House Swapping Site Recommendations?

[Kate Moeller]

I have a few upcoming vacations and would like to swap houses. I know there are several sites that demand payment to participate, has anyone tried these, or free services and had a successful experience? Destinations include Minneapolis, New York and Amsterdam.

[Sharon Wallace]

We're done 60+ exchanges using various services and craigslist. We very much like www.homeexchange.com and www.homeforexchange.com. The membership pays for itself the first night you stay at your exchange home. In fact, we're on an exchange right now in Santa Cruz, California, following up with another few weeks in Carmel-by-the-Sea. We've been to England, France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, and the US...each many times, and still have exchanges banked in Budapest and a few other great places.

We operate on the assumption that, given a safe exchange home, enjoying the rest is up to you. We're #12751 on homeexchange.com if you'd like a look at it.

Happy to answer questions...

Sharon

[Prose & Co]

Thank you Sharon. I will take a look at both these sites and see if they will be a fit. Have you ever kept in touch with any of the people you swapped with?

[Sharon Wallace]

We've become good friends with several of the ex-exchangers...a woman in Seattle, a family in Sete, France, a couple in Crawley, England, a family on Vashon Island, WA., among others. We've since visited back and forth without benefit of website:) We know that if we find ourselves near any of them, we have a place to stay, and they know the same. The people involved are of all ages, as well...makes for a diverse travel life. We played duplicate bridge with the very elderly dad of the Crawley swappers, and hosted the Sete family at still another exchange a year or two later in Provence. Our son and his family live in Seattle, and our many exchanges there have provided us with a busier social life than their own:)

Today we're off to our last US exchange, in Carmel, CA...then home to Costa Rica for 5 weeks, then off to Provence again at the end of June. The days are simply packed:)

Sharon

Prose & Co said:

Thank you Sharon. I will take a look at both these sites and see if they will be a fit. Have you ever kept in touch with any of the people you swapped with?

[Ben Colclough]

Hi Kate,

We used three good sites.

The paid one I would recommend is http://www.guardianhomeexchange.co.uk/ however, it probably is better planning on swapping to or from UK and does cost something like £30-£50 a year.

We actually had a phenomenally successful swap through a free site, and for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Still the success was really down to finding a swapping family with similar values to you. (ours also had kids of a similar age, so the set up in terms of toys, space, equipment was perfect).

We have also used http://sabbaticalhomes.com/ which is aimed at the academic community, but there is nothing stopping non-academics using it too.

Regardless of the site, the trick seems to be sending quite a lot of speculative swap requests out, rather than putting your ad up and sitting on your hands waiting.

[Mike Parise]

I would check VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). There you will be able to contact house and condo owners directly with whom you can talk about swapping homes. As a member and a vacation condo owner I have been approached frequently, so it might work.
Good luck!

[Ben Colclough]

Remembered it - Geenee.com was the site we used succesfully.

Ben Colclough said:

Hi Kate,

We used three good sites.

The paid one I would recommend is http://www.guardianhomeexchange.co.uk/ however, it probably is better planning on swapping to or from UK and does cost something like £30-£50 a year.

We actually had a phenomenally successful swap through a free site, and for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Still the success was really down to finding a swapping family with similar values to you. (ours also had kids of a similar age, so the set up in terms of toys, space, equipment was perfect).

We have also used http://sabbaticalhomes.com/ which is aimed at the academic community, but there is nothing stopping non-academics using it too.

Regardless of the site, the trick seems to be sending quite a lot of speculative swap requests out, rather than putting your ad up and sitting on your hands waiting.