Last year I did my first house swap with a girlfriend I have known since I we were at school. She lives in an ordinary 3 bed Victorian semi in the grim outskirts of a city (25 mins to beautiful coastal area though.) We live in a 1970s four bed ex council house in a grim bit of really lovely Cotswold town of in Gloucestershire (lots of beautiful Cotswolds towns, villages, countryside nearby.) We have three kids under 10, so do they.
I was really excited about the planned swap -it should've worked beautifully! Saving both families a fortune on holiday cottage fees.
However, it was a total disaster for us. I had no idea that her house would be sooo utterly, revoltingly, disgustingly, unhygenically, repellantly, depressingly FILTHY!!! The loo was worse than a public one, she hadn't even put clean sheets on for us. And as for the fridge - shudders I can't even begin to describe the foulness. The house was also littered with broken toys, every carpet was stained beyond imagining and there was graffiti by children on every wall.
Have you seen Kim and Aggie on the TV??
Consequently the holiday cost a lot more than it should because we had to eat out for every meal. We were depressed throughout - especially in the evenings when the children had gone to bed. We spent the whole week worrying about the state of our house when we got back....
Would all our children's toys be broken? Would we have to buy new carpets? Would we have to redecorate?
All in all an utter disaster.
I seriously reccommend that if money is tight you have a 'staycation' or if you are dead set on a house swap then get plenty of insurance and use a well established agency with strict rules and guidelines.