Home exchanges - US to Paris?

Though I haven't used a home exchange in Paris my thoughts are on your question "are most people looking for a big fancy house in the suburbs". I think people would be looking for location over size unless they are traveling with a lot of other people, and along with location of the apartment, the city itself, Durham is known by most Americans, but is it a travel destination for Europeans coming to North America? Do you get many tourists there or do you get students on an exchange program? For example I'm going to Vancouver next month for a little over a week, I'm renting someones apartment, the location was the primary factor I looked into, second came price. I don't want to rent a car and don't really desire to ride public transportation in and out of the city a couple of times a day, when I travel I want convenience of location as my primary factor in determining where I stay. BTW, I'm using a company called airbnb. http://www.airbnb.com

I have to say, I think it's unlikely that a Parisian person or family would want to do a vacation in Durham. If you lived in the Outer Banks or Asheville, you'd have much better odds. Not to say that it's impossible- you can give it a try, just don't get your hopes up.

Let me know if anyone knows a Parisian (or almost any European) that wants to swap homes for a far suburb of Houston. I would worry about any European that would consider vacationing in the Katy prairie/rice fields. I'd probably want them to have a psychiatric exam before I did it.

As you know, there are home exchange agencies or something out there (I think you have to become a member.) However, there are other possibilities you could explore. You could get in touch with the American church in Paris - maybe an expat family would like to visit your area for whatever reason (maybe their kid is planning to go to Duke or it's their home) and you could trade homes with them. You could also check out FUSAC and place an ad with them. It would be interesting to see what possibilities present themselves. Good luck!

Have you checked your local Craigslist to see if anyone is looking for a swap? Or the Paris one? (Although Craigslist doesn't have nearly the same popularity here as it does in the US) That would at least give you an idea if there is a huge demand. Most French around my area want to go to NYC, out west (California or national parks) or Florida. Those that travel to other places do it because they have friends or family in that area.

A couple of years ago I had a really nice home exchange in the South of France. We swapped our London home for 2 weeks and must say it was such a good experience. We had done a number of home exchanges before - once to Canada and a couple of times to see our son in Sydney. We've used the Home Base Holidays website to arrange our exchanges although the second time we went to Sydney we stayed at the same home as on our first exchange. Steve PS. nice to be a member of this forum :)

Haven't done it....yet. Have been thinking about it and looking into what's involved for the past couple of years. Two of the better known home exchange agencies are HomeExchange and InterVac. There are others as well. You can peruse these sites for free, which can help you get an idea of how others go about advertising or seeking out a rental or swap. Also gives you an idea of what areas (in the US among others) people from other places are looking for. These sites will also give you good info on what to consider when entering into a home swap or rental. You can also do a 3-way arrangement; you rent a place in Paris and find someone from somewhere else (doesn't have to be Paris) to rent your place for the same time period.

Thanks for all the replies - I'll follow up on them.
To Dina - I won't use Craig's List since a Duke grad student I know was scammed when she rented a Paris apartment thru them recently. There's no way to tell if the ad is real/true so I'd rather go thru an established agency which guarantees the rental.

Holly, I agree about using agencies (or VRBO) for your rental or exchange. I've seen reports on French tv of even French people being scammed for vacation rentals, including Paris apartments.

We recently returned from a three week exchange with a family in Paris. Our house is in a beach community so we get a lot of offers, but both of our exchanges (2010 to London) have been with people who were visiting family members. If you're lucky, perhaps you might exchange with someone who has a son or daughter attending college in NC. We used homeechange.com. They have a guarantee that if you don't find an exchange in the first year, the second year is free. It might not work out but you'll never know until you try.