So You Want To Do a Home Exchange
by Lauren S. Kahn
There I was in the taxi in 1993, my 12 year-old son and 14-year-old daughter in tow, wondering if I'd done the right thing. At Charles De Gaulle Airport, the taxi driver had said he knew where Montmorency was. Once inside the cab, however, it was clear that he had only a slightly better idea than I did of the location of the house that would be our home for three and a half weeks. He handed me a fat book of maps of Paris suburbs and instructed me to look up the town and find the street. While we drove around looking for the well hidden street, whose street sign was obscured by shrubbery, his meter continued to run. By the time we arrived at our house, the meter read 250Ff--about $50 American. We were off and running on what has become an annual event for me. Each summer in August, I home exchange.
With home exchanges I have been able to travel at far less expense than if I had stayed in hotels--even with a little extra cab fare. For our month in France in 1993, I spent just about $3,500 for myself and the 2 children. If I had had to consider a vacation of similar length staying in hotels, the price would have caused me to stay on my side of the Atlantic.
Home exchange planning starts in September--or even earlier--for the following summer. In fact, I already have my deal for summer 2008 (in Australia) and I have not even left for this year's deal in Vienna. There are two major home exchange directories, Intervac and HomeLink, but now a whole host of newcomers online. Each has web listings but Homelink and Intervac also publish hard copy directories (for an extra fee). I haven't gotten the directories for year because almost everything is done online these days. Listings include homes from all over the world, but are mainly concentrated in the US, Canada, and Western Europe. Homelink has a good amount of listings from Australia and New Zealand as well. Remember, countries where people have to chance getting a visa to come to your country aren't going to be a good match for you. Bottom line: Home exchange works only in the developed world.
In the past, the dealing did not begin until the day the first of that year's hard copy books arrived. The internet has changed all that. Now the offers come in all year and I often am all set before the book would have arrived had I gotten it. In fact, most of the pros--those who have been doing it for years--have their deals cut in the fall. To be still looking for a deal in January does happen, but not very often for me. The e-mail, telephone, calls and faxes go fast and furious, a large telephone bill in December used to be part of the cost of the vacation before the internet got revved up. Please remember, once you cut a deal you can't simply back out because you get a better offer. That simply isn't kosher. Once I commit, that's it for the year--even if a villa in the Greek Isles comes my way at a later date (That actually happened once--sigh). Home exchangers without email addresses now are at a disadvantage; personally, I don't bother with anyone who does not list an email address. It is simply too much trouble. You can deal so much more quickly online without running up a phone bill.
The web sites for the two services I use can be accessed with these hyperlinks:
http://www.Intervac.comhttp://www.homelink.orgIn order to have access to the listings, however, you do need to be a member.
In 1993, the year I had the adventure in the taxi on the way to the house in Montmorency, the deal did not come easily. In fact, the telephone offer of a deal from the French family did not come until April 15th. At that point I had just about given up exchanging that summer. Having just written a check for income taxes, and knowing I did not have the money, the offer was simply one I couldn't refuse.
In exchange for my modest four-bedroom townhouse with all modern conveniences, I got an enormous old French farmhouse with the miniature European washer and dryer with the usual indecipherable multitude of buttons. We exchanged cars as well. They got my Ford Taurus station wagon; I got their manual shift Renault four-seater. If you want equity, don't exchange.
Actually, it was debatable who got the better part of the deal. What the French house lacked in conveniences, it made up for in charm. The house dated back to at least the 18th century, and the kids immediately pronounced it a chateau. A chateau it wasn't, but a similar house could not be found in the U.S. It had about 15 rooms, exposed stone walls and a wonderful garden. When I asked the French family after the exchange how they could afford to heat the place in the winter, they replied, "We wear a lot of sweaters." Needless to say, I was very glad to be there in the summer.
If you exchange cars overseas, you will almost certainly be driving a manual transmission. Fortunately, this did not daunt us, once I mastered French driving and stopped getting lost all the time. I discovered that French streets change names almost on every block, and eventually plunked down $50 for the same thick book of Paris suburban maps the taxi driver had. By the end of the vacation I was driving around the road that encircles Paris with the best of them. As for our well hidden street, I eventually snuck out late at night with a pair of hedge trimmers and liberated the street sign. Some German friends were coming to visit and I wanted to make it a bit easier for them to find our house than it had been for us. My kids thought I could have been arrested for my hedge trimming activities. I had no idea, quite frankly.
In general, I found it an advantage to be located well outside of Paris. The suburbs are a much more convenient jump-off point if you want to take day trips. Besides, being out of Paris meant that our surroundings were more typically French rather than being typically tourist French surrounded by Americans speaking English. We certainly never ran into any American tourists in Montmorency.
