Tuesday, February 4, 2014

HOUSE EXCHANGES: A NEW WAY TO TRAVEL

  

 St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Spring Break

 
 Reprinted below are excerpts from my most recent article on house exchanging, which appeared in the January 2014 Washington, DC monthly magazine, The Hill Rag.  For the complete article, go to
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The last time you went on vacation, you left behind something that could have saved you thousands of dollars:  your home. Why let your house, apartment or condo sit empty when you can swap it for someone else’s?  Home exchanging is an increasingly popular way to save money and experience more authentic travel.  Instead of paying for cookie-cutter hotels and endless restaurant meals, house exchanging lets you relax in a comfortable residence and cook in a fully equipped kitchen.   It puts you into real neighborhoods where you can live like a local and discover off-the-beaten-track locations few tourists ever see.  For the past decade, my family and I have exchanged our modest Capitol Hill rowhouse for homes in the U.S. and abroad.  House exchanging has given us cash in our pockets and a front-row seat on the world.
            By swapping our home with others, we’ve had memorable spring breaks, summer vacations, Thanksgiving getaways and winter holidays.  We’ve stayed in downtown London and Copenhagen; relaxed on the beaches of Costa Rica, Florida, and the Virgin Islands; hiked around Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks; and discovered history on Normandy’s D-Day beaches and Rome’s ancient ruins.  We’ve explored Oregon’s tidepools and walked Boston’s “Freedom Trail;” lingered over mussels and beers in Belgian restaurants and hiked in Germany’s fabled Black Forest.  We’ve done 24 exchanges, including the trip of a lifetime in 2011 when we took our son out of school, negotiated leaves of absences from our jobs, and traveled around Europe for four months, doing house exchanges along the way.  Home swapping has let us see the world from the comfort of someone else’s living room.
 

Swiss Alps, Summer Vacation

In the United States and around the globe, house exchanging is a growing practice.  The websites offer thousands of listings in more than 100 countries.  Home swapping is a truly global phenomena that cuts across age, race and gender lines.  And you don’t have to be rich or even a home-owner to do an exchange:  while there are some places with drop-dead views or infinity pools, there are many apartments and modest homes that provide a great base for travel.  
There are a few things you need to know to be a successful house exchanger.  First and foremost, you must be trusting.  A complete stranger will use your home, unsupervised, while you are far away.  You have to be comfortable with strangers rummaging around your kitchen cupboards, snoozing under your covers and eating at your table.  You have to think of yourself as The Three Bears minus the “who’s-been-sleeping-in-my-bed?” outburst because after all, this time you invited Goldilocks in.
You also need to be fairly well organized.  If you’re the kind of person daunted by planning a weekend getaway, or who thinks summer vacations are more trouble than they’re worth, you probably shouldn’t consider house exchanging.  There’s no hotel concierge to book your theater tickets or hail a cab: what you do and how you get there is entirely up to you, which is, of course, half the fun. 
Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about house exchanging:
1.       How does it work?  Home swapping works through websites, of which there are several, including  www.homeforexchange.com, www.homeexchange.com, and www.home-exchange-usa.com.
2.      Is it safe?  House exchanging is a trust-based exercise, so there’s no way to make it totally fool-proof.  There are basic steps you can take to increase your security, including removing valuables from your home and using travel boards to evaluate a prospective house exchange neighborhood.
3.      Who is a typical house exchanger?  Everybody!  Young and old, single and married, people with young kids, no kids, or grown kids, straight and gay, and all colors. 
4.      Do you have to do a simultaneous exchange?  You can do either a simultaneous exchange (you both travel to each other’s homes at the same time) or a non-simultaneous exchange (one person travels to the exchange house while the other travels at a later date.) 
5.      What do you do about pets?  See if your house exchange partner would be willing to care for your pet, and indicate if you're willing to care for others' pets.
6.      Do you meet house exchange partners in advance?  Typically, you drop your house keys in the mail or leave them in an agreed-upon location and head out the door before your exchange partner arrives. 
7.      What do you do if you get a dump?  Out of 24 exchanges in 13 different countries, I’ve only crossed the line into a true “dump” situation once, and even it had its redeeming characteristics. 
8.      How do you make your home ready for an exchange?  By leaving it clean, with ample closet and bureau space, lots of information about the house, neighborhood and city, and a friendly welcome note!
House exchanging is a great way to travel.  Make it a new year’s resolution to try this increasingly popular way to go!

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