tips

The following are some of the most asked questions about home exchange. These subjects and many more are covered in greater depth in the book and are set out in logical, easy to follow chapters.

How do I know that my home will be safe?

Will my home be good enough for my guests?

Will others want to come to my area?

How likely am I to secure an exchange?

When is the best time to go?

Which destinations are available?

For what length of time should I exchange?

What if the exchange gets cancelled at the last minute?

How much advance preparation is required?

How do I know that my home will be safe?

How do I know that my home will be safe with ‘strangers’ living in it? This is often the first question that comes to mind. The answer is that there are no guarantees in anything in life and nothing we undertake is totally without risk. It would therefore be less than honest to say that house exchanging is completely risk-free. House swapping depends on trust and mutual understanding between the participants. Consider these points:

Potential swappers have taken some trouble to register their interest just as you have. They are usually proud home owners experiencing the same concerns as yourselves. Home swapping attracts stable, well-educated, caring people. There is trust, respect and understanding between the parties since you will be living in each other’s home. This is a very different arrangement from tenant/landlord relationships where one party may feel they are ‘owed’ something by the other. With house swapping, the benefits are mutual.

Insurance companies recognise the value of having someone living in your home and many actually drop contents cover if the owner is absent for over 90 days. There is no doubt that it will be safer occupied than left vacant. Not only is it less susceptible to burglary, but any major system failure can be instantly detected and repaired. Your gardens can be cared for, mail collected and your house be kept clean while you are away.

Complaints concerning wilful damage, neglect or theft are unheard of. Of course, accidents happen and occasionally some items may get broken. This usually causes more distress to the offending party than the owner and I've heard stories of people spending days shopping for replacement items only to find the original held no value for the owner whatsoever!

Many comments express the delight of how clean the home was found on return and most have come to consider their exchange guests as friends. What begins as a business arrangement inevitably evolves into a strong friendship with mutual trust as its basis.

Members of formal clubs recognise the benefits afforded by the concept and no-one is willing to jeopardise that privilege.

Will my home be good enough for my guests?

Some people find the photographs portraying ‘typical’ exchange homes quite intimidating. Will anyone want to come to our modest home? It was our experience that members do not place much importance on the actual value of the home, nor do they typically compare their home with that in the destination.

Many of our members were happy to exchange their large homes for more compact homes. After all, you aren’t going on holiday to spend the entire time maintaining someone else’s mansion and grounds.

The true value lies in the experience generated by the exchange, not in the comparative monetary value of the home itself. Swappers in the UK have exchanged sprawling manor homes for small townhouses in Sydney. A couple in New Zealand were delighted to exchange their electronically-gated mansion for a much smaller, cosy home in an English village.

You aren’t going to buy the home, but use it as a base from which to discover authentic local culture in another country. Home exchange isn’t for those who like the safety of ‘no surprises’. These people opt for the hotel chains coupled with a steady diet of fast food! House swapping is for the adventurer. Even the most ‘lived-in’ home has more to offer your family than a stark, cramped hotel.

Provided your home is clean and tidy and you make sure there is adequate space for your guests to store their own belongings, it should be suitable for swapping.

It is important not to misrepresent your home and environs in any way. Make sure your prospective guests have a fair indication of what to expect. For example, if your home is under the flight path of a major airport, let your guests know in advance that they can expect some aircraft noise.

Extend an invitation to your potential exchange partners to appoint a local representative to come and meet you and inspect your home prior to finalising any arrangements. You may have friends or relatives in your exchange destination that could act as your own representative. This will give you some feedback about your potential hosts as well as helping put everyone at ease.

Will others want to come to my area?

Many participants in rural locations have secured exchanges with parties who hadn’t even previously considered their country as a destination. Not everyone likes a big city; many families enjoy bush-walking, integrating into a small village community, seeing the real ‘outback’ and generally getting off the beaten tourist track.

This is the beauty of house swapping - the opportunities aren’t necessarily located in areas generally associated with high density tourism.

