Bright and spacious 4 bedroom in the Heart of Barcelona
I've been a member for less than a year, and have already completed three fantastic exchanges and have three more arranged. Hotel accommodations for a family of four in any European city easily costs between 150-300 euros per night. With a year's subscription of about 200 euros, we have already spent 26 nights on home exchange, for a savings of at least 5,000 euros, and by the end of the summer we will have NOT spent another 7,800 euros in lodging fees. Single people and couples may find airbnb.com or hostels useful when traveling on a budget, but with a family its much preferable to have a kitchen and separate bedrooms at your disposal. I used to rent apartments via vrbo.com for longer stays, or aparthotels for shorter stays, but again the costs were much greater.
If you think about it, it doesn't make sense to travel and leave your home empty. Your expenses for rent, cable TV, internet, and furnishings are already fixed. Given that we do not have anything of great value in the apartment, we can freely turn it over to another family to enjoy. But it is easy enough to leave jewelry or sensitive documents with friends or in a locked closet.
Clearly, there is an element of trust involved. On the website one can see photos of the home, and one can generally tell right away whether the people share your idea of aesthetics, order, and cleanliness. With video chat such as Skype, Google hangout, and Facetime at your disposal, it is easy enough to virtually meet prospective exchange partners, their children, and verify that the home in the photos is the one they live in. Of course some people list their second homes for exchanges, but one can also view reviews by other travelers which can confirm the trustworthiness of the listing. I believe that few criminals choose to masquerade as families with children. Or course if a place looks too good to be true, it might very well be.
The biggest negative of the system is time. I have logged a lot of hours browsing listings in our various target cities, and sent out hundreds of inquiries, many of which are denied or don't work out with timing. But a less enthusiastic user could just sit back and wait for inquiries to arrive in your inbox, and just take advantage of those if they pique one's interest. Hint: listings which have been recently updated are placed earlier in search results, and thus receive more inquiries. So if you add a sentence or photo every month or so, live in a desirable area, or have a beautiful home, you will receive no shortage of exchange proposals. The website has a functional interface which allows one to search by location, type of vacation, and limit searches by number of bedrooms, etc. Naturally it is important to take good photos and make your listing as attractive as possible. Many of the listers speak English, and if not, there is always googletranslate.com! You can also limit your searches to people who claim to speak the same language as you, but what fun is that? Getting to know someone local can also been a great help in planning your trip, especially in getting recommendations for things to do.
The next thing required is organization. It is best to plan months in advance. For example, the French and the Germans who have the entire month of August off each year like to lock things down six or eight months in advance. And of course travels during the winter holidays are usually planned early. Multiple emails are required to come to agreement about travel dates, for example. Then in addition to packing and preparing for your trip, one also has to wash and change sheets, towels, and leave the place clean for your guests (or arrange for your cleaner to do it). It takes time to write up a document explaining how to use each appliance in the house, but once completed it can easily be reused. The same goes for the map of the neighborhood highlighting the market, post office, metro stops, restaurants, parks, etc. nearby. Google maps are easy to create and share online. Finally, it's optional, but I like to exchange a simple contract with the other party so that our expectations are very clear. It lists the dates agreed upon, addresses of the homes, contact information, and obvious things like "no smoking inside the house" and "guests will reimburse or replace any food items consumed or items damaged or broken during stay."
Lights and luscious luxury in Lyon
We have had no issues so far. In fact it has been a delightful experience to drop into a new country with everything we need provided at no extra costs, be it carseats, bicycles, even kayaks and cars! One lady even picked us up from the airport and gave us honey from her own bees. We don't have pets, so it was fun for the kids to have rabbits and turtles for two weeks, and then not.
Definitely, we will continue exchanging homes even after we return to the states. For travel addicts like ourselves, it's a life saver.
Bees, bunnies, and bicycles in Berlin
