Adrienne's Travel Forum.

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Home Swap Holidays

What would you think of a home swap holiday,Yes or No.

Re: Home Swap Holidays

TAKE A LOOK AT MY OTHER SITE www.homeswapservices.co.uk and see what you think about the concept of a home swap holiday.

Re: Home Swap Holidays

How About a home swap.Well we decided we wanted to visit Australia for 5 weeks but when we added up the cost for a hotel we decided it was too expensive.Then i decided to put our home onto the internet for a swap.Ihad heard about this experience and watched the tv programmes so decided to give it a go.It was the best thing i ever did and we had a fab holiday and we are going again this year for 6 weeks.The worst part was having to declutter the house before we went i have never cleaned so much and thrown so much away.Good excuse to clear out those cupboards.

Re: Home Swap Holidays

we have a holioday villa in Florida-- we want to travel to other places and think the house swap is a great idea-- we are looking at two/three weeks in Canada/South Africa for 2007

Re: Home Swap Holidays

Thinking of a Home Swap Holiday? Read this first.

There are a lot of points to consider before you enter into a home swap holiday,and speaking from experience I will give you some help in the right direction. The most important factor I believe is COMPATABILITY. There is no point swapping your 200 year old cottage for a penthouse appartment with white carpets and sofas when you have two boys! Once you have chosen the destination you want and placed your home onto the web it is a case of trying to find the swap that suits you. You will have to trawl the web pages of numerous sites, send numerous emails,but you will hopefully hit upon a swap that you would like.
The next step is to make contact usually via email initially.You must be HONEST.You should build up a repore between you and feel comfortable with the arrangements.
I felt so comfortable with mine that we phoned each other, spoke over the MSN and emailed every week. We are now firm friends.
So the swap is on what do you do next? Well i cleaned the house from top to bottom ,it was a good excuse to have a big clear out really. I drew up a home manual to explain all of the appliances etc and left a large collection of things to do leaflets which i got from the local tourist information center.
I infomed the house insurance people and as we were swapping cars the car insurance company aswell.
I finally arranged for a friend to be at the house with the keys and show my swappers around,pointing out the little quirks that all houses have.Dont put the microwave on at the same time as the dryer you will blow the fuses etc.
It was a big step to take to do a home swap but i dont regret it at all and in fact we are all off to Australia again this summer.The only difference is, we are swapping with the same people now my good friends.
Because i am a firm believer in the concept of home swapping i arranged a swap for some friends of mine, this was a complete sucess aswell.
Just putting your home onto a web site is not enough to get a swap, you must actively search one out, and you will have several attempts to get the right one.I know i did.
On my return i decided to set up a home swap service to assist people to achieve their holidays http://www.homeswapservices.co.uk .
And if you are wondering did anything go wrong. We lost a beach towel out to sea and my swappers broke a candle holder in the bathroom. I did feel sorry for them as they spent a week around the antique shops trying to replace it and it only came from Boots!

Re: Home Swap Holidays

I am in the middle of arranging another swap for friends of mine to Canada.If anyone would like me to assist with finding a swap please drop me a email with the details and i will see what i can do.

Re: Home Swap Holidays

Calling all home swappers new and old.Nows the time to be thinking of 2007 and starting to arrange them.If you are new send me an email and i will try and help.