Home Exchanges
Editor Note: To offer a house exchange (as opposed to asking for advice about how to find one) BPN subscribers can post to the "Housing" section of the Marketplace newsletter.
Parent Q&A
Archived Q&A and Reviews
March 2011
We are a french family, we are currently in North Berkeley for 2010-11 school year. We would like to find another home exchange for the next school year (2011-12). We put ads on craigslist, online, at the French Department of the University of Berkeley, at ''Alliance Francaise'', , on our car and on the wall of ''cheese board'' ... Have you some ideas on where to advertise, thank you all, Claire
We had good luck with http://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/ Karen
Hi, we haven't done it, but these are a couple of resources that friends have shared with us (they used these and were happy with them):
Home exchange http://www.homeexchange.com/?gclid=CMmww8j-9qcCFRRqgwodPhZvbg
Sabbatical Homes http://sabbaticalhomes.com/
Good luck! Eva
Aug 2010
Hi, Now that we have (mostly)finished our home improvement projects, i'd like to join a house/vacation exchange site and begin taking our vacations that way. I have done some looking, and there are a ton of sites. One piece of advice i have read is to only join companies that charge a fee...that that somehow weeds out certain issues. I'd love to know if you have swapped homes, with what company, how you like the service, if they have customer support your happy with, and any other advice regarding this type of vacation. Thanks! cris
We're listed with www.homeexchange.com. We've been with them for 2 years, and we've been very very pleased with it all! The hardest part is getting your information/photos up on the site, since you want to spend some time on this (this is how people decide whether you're worth contacting or not). It's not technically difficult, just takes some time to do a nice job, have a nice accurate write up etc. We spent 3 weeks in Copenhagen, and a week in Seattle, both just great exchanges where we not only had comfy places, but felt like we were able to really meet some nice families along the way. What a great way to travel. We're hoping for Spain next summer, and NYC or Chicago this fall, and I have no doubt that it will happen, there are that many listings. It's just a matter of sorting through to get to what you want, and being open to the possibilities. We get great offers all the time, and they generally are pretty focused (eg people in Denmark noticed that we listed Copenhagen as a top destination wish, and specificially contacted us when they wanted to come to Berkeley). Home Exchange fan
May 2010
I am interested in exploring the idea of doing a home exchange vacation. I know there are several on line organizations for this, but wondered if anyone has great recommendations for one in particular. In this case we are probably thinking of exchanging within the US, although possibly sometime would be interested in an international exchange. Thanks!
We have posted our house on www.homeexchange.com and have done some AMAZING home exchanges. You look at the site for free, but if you want to post info on your house, it costs around $50 a year. We have exchanged to Australia, Denmark, London, Paris, Northern Italy. There are also lots of exchanges within the U.S. They have a good search engine making it very easy to pick a destination and find people who are interested in SF area or California. Love this site, and we will home exchange for the rest of our lives! Cam
Oct 2006
My family is hoping to visit Spain and Portugal next Summer 2007. We'd like to try doing home a house swap for our Berkeley home. Does anyone have experience to share or advice about home exchange services, or friends in those places who might be interested in coming to the Bay Area next Summer? Thanks Donna G.
We've done several European home exchanges. We're hooked! There are lots of WEB sites out there for it. Our favorite is HomeExchange.com. We have an ad for our house on that site and we get lots of requests for exchanges (20 - 30 a year?). Lots of people want to come here! I think an ad will cost you about $40 a year, but if you find some houses you'd be interested in exchanging for, you may not need to post an ad. You don't have to pay to contact someone. We tried to find an exchange in Northern Spain two summers ago, and couldn't find one, even looking on other sites, so we ended up in Southern France instead, but there were lots of choices for Southern Spain. I haven't checked Portugal. Enjoy your search! Home Exchange Fan
April 2000
Greetings parents-- I am looking for agencies or websites for international housing exchanges that you have used successfully, eg. a listing of houses, or people interested in short-term house swaps. I have heard such agencies exist, but have found very little on the web or elsewhere. I do not want a vacation house rental agency, but someone who puts individuals in contact with each other. Utimately, I'd like to exchange our lovely Berkeley digs with someone in sunny, beachside Vacationland for a couple of weeks. Any clues? Claire
Search for home exchange on the web and you'll find lots of sites
there are many of them listed on the web. we had very good experience with an organization based in s.f. called intervac. (415) 435-3497 betty bb
I just joined www.digsville.com , which has listings of people around the world who are open to housing exchange. They have free membership if you sign up within the next month or something. They just started up so they are eager for new listings. There is some contest going on right now where if you recruit the greatest number of new members you win a digital camera or something, so if you mention you're joining because of this posting, that'd be a plus for me. I feel a *little* bit funny about it, but I wouldn't have posted the info except that someone just asked for a recommendation on this topic. They do look reasonable, and I did join because I like the whole idea of housing exchange.... Joyce
re home exchanges: I can't vouch for these, but here are 3 sources I've been keeping for future use: Intervac Intl 800 756 4663; Homelink USA 800 638 3841; Intl Home Exchange Network, www.homexchange.com. Linda
Elizabeth
www.homelink.org is very good, very well organized, and one of the biggest. \t
We've had luck posting our house on Home Exchange, although admittedly we've never done an actual swap -- only a points exchange. You can indicate your dates, areas of interest, and whether you are open to an exchange, points only, or both. My advice would be to start early! We've reached out to a lot of folks who didn't get back to us or said the place wasn't available for our dates. We used it in to stay in San Sebastian and Paris and it was a great alternative to hotels or AirBnB. Good luck and have fun on your adventure!