Talk to us about Home Exchanges......whether you've done one or not

[AnnMumsnet]

At Mumsnet, we're looking into whether we can provide you with a service to enable home exchanges - both in Britain and abroad - for holidays or travelling.

So we'd like to know what you think - is this something you'd be interested in?

Have you ever home swapped with anyone before or do you know someone who has?

If so, has your/their experience been good or bad?

All feedback very welcome....thank you
MNHQ

My family and I are on one at the moment - 4 months here in London whilst our exchangers spend four months in Australia! The insurance thing is fine: you just have to inform them you will be away and people will be staying in your house. As another mum commented, the insurance companies prefer this to an empty house! We locked away our private paperwork and anything else we felt we didn't want our exchangers to see in a filing cabinet and I brought the key with me. We put a bit of effort in to smarten up our house before we left (things we'd been putting off for ages!) and commented when we left that we'd look forward to coming back with all those horrible jobs done. The whole thing has been wonderful for us and I'd definitely do it again.

I loved the home swap we did. I took all the stuff I wanted to get rid of or upgrade, to their house, and swapped it. It certainly saved me a lot of money, especially in the big things like getting a newer car.

We all had a nice holiday too, which was the icing on the cake.

highly recommended x

No - it isn't something that I would be interested in

I would be worried about people going through our stuff, and we don't have the storage space to safely lock things away. I'm also not sure how practical this is other than in a small minority of locations - where we live isn't pretty, isn't near a train station and not a lot happens here. Not sure why people would want to swap with here so don't think it would work for us.

I'd love to do this but can't help but think the people I swapped with would be disappointed in the area we live in.

We've done two - about 10 years ago - both with families from the US/Canada who wanted to come near London (we're suburbs).

First was fine, and I think we probably got a better deal as they had a BEAUTIFUL house in California with a pool, orchards etc. They'd arranged for neighbours to welcome us etc and we had a lovely month. Our house was fine (and they wanted it because we had lots of bedrooms and they were having a family reunion) but we had young kids and it was a bit battered/untidy.
There weren't really any problems although they did break a few things.

Second one was less good. Their home wasn't as nice as the pictures and they hadn't really made any effort to prepare much for us. They also didn't seem to enjoy the UK - they were too terrified of the traffic to drive our car which limited them a bit!
We'd emptied some space in one double wardrobe for them and put all our clothes away in others, however when we got back, we found a watch in the pocket of my husbands dressing gown, which showed that they'd been using it, as if in a hotel. That put us off to be honest.

How did you find eacother?

I love the idea.though I’m sorry to say I’m not sure about it being on mumsnet. There are a lot of good people on here.but it does attract the complete other end sometimes too.
so I’d not want them getting an easier accessibility to something as big as this.
I no they can easily forgo to the other specific swap websites but still…

Yes, I'd agree. It's not something to enter into lightly - there's a lot of prep required beforehand and insurance/legal issues to bear in mind.
The well-established houseswap companies have developed their offerings to make sure they cover all this, as well as systems which help you vet potential swappers with reviews etc.

There is no way I would would anyone staying in my home - far too many things that could go wrong!!

I think I'd be too stressed about the potential for things to go wrong to be honest!

With my luck I'd get visitors who didn't like the house, or the boiler would pack up, or the cat would throw up a fur ball somewhere they shouldn't 🤣

When I'm on holiday I prefer no stress so would go for a hotel or regular rental property instead.