Veteran swappers Ken and June from the heart of the city of London welcomed a change of scenery: “We thoroughly enjoyed our exchange trip to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. It was a contrast to our other two exchange venues. The position of the house was excellent; a quiet and lovely location. It was excellently situated for touring and walking the local area.”

How likely am I to secure an exchange?

People who are open to the adventures that home swapping offers have a high probability of finding exchange partners.

Home exchange works best for those who are open to offers and with flexible destinations. It works less well for those on strict time schedules with rigid destinations. A well-prepared proposal including photographs of your travelling party, your home and environs along with some interesting tourist information, may well prompt another party to consider your area when they hadn’t previously given it any thought.

One has to spare a thought for the incoming guest. The very reasons that you wish to escape your wintry Northern Hemisphere location between January and March may prove to be the limiting factors for those desiring your area at the same time. It is understandable that those coming from the Southern Hemisphere may not be attracted to experiencing three winters in a row.

When is the best time to go?

If you’re retired and can travel anytime, it’s best to go into home swapping with the idea of being completely flexible so that you can fit in with other exchangers’ time frame requirements. If you are able to do this, you will be able to avail yourself of many more offers because many people have their holiday dates dictated by work or other commitments. People with very rigid dates have far less opportunities available to them.

With home swapping, there is really no ‘best time’ to travel. If you can travel off-season, you will avoid the crowds sometimes associated with popular destinations. And you might take advantage of lower airfares.

The population of swappers with school age children must travel during the school holidays. For overseas travel, this often means making use of the long summer holiday. In the Northern Hemisphere, this will usually be between July and September and in the Southern Hemisphere between December and February. If you’re swapping within your own hemisphere, chances are that you will find plenty of families wanting the same dates. Those swapping between the hemispheres will need to be flexible with their timing.

If you do live in the Southern Hemisphere and the idea of a white Christmas and sipping brandy in front of a log fire in the local pub appeals to your sense of diversity, you will have a significant advantage in that there will be many home exchange opportunities available to you.

The same applies to those living in the Northern Hemisphere who must travel to the Southern Hemisphere during the northern summer months for whatever reason. Many exchange doors will open for you because that’s when most swappers will want to come to your locale.

Which destinations are available?

Home exchange is most widely used in Canada, USA, Britain, Western Europe and Australasia. Swapping opportunities exist to a much lesser extent in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. With the current trend of trading homes via the internet, many new places have been added to the list of home exchange destinations, some of which were virtually unheard of through more traditional means.

Opportunities for a great getaway may exist at your own back door. In addition to their overseas choices, many swappers have discovered that domestic exchanges can provide an ideal and inexpensive interstate or even intrastate break.

Many city dwellers welcome a weekend break to the country and country folk like to get into the cities every now and then. We found that some of our members living just a few hours drive apart found exchange partners with whom they swapped on a regular basis for weekends, holidays and the occasional break.

For what length of time should I exchange?

This is a matter of personal preference. An exchange can be just a weekend break or stretch to a full twelve months or longer. The average length of exchange is about four weeks. For overseas exchanges, the shortest recommended stay would be ten days. Home swapping involves a great deal of planning and correspondence and it probably simply isn’t worth it for a very short stay unless you are setting up an agreement whereby you will take advantage of a particular situation with the same exchange partners repeatedly.

Bob and Joy from Australia noted: “We learned a lot from our first exchange. The most startling revelation was that anything over about four weeks in one location is a bit of a waste of time. We felt that after about one month in and around the south of England, we were ready to move on. We used the home as a base from which to explore other parts of England and Wales."

If you are hoping to work at your exchange destination and are seeking a long-term stay, it may be wise to investigate the length of stay permitted to incoming visitors by your own government. For example, many Australians have a legal right to live and work in England but the Australian Immigration Department rarely grants visas to incoming visitors of greater than six months duration. It may be possible for your guest to apply to extend their visa but this is unlikely to be granted until they are already in the country.

There is little point in holding out for a twelve month exchange if it is not legally possible for the other party to fulfil your request. If you desire one year overseas, you’ll be better off listing your request as 3-12 months which will give you the opportunity to accept several shorter offers arranged consecutively.