If you plan on an exchange any European country, it is helpful to have a working knowledge of the local language. My French is passable, but there are still plenty of words I don't know. On one trip to the supermarket I spent a long time looking for aluminum foil. I tried asking for it, but didn't know what the French words were for it. (It's papier aluminum, in case you wondered.) I have, however, exchanged twice in Germany with great success. My knowledge of German is laughable and helped by a phrase book--and jumping up and down in case of utter frustration. The most important thing is to keep your sense of humor when things don't go right.
Certainly there were frustrations in France--not to mention dealing with kids who very quickly learned that the word "fete" meant there was a fair with amusement park rides somewhere nearby. The funniest experience happened one day as I had just finished taking a shower. There was a loud rapping at the front door. My 11-year-old son, who knew not a word of French, answered the door, as I hurriedly threw on a bathrobe borrowed from our hosts' clothing. "Service des Eaux", announced the man.
I stopped dead, thought for a minute, and realized it was the water meter reader. In old houses, he told me, the meter was often inside the house. I told him to do what he needed to do and quickly got dressed. My son was admonished to leave the door-opening to me in the future.
When it was time to return home, we had had ample time to sample both Paris and suburban tourist sites, many of which were not on the usual tourist itinerary, but just as interesting as the ones that were. Far from being ordinary tourists, we had also sampled the French way of life.
I have exchanged 3 times in France now; besides Montmorency, my exchanges were in Tours and Pulnoy (a small town north of Nancy). I have been to England 2 times (outside London and in North Yorkshire), Scotland (Edinburgh and South Queensferry [outside of Edinburgh by the Forth Bridge]) once and Germany 4 times (a small town in the Black Forest, Hamburg, Berlin and a small town in Bavaria). For 4 weeks this summer I will be using someone's house and car in Vienna, Austria.
IF YOU EXCHANGE YOUR HOUSE
You will want to write out precise directions to all the appliances in your house. No matter how extensive the instructions I leave, it is never enough. American appliances are just as much a mystery to Europeans as theirs are to Americans. Lack of familiarity can lead to repairs when you get home.
You will also need to spend some time cleaning your home to make it habitable for your exchangees--and cleaning up theirs at the end of the exchange. Sometimes exchangers trade cleaning women as well as homes, but I have never had such luck. I use the excuse of an upcoming home exchange as an excuse to do some serious cleaning (and throwing away) that often gets neglected during the year. This year I went at my office, which looked like a combat zone, big time.
If you are exchanging cars, your insurance should cover your visitors and their insurance should cover you. I leave a letter in my car stating that my guests are using the car with my permission in case anything untoward happens. In 32 exchanges, I have never had significant damage to my car. I have, however, had some occasional problems with European cars. I do take the view that if it is my fault, I simply get it repaired. If, on the other hand, it is a mechanical failure, there may be some e-mail or telephone calls concerning the matter. You should discuss all of this ahead of time.
While this sort of vacation arrangement is great for me, it is not necessarily recommended for everyone. If you are fanatically clean, you may be dissatisfied with what you get. Moreover, in describing homes, everyone tries to put his in its best light. If the house is next to the garbage dump, chances are you will not know until you arrive.
Please remember that you cannot be rigid in your choice of destination. I take the view that I can go almost anyplace I haven't been (and many I have) and have a good time. If you get your heart set on a particular place--and keep waiting until you get it--you could end up empty handed. I generally take the first serious offer that comes my way. I usually do not seek out offers anymore but just choose from people who write to me.
I have discovered that the most important thing is not where you go, but a home that fits your needs. If you are exchanging with children, look for exchangers with similarly aged children. Your children will have an entirely new array of toys with which to entertain themselves when you are not touring. There are plenty of listings for apartments, so don't feel that home exchange excludes you if you live in an apartment. You are looking for a “home” exchange, after all, and not a “house” exchange.
You are more likely to get a foreign home exchange in countries where there are more listings in the directories. If there is only one house listed in Kenya, you probably are not going there. In 2000 tons of people wanted to go to Sydney, Australia, for the 2000 Olympics. Most of them were disappointed, as are the people who insist in certain locations which are now on everyone’s “must see” list due to popular travel books having recently been written about the areas. There are only so many listings in, say, Provence and Tuscany.
The directories have a lot more European listings in Great Britain and France than anywhere else. If you just want to enroll in one directory, HomeLink has relatively more US listings (and also more Australian ones) than Intervac. Intervac does have, however, many more European listings. I can never make out my mind and simply pay for both. The fees for both change each year. If you are interested in listing with Intervac, contact me privately at LSKahn@aol.com. I can get you a code for a small discount.
I do come from the mind set that he who travels the furtherest and for the longest time for the least money wins.
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