience so far:

Italy: sent 127 email invitations, had 40% responses (60% no answer at all). Many of those were indeed "no, but we would rent to you". However, I did get an exchange confirmed there before anywhere else. It's in a small town outside of Venice, so I hope it's off the main tour bus track.

France: sent 86 emails, 47% response rate, have confirmed a super house, location, and family. House swapping is hugely popular in France. There are more than 5000 active listings between the two sites I registered with. If you ever want to go to France, swapping is easy. BUT they really do ALL take vacation in August. I got the July dates I wanted, but had many more offers for August instead.

Germany: not so popular there, less than 500 listings total. Sent 44 emails to date, 43% response rate, nothing confirmed yet but still working some "maybes". And sending more emails. I'm confident it will work out.

Other lessons learned: as Michelle says, YOU have to send lots of emails. Don't just list and wait for people to contact you. I've only received 5 unsolicited emails. I don't think this is true for New Yorkers - all Europeans list it as a favorite destination - but I had to do the work for my exchanges (which I'm happy to do). Do your best to write in foreign languages - it is very appreciated by the recipients. And for an excellent primer in home exchange practices and good etiquette, read this blog: homeexchanger.blogspot.com

I don't want to post commercial plugs for one site over another, but I looked around a lot and I do have favorites. Check knowyourtrade.com or PM me if you're interested in names.

I am really excited about this truly back-door opportunity. I'll post a trip report when we get back.

Three more lessons learned that confirm Rosalyn's advice above:

1. yes, most Europeans post their houses after New Year's (at least for France). There are 10-12 new listings/day showing up for France since Jan 2. I may have rushed it by starting in October, but on the other hand, I have two exchanges nailed down now. Also, I couldn't make myself wait. I'm too excited to think about much else these days ;)

2. one-week exchanges are not practical, either for your exchange partners or for you. Given the effort I've expended to arrange 3 or 4 exchanges, and slot them into non-conflicting dates, my original thought of one week each is completely ridiculous. Not really desirable either - it will be better to settle in and see the nearby countryside rather than be tearing around the continent.

3. Rosalyn was also right that the size of the house doesn't matter. It's the location and the quality of the exchange partners that's important. And besides, who wants to clean 3000 sq ft on the last day? As long as it's bigger than a hotel room, and has a kitchen and laundry, we will be happy.

Hi Nelly,
WOW you were busy :)! One more thing that you said that prompted me to comment...
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree that the LOCATION is the most impt thing. We have an 1800 sq ft house with 3 bedrooms and 3 full baths and are swapping w/someone in Rome who has a 2 bedroom appmt w/one bathroom. I wanted to be in ROME. My only requirement was that it had to have more than one bedroom as we are a family of 4. Even now one of our kids has to sleep on a pull out couch but that was fine.
The cleaning was what actually prompted me. We also rent out our house (I have actually offered this as well to people that I couldn't swap with and I am legit :))and I have a cleaning person who cleans after a rental. In my swap agreement, we added that the cleaning would be the owner's responsibility afterwards. This works well for 2 reasons- 1. You are not spending your last day of vacation cleaning 2. Your standards and mine may not be the same (see my above listing about analness ;)!
It is up to you whether you want to have someone clean it or do it yourself. I plan to do this for my next swap.
Good luck and keep us posted!

Nelly, I didn't see your original message but I read this article just the other day.

http://njmonthly.com/articles/lifestyle/homeandgarden/home-swap.html

It is a very interesting article about a NJ family's personal experience with a home exchange. I hope that you post back on your experience after you return. This is something that I definitely want to try some day.

I have often wondered about home exchanges, but I'm afraid we are among the 90% or so who live in places no typical European would want to visit. It seems terribly difficult to coordinate and frought with many potential problems. But if everything clicks, it's obviously a win/win for everyone.

We do make it a point to rent a cottage or apartment for a week at least once every trip because we enjoy having a "home" for an extended period of time. Just speaking for myself though, the $1000 or so we pay for rent is preferable to worrying every day on vacation what might be happening to our home back here.

I hope you find what you are looking for.

Randy, no one in Mallorca willing to swap with you in January? What's the deal?

Well, it's all in the marketing! Making a pitch to Norwegians to come visit the place where branches of the family moved to in the New World could be a good approach. I've found that many Scandinavians own second homes in Italy which they've listed for swap (or rental).

But my reading and limited experience to date does show that if you're not comfortable having people in your home, it's really not worth forcing yourself into a swap. My rationale is that we are each exchanging our primary asset, so the risk is equal, and it's unlikely anyone will fly 6000 miles to steal my china. We will lock up or remove our important papers to prevent identity theft; the rest is just stuff.

My interest in this is to a large extent cultural, to have the opportunity to live in a real neighbourhood and experience "real life", leavened with some sightseeing but with a chance to relax in the evenings in the town square or the house's garden. But it's also about the savings for sure. I could not go for seven weeks if I had to pay for every night's lodging.

This will never replace hotels and vacation rentals for everyone, but for us I think it will be a good choice. I really appreciate the different points of view on this thread, it does help me stop and think.

You are absolutely correct about your comfort level. We swap our vacation home so there is nothing of extreme value or personal financial information to be concerned about. We also rent our home on occasion so I have a completely different set of linens (and even more so on my bed) then what I use myself. We also have an "owner's closet" which has a lock on it. However....
The family we swapped with lived there all the time. One of their bedrooms was an office which they asked if I minded they locked. Absolutley not! This is their home and their personal finances are none of my business. My suggestion would be to put away anything of any significant value- not for theft, but more so for breakage. You can also say you do not want children, pets, smoking etc in your home.
Some people even swap cars.
My advice would be to ck out some of the sites. We are on homeexchange.com and I have been very pleased with the site itself and everything they have thought of. There are over 30,000 homes listed all over the world.
I would also say that although you may not think your area is "sexy" :), you'd be surprised. Maybe someone is looking for your location for a family reunion, college tour- whatever! It only costs $99.95/yr and is very easy to set up. I believe they also guarantee you will swap your first yr or your second is free- don't quote me here but they have some type of guarantee in place.
Good luck!