homeswaps ???

richardw

What is the worst thing they could do in your home & garden?

It may happen and could include bodily food and solids and your beds/bedding or carpets. False economy?

soba

I'm trying to find more information about house swapping. Silly things like do you take out all your clothing, food, toys etc? And where would you put everything? Do you let people use your computer? And a thousand other things I can't think of at the moment.

richardw

soba wrote: »

Do you let people use your computer?

Do you want coffee spilt on your computer?

soba

richardw wrote: »

Do you want coffee spilt on your computer?

richardw, have you had a bad experience houseswapping? Like to elaborate?

richardw

No, I just think you need to assess what could go wrong in your home and the possible rectification costs.
Who knows, they may be into things which could result in bodily fluids and solids ending up in your bed.
How much is a new mattress?

soba

Thank you richardw, I'll take your comments into consideration when we decide if houseswapping is for us.

MrsPorridge

Thinking about this and talking to DH and reading all your comments and others I've decided not to take the risk. I don't think I could relax on my holiday wondering what others were doing in my house, touching my sutff etc.

The whole idea of a holiday is to relax and if I couldn't do that then it wouldn't be worth going.

DD57

We have houseswapped 21 times. We began by swapping to places in England and Ireland first, just to see how it went (we live in Scotland), and then, as we found it suited us, went further afield to USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We could never have afforded to go to all these places and stay in hotels and rent cars as well. We did it through intervac and now do it through homelink but there are other agencies too.

When we first began swapping we went to our house insurers and also the bank we had our mortgage with and they said that they would rather have someone in a house while the house owners were on holiday than have it empty for 3 or 4 weeks. The agency we are with just now has an agreement and evaluation form you fill in before and after the swap to give you some peace of mind. Before our first few experiences we'd lock up papers and other things we thought it best not to leave out but now we just leave out everything. It's all a matter of trust on the part of both parties.

The worst bit of it is the tidy and clean beforehand. We also have a cat which we put to a cattery but some people leave pets - we are not keen on pet care as we usually use the house we have exchanged to as a base and go off for days at a time to explore their area, and therefore can't look after their pets. We have made lots of friends and seen the real parts of the places we have visited, not just the touristy ones. We also swap cars which saves loads of money.

Our house is a 1930's semi on the east coast of Scotland and people come for the scenery, castles, golf, walking - all sorts of reasons, so we've had swaps to all types of houses - ones with private indoor and out door pools, huge detached ones, as well as smaller suburban houses like ours. We are just a couple so look for couples or retired people to swap with as we don't have childrens playthings or enough bedrooms to put up families with children.

There have maybe been minor breakages or things like that but usually the swapper replaces the item or leaves money for you to replace it. Go on, try it!

Mutter_2

Bellio, you're doing yourself down. A Victorian home is ancient to North Americans, they'd love it.

I'm glad to hear house swapping is still going. It was so popular there used to be a TV series on it.

Richard, I hope you never stay in hotels, where guests boil eggs in the kettle and Heaven knows what else it gets used for! I've seen maids polishing bathroom tumblers with used towels:eek: in good hotel too. Make sure too, as I do to turn the bed cover way down, don't want those bodily fluids touching your face.