Home Swap - Cheap Holiday?

adchesney

Dear Folks,

Has anyone tried a home swap for a Holiday. E.g you swap you home, car, Etc for a complete strangers home, car, Etc...

We have a good sized 4 bed home with heated pool and games room on the Surrey boarders (40 mins London) and am thinking about a "swap" can anyone point me in the right direction and what to look out for?

Regards

ANDREW

CDP

Hi

NCT do a house swap register if you have young children it can be a godsend not having to take all the paraphenlia that accompanies children when they are young

HTH
CDP

p3gg

No experience of it, but I've had this website lurking in my favourites for a bit:

http://www.homebase-hols.com/

Let us know how you get on!

se999

Hello,

Tried a house swap 2 years ago. It was brilliant, we exchanged for a Condo in Utah near the Canyonlands national park, with a shared swimming pool. Everything went smoothly.

Also we've tried hospitality exchanges, where they stay with you, and you stay with them (a bit like a B&B idea). Met some super people. Going to Canada shortly and experiencing a return of the hospitality. We like touring around, so this has benefits of a few nights in different places.

Also off to Germany later in the year for hiking , for a non-simultaneous exchange to a flat in the German alps.

We've also house sat in France.

We've not tried swapping cars, with carhire now getting relatively cheaper, it's not seemed worthwhile, I think it probably would be worth considering if you were doing a very long exchange.

We did this through Homelink, which is currently the biggest, but there are lots out there.

You do need to be flexible, people from your dream destination might already have visited your area or just not be interested in it.

scottishlizzie

We signed up with Homelink in January this year. We now have two exchanges arranged for this year - a week in London in the May/June half-term and two weeks in France in August.

Our reason for doing it is because we are now tied to school holidays and we want to have a good standard of holiday without paying through the nose.

Agree totally with the previous poster in that you do have to be open-minded about where you are prepared to go. We really wanted Brittany and nearly had an exchange fixed up at a lovely house by the coast, however they then decided to go for somewhere further south in England. We kept sending emails and had almost given up on France when a family in the South of France agreed to swap with us. We have had to compromise because we wanted coastal rather than inland but the house does have a pool. We are also swapping cars.

You do have to put quite a bit of effort in, in terms of sending emails. Waiting for people to contact you will greatly reduce your chances of a suitable swap (unless perhaps you live in Buckingham - or Beckingham! - Palace). If you are looking for a fortnight on the beach in Spain it's probably not for you but if you have an open-minded approach to travelling you should find something.

Fee for Homelink is £95 per year plus £10 for a photo (not compulsory but recommended).

https://www.homelink.org.uk

hedy

Well if you have a holiday home, try www.exchangeholidayhomes.com


They have free membership at the moment and it is ideal as there are none of the hassles of swapping your own home. :T

I have just agreed to swap with someone in Scotland, they are coming to my cottage in October and I am going there next May, ideal

There are also holiday homes form all over the world, no extra charges, all is frree at the moment.

They have a new forum where if you don't have a holdiay home , you can add your own home and see if you can get a swap there.

Exchange Holiday Homes is part of www.lategetaway.com

_Andy_

Lame spam.

richardw

What if they wee in your bed and there's dog poo on your carpet.