Holiday home swaps - good or bad

[Mermaid2]

Hello, just wondered whether anyone could recommend a good site or company. Am interested and would like to know more. Thanks.

www.homelink.org.uk

We are with them and would highly recommend them. You can have a good look at the site as a 'guest'.

It costs about £120 for a year with a photo.

www.homeexchange.com

We did one to San Francisco a few years ago and it was brilliant

You can look at the listings free too.

I seem to remember www.digsville.com was a good home swap site, but can't speak from experience as i've not tried it yet (would also be interested!)

I tried www.homeexhange.com after it was recommend on mumsnet and am hopefully going to do a swap in la in april. It is nice to be able to look at the listings for free. You should be ready with digital pix of your house to email people before you start responding to their ads, because they will want to see them.
Also, it's worth trying www.craigslist.org. It's mostly american cities, but they do have a site for London which lots of americans advertise on and it's worth checking the site of the city you are interested in, as maybe you will find someone who wants to swap. They are a non-profit website and it's free to advertise.

We joined Intervac last year and so far have done three swaps with them and have another (to France) lined up for the summer. I think it costs about £90. Would really recommend doing it - means you don't have to drag loads of toys and baby stuff with you if you arrange to swap with someone with children.