Home Echange: Who Invented That?
Fifty years ago, home swaps started to happen. People would trade their homes for a brief period of time, in order to have a unique vacation that was also a lot cheaper than staying in a hotel. With the internet becoming one of the major ways of communication, more people than ever before are willing to try a home exchange. In addition to the internet factor, the current slump of the real estate market and tourism industry, and the economic recession that we are in have also contributed to people wanting to save money when going on vacation.
Basically, a home exchange works by allowing two parties to swap houses for a certain period of time. There are permanent home swaps, yet by far the more popular ones are for a short period of time, such as a vacation exchange. The two parties stay in the other’s home and use it as a hotel, so to speak. Generally, the visiting party has full access to the house and sometimes even other things like cars, though details are ironed out beforehand. The best part of the exchange is the money that is saved by not having to rely on costly hotels.
The easiest way to organize a vacation home exchange is by going online and searching for websites that cater to people interested in this venture. There are a few popular ones out there, notably www.homeexchange.com. These websites allow you to find estate listings in locations that you are interested in visiting and putting your own home up as a potential swap. They also offer a bit more security than trying to do a home swap on your own with people that you don’t know.
Once you’ve found a location and a person that you want to do a vacation home swap with, you enter into an agreement with them regarding when and for how long you wish to vacation. The homes are typically swapped at the same time, so that one party stays in the other person’s home and vice versa, though other arrangements could be made. Issues like use of cars, pet care, cleaning, and other details are also ironed out before the actual swap so that everyone is clear about what will happen.
In the current economy there are fewer people out there who have the funds to take an expensive vacation. A home exchange can help minimize costs and because most people have been pleased with their home swapping experience, there is now a high percentage of travelers trying it out. As people become more comfortable with the concept, the number of travelers exchanging homes should only increase.
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October 24th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I have a holiday home and so have joined http://www.exchangeholidayhomes.com
There are no complications like first home sweaps and it’s free to join as well. I don’t need to find an exchange partner, you can request weeks from all members on the website, it’s simple and it opens up lots of options for me as I don’t have to find someone that wants to go to my holiday home
I have now done 4 exchanges and everyone has been great so far!