At some point in the next two years, I would like to visit Japan for a month. I remember hearing in the past about people who swap homes to do this sort of thing–person in City A wants to visit City B, and vice versa, so they trade homes for a period of time, thus saving them both money on lodgings. (I live in Portland, Ore., so I realize that folks overseas might be less interested in swapping with me than with, say, someone in NYC, LA, or SF.)
Has anyone done this? How does it work? Googling brought up endless “services” for this, but they all started setting off my timeshare-scam-o-meter and I couldn’t be bothered to wade through them all.
Well I was firmly in the graces of those who believed this was a bad idea [robbery, scams, fraud etc] until I stayed with a friend at a chalet in Vermont and that place was a swap. The people - who swapped with my buddy’s place in East Hampton, NY - came ‘home’ and we stayed with them for the last 2 nights, they were great people, no worries and totally changed my view of house swapping. I’m considering it with my property in VT.
My sister, who lives in rural Ohio, swapped homes with an Irish family from suburban Dublin, and had a wonderful experience. I’ll find out the name of the online service she used, if you like.
Still, I donno if I really want somebody roaming through my house and I would feel funny having to hide stuff, store other stuff, and just be paranoid about them forgetting to lock the doors, or turn off the gas stove, or whatever. To be honest, I would probably be equally paranoid even if I were swapping with friends or family - let alone complete strangers, but maybe that is just me. It’s not like I have gold bars stored in the closet, or any great valuables or secret CIA documents - it would just be funky to have someone in my house when I am not there.
I have nothing but good things to say about www.HomeExchange.com. BUT . . . and it’s a big “but” (ha ha ha), you really have to do your research, trust your gut, etc. If you’re interested in going someplace “popular,” (i.e., almost anywhere in Europe), you should try to plan about a year in advance. Our experience was that anyone we wrote to in December 2006, looking to go in summer 2007, had already had their plans in place for several months. We exchanged probably half a dozen emails and half a dozen phone calls with the Irish family with whom we eventually exchanged houses before we felt comfortable making plane reservations. Good luck - it’s a great way to go somewhere abroad relatively cheaply!