Trade places and save big with Home Swap Vacations
Trade places and save big with Home Swap Vacations
A popular way to not only get interesting accommodations, but ensure that you literally live like the locals and experience their world in ways tourists normally don't is to try "home swap" accommodations for your next vacation. A home swap deal means switching places with someone for a set period of time. They move into your house and you move into theirs, sometimes even swapping cars and pets!
Seldom if ever is there a fee for the accommodations, and the home owners (renters can do this, but must get landlord approval), normally cover standard utility costs (except, perhaps long-distance phone and internet charges) and if the stay is a weekend or a couple of weeks; longer periods up to six months or more, might involve some utility fees on a usage basis. But the accommodation is free.
People who swap homes usually try to do a "level" swap: a family of four in a house in New York swapping with a family of four with a house in Edinburgh, for example. But the range of accommodations and tourists is as vast as there are humans and houses, from singles to full families, young travelers to seniors, and from small condominiums to luxury mansions, and all types in between.
Some home swaps are arranged through newspaper classified advertisement, but most occur a large database of like-minded vacationers, and the majority of these are done via computer and website. Members pick a location and a date and then search for a suitable swap. Being flexible helps. If you know you want to have a holiday in the third week of April, but are open to where you might travel, you're more apt to find a wider selection of homes up for swapping.
Home swaps can take place within the framework of a large city, on the other coast of the same country and around the world; "swappable" homes from 137 countries are listed on various websites, and they are available for a weekend to a year, or more in some cases. They are useful, extremely low-cost options for vacationers, business travelers and people who are working a set-period contract away from home.
It is possible to swap "at an angle", in other words, swap a studio loft for a four-bedroom house; possibilities are as flexible and the people doing the home swaps. Even boats and recreational vehicles can be swapped.
Security must be a consideration when a home swap is undertaken. Be certain that the place you have swapped to is in a safe area, and ensure that any personal valuables are removed from your own premises. The mutual understanding in house-swap accommodations is respect. The website and clubs that help connect house swappers hold no liability for anything going wrong; they simply facilitate the information. Reputable clubs charge a small membership fee to help ensure home swappers are serious, and they always recommend that swappers speak on the telephone to get a sense of one another and sign a swap agreement (these are not deemed to be legal agreements) that details the terms of the arrangement; an exchange of identification (copies of a passport, birth certificate and/or birth certificate are suggested) is a smart security action, but relying upon intuition is worthwhile, too.
Because house swap vacation accommodation exchanges can vary and are set in accordance with availability and location, it's always best to inquire about airfares before confirming the house-swap deal, and firmly booking them afterward. While almost all house swaps are done between two parties, occasionally they are done trilaterally (three people or groups of people swapping among themselves), or with four parties or more. This gets complex and involves a lot of getting-to-know-you banter, but if you can connect with three other families, for example, that live in places you would like to travel, it could work out to being a great experience rich with new friendships that span the globe.
If you like the idea of free accommodations, living where the locals live at your vacation destination, and don't mind having other people occupy your hose when you're away (which eliminates a security concern right there!), the house swap vacations could work for you.
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