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Original poster

Any tips for a home exchange holiday?

12 replies

mamhaf · 09/12/2008 21:43

We're thinking of a credit-crunching 2009 and wondered about the feasibility of house-swapping.

Does anyone who's done it have any tips? Best home exchange website for example, the dos and don'ts?

Ideally we'd like to ski at February half term (I know, that's probably a big ask) and have 2-3 weeks away in the summer - possibly Spain or maybe the US.

OP posts:
PuzzYuleLogs · 09/12/2008 22:17

Bump

GoodWilfToAllMN · 09/12/2008 22:19

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG thread on this set up by, er, me in the summer just gone and some other ones also. MN did set up a Home Exchange page at one point (house swaps?) not sure if it's still there...

search on house swap and WilfSell and you should find it I think...

IlanaK · 09/12/2008 22:19

No suggestions - sorry, but I will be watching this with interest. We too are thinking of doing this next year. I wonder how many others will be too with finances the way they are.

We live in central London (in a very touristy area) so are hoping we are in a good position for a swap. However, we have three kids (boys!) so wonder if people won't want us in their house.

We hope to start with the UK as a destination as we can go by train and therefore keep costs really low. Not sure the feasability of people in other parts of the UK wanting to come to London though?

GoodWilfToAllMN · 09/12/2008 22:22

try here

GoodWilfToAllMN · 09/12/2008 22:23

and here

Original poster
mamhaf · 10/12/2008 14:09

Thanks all. I was thinking more about any tips from anyone who has either done a home exchange and/or who could recommend commercial websites where you pay a fee and find an exchanger abroad.

Although there are mners abroad, I suspect most of the people who respond to the MN thread will be in the UK - after this summer's rain we're desperate for some guaranteed sunshine in 2009.

Has anyone done it and regretted it? What sort of things would you take into consideration?

OP posts:
elliott · 10/12/2008 14:14

I have thought about this on and off for several years but never quite got around to it. My main worry is that is all seems a lot of effort - people seem to put lots and lots of time and energy into preparations, information packs, cleaning etc etc and this kind of makes it seem like not much of a holiday.
Can anyone reassure me on this score?
btw I am sure lots of families would love a house swap to London. I'm not sure how alluring central Newcastle would be though!

moondog · 10/12/2008 14:18

I did one with a MNer and it was great.
We both enjoyed it.
Key to it is preparation-we emailed a lot with essential info and pictures of respective houses first.

Also got out tourist info and made arrangements for some activities.

Other than that we told them they were welcome to help themselves to anything and they did the same.

It was great to live somoene else's life-far nicer than a hotel.

elliott · 10/12/2008 14:25

Yeah its that preparation bit that puts me off - I might feel a bit pressured to come up with the perfect information pack and the perfect house with no quirky bits that go wrong...

moondog · 10/12/2008 14:27

No,not at all.
Just letting people know the ins and outs.
I didn't find it stressful at all.
And we both saved the £800-£1000 that a week in each place would have cost so to me that put a few hours' preparation into perspective.

moondog · 10/12/2008 14:29

On this site you can do a search on people who want to come to your part of the world.

You'd be amazed at how many people are gagging to come to UK from all over the world.

JuliaL · 10/12/2008 14:42

My experience with exchanging our second home overseas is that you tend to get a lot of enquiries but even if you respond positively, few make it past the first post. We were on several sites (all free for the first year). 1st home exchange was the busiest. My parents swapped their apartment in Turkey for one in spain. That worked out fine as it was english owners. They had a protracted set of negotiations for a further exchange, which in the end didn't come off and are in the midst of negotiations for exchanging with someone's first home in France for next summer. Even at the email stage, we have found with overseas exchangers the correspondence can be very lengthy. If you get it all tied up (i.e. they have booked the flights so definitely coming!) then a formal written contract should be exchanged. (There are downloadable formats for this). If in the UK, try to meet up beforehand in person. So yes, quite a bit of effort. That said, don't be deterred and no, I don't think too many people are looking for the perfect house, especially if they have children themselves. I would post on the mumsnetters thread first. After all, there are people with second homes out there who are not letting them full time so you could get lucky, depending on where you want to go.
Good luck anyhow.

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