How much advance preparation is required?

Approximately six months advance planning would be ideal but there’s nothing to lose by starting even earlier. If you’re joining a formal club, the earlier you join, the more contacts you stand to make. If you joined one year in advance, the worst that could happen is that don’t find anyone to swap with and end up paying an additional membership fee – better than missing out altogether.

Another good reason to plan ahead is that many of the members you contact might have other plans for this year but may well consider your offer in a subsequent year. This is particularly true of exchanges involving destinations separated by many travel miles.

What if the exchange gets cancelled at the last minute?

Even with the best of intentions, plans occasionally get cancelled at the last minute due to circumstances beyond control (ill-health, sudden death, etc).

It is wise to take out some form of travel cancellation insurance just as you might when planning any overseas trip. It is important to discuss contingency plans with your exchange partners in the event of ill health. If one party changes the terms of the agreement, they should assume full responsibility for making alternative arrangements to house their guests as well as care of the guests' own property during their absence.

Therefore, having an alternative strategy planned well in advance makes obvious sense as this would be the last thing you would want to deal with in the event of sudden ill-health of you or your travelling partner.

Once a firm exchange agreement has been made, backing out would obviously cause considerable disappointment and inconvenience to the other party and doing so without very good cause is unacceptable practice. Each party should assume responsibility for considering what alternatives they could offer their guests if it were they who were forced to cancel the arrangements, rather than focusing on what would happen if the other party cancelled.

We know of one English lady who became seriously ill just four days prior to the intended departure to Australia. Rather than ruin the holiday for the incoming Australians, her husband decided not to mention that they would be unable to travel. He met the two sisters at London airport as arranged.

During the drive home, he explained that his wife was in hospital recovering from surgery and they would not be able to undertake the journey to Australia for the foreseeable future. He assured the Australians that they were most welcome to stay.

The Australians were, at first, uncomfortable with this idea since the planned exchange was for a period of six months. They knew their welcome would be worn out long before then. To their surprise, it did turn out well for several reasons.

The house was large enough to accommodate the visitors without them feeling as though they were getting in the way. As the lady was in hospital for some time, the guests provided excellent companionship and support for her husband. Because there was a second car available, the Australians were able to take themselves off to other parts of the UK for varying lengths of time to give everyone a break.

The Australians did return home earlier than originally planned but not before strong friendships had been forged and an open invitation had been given for the English couple to enjoy reciprocal hospitality in Australia at a mutually agreeable future date.

Although not ideal, and certainly not a common situation, it highlights the sense of responsibility of members once a commitment has been given, even in the face of adversity.

Later, the husband, Jack, had this to say about the experience: ”Events certainly overtook any plans that had been made and it is quite a long story. Quite suddenly, Rita was diagnosed as having angina. As our home is quite a large house with 5 bedrooms, we were able to accommodate the ladies. My wife had a successful operation and was improving all the time but naturally she was allowed to fly. Shortly afterwards, Gwenda and Rona arrived.

For our part, we could not be sharing a house with two more pleasant and interesting ladies. There have been – from our point of view – no problems at all and we have really enjoyed their company in between their various visits to other parts of Britain. This has been some compensation to us for not being able to complete the exchange since would not otherwise have met them.

We live in hope of another visit to Australia some time.”

If you have found your exchange partners through a formal club, they may be able to help you find a substitute at short notice, especially if you’ve chosen a company noted for its personalised service. In their database they may have members who had been unable to secure an exchange or who have joined only recently, for example.

Bob and Joy of Tasmania were able to take advantage of a substitute when their planned exchange couldn’t go ahead:

“We arranged a swap with a couple from Western Australia. But just when we were due to go to W.A., we had some serious illness in the family which forced us to travel to Queensland instead. Our exchangers came to our house but we were never able to take up our portion of the swap. Aware of the situation, our home swap agency later arranged a subsequent exchange for us at no extra cost with another couple in the same area.”

It is important to understand that you should not rely on the club for this assistance. The responsibility is your own and that of your exchange partner.