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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen several instances of an identical article on Home Exchange that is doing the rounds all over the internet.

Primarily this article has been written as an exercise in “Home Exchange Bashing” because it lists a whole string of horror stories, attempting to portray home exchange in an extremely bad light. It was suggested to me yesterday that it had more than likely been written by a person or persons financially tied to vacation rentals or some other avenue of vacationing that is being hurt by the recent surge in memberships being reported by home exchange clubs. This could be true.

Maybe their list of “vacation hells” (the wording in the article) is nothing more than fiction, but I think it has now reached the point where I need to intervene with the truth as I see it.

1. ExchangeHomes.com, the home exchange company I founded back in 1986 and which has operated continually ever since—for 24+ years, has NEVER had a report of theft, vandalism or malicious behavior of any kind whatsoever.
2. Occasionally we have had reports of minor breakages, but in every single case they have been resolved amicably between the parties involved.
3. ExchangeHomes.com publishes an immense amount of guidance and help throughout the website, as well as this blog and a newsletter. We also interact continually with our members through our customer service. Consequently our members are well versed in all the steps they need to take in the selection of, and preparations for a home exchange. They dot all their I’s and cross all their T’s so to speak.
4. We are not a free service, and in home exchanging that is vitally important. Why? Because by making a small payment with a credit card, all our members have verified irrefutably that they genuinely are who they are claiming to be. All our payment transactions are handled by AuthorizeNET, one of the biggest merchant companies in the world and no payment is ever finalized until it has passed their multiple steps of verification. This simply has not happened with a club offering free memberships or a home exchange that has been set up via Craigslist or something similar.

It would be a great pity if this unpleasant article is read and believed at face value by people who have never yet done a home exchange and were thinking about trying one as a way to save some significant money.

So—may I make two suggestions?

1. Join a club with a paid membership.
2. Before you do ANYTHING, invest in an e-book written by a lady called Athena Rickby: Home Exchange Academy.

Athena Rickby and her family have home exchanged with great success more than forty times over the past twenty five years. Her book takes you by the hand and walks you step by step through the entire process from selecting the club that’s right for you, through setting up your listing, managing email contacts with fellow members, the inquiries you need to make, the points you need to establish, the written exchange agreement both parties need to complete, preparing for the actual exchange etc., etc.

The author makes a big point of NOT promoting any club over another (no, she doesn’t pug my company). Instead, she advises you carefully on how to select the club that’s right for you.

Other people have paraphrased this ebook as the “Home Exchangers Bible” and I endorse that statement one hundred percent. In fact I would go so far as to say that no-one who reads this book and follows its directions is going to have anything other than a great home exchange experience. It will set you on the right footing from day one!

After all, the biggest hurdle for most new home exchangers is diving into the unknown, and that is why all new and inexperienced home exchangers need this ebook. It will make them fully aware of everything they need to know and do. Without it they will be operating in the dark.

For more information CLICK HERE! or on the banner below.

 

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Nearly a year ago a new member added a home exchange listing and although she provided a reasonable amount of information covering both her neighborhood and the town where she lived, she only wrote two lines of text about her actual home. Similarly she uploaded several photos of her location, but none illustrating her home.

I contacted her several times, explaining the necessity to provide fellow members with both descriptive write-ups and pictures of her home and its facilities, but she never responded.

Her listing will expire shortly and recently an automated email was sent to her, inviting her to renew. This time she replied super fast, full of indignation. Why on earth should we expect her