News   Aug 23, 2024
The RIV Bumped to 37 Storeys in Exchange for Community Benefits
 1.3K     0 
News   Aug 23, 2024
252 Church Tops Off with 'Piano Key' Cladding
 2.2K     4 
News   Aug 23, 2024
News Roundup for August 23, 2024
 570     0 

House Swapping

Admiral Beez

Admiral Beez

Superstar
Member Bio
Joined
Apr 28, 2007
Messages
12,707
Reaction score
6,869
Does anyone here have any experience with house swapping services, where you swap houses with someone overseas for a few weeks? Now that my Cabbagetown semi is nicely renovated I thought it would make a good candidate for a swap with an equally nice house in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, etc. I'd want to stick to English speaking, first-world nations, just to keep communication clear.

My fear is that you bring some people you don't know into your house and then they trash it, meanwhile you arrive to some dump or non-existant address overseas.

I see some services on the net, such as...
http://www.homeexchange.com/
http://www.homebase-hols.com/
http://www.homelink.ca/
 
Restricting yourself to swapees from the English-speaking world doesn't guarantee that your house will be a no-trashing zone, though: some antipodeans can be quite unruly. And people from countries where you must mouth-the-words-very-slowly-and-clearly to be understood can be charming, neat, tidy and respectful of property.
 
I've often wondered if this was an add-on to spouse swapping.
 
My partner and I have just arranged our first home exchange (going to Barcelona for 9 days!). We joined intervac.com, who apparently started the whole concept back in the fifties.

The process was easy. Definitely some faith in humanity involved, but many of the people on the site have completed multiple swaps. Worth a shot, I figure.

One funny thing was how surprising it actually was to get requests to swap for Toronto from Barcelona, Paris, and the sunny coast of Spain. (Yes, I guess have an inferiority complex when it comes to our great city.)

Good luck!
 
I'm so hardcore, I'd swap with here
katowice.jpg
 
i'm just wondering but do people who do house swaps tend to be a little more wealthy (the homes being swapped are great) or is it pretty open to anything?
 
My parents have done home exchanges with people in France and Belgium and had no issues. The exchange included vehicles as well. They had no issues. They had the guests pick up the keys from neighbours who were keeping an eye on things. In the catalogue and on the web they post details of the dwellings and pictures and then once a location is selected there are e-mail communications back and forth to make the arrangements. If they arrived at the other side and things weren't in order they could easily call the neighbours to drop in and if necessary call the police.

The summer they were in Brussels I visited them and got a really affordable home base for a European vacation in the deal. They would probably still be doing home exchanges now if they hadn't found out how they can be bridge instructors (the card game) on cruise ships and get a cheap trip out of it.
 
countbasie said:
i'm just wondering but do people who do house swaps tend to be a little more wealthy (the homes being swapped are great) or is it pretty open to anything?
Click to expand...

There's a mix of house types on the intervac.com site. Definitely lots of nicer places (probably too nice to swap for ours!) but also many average homes too. Our place is smallish and not terribly fancy, but close to the subway and cozy. I think that for many urban Europeans, just having a house (as opposed to flat) to stay in is charming and a novelty.

Hope that helps.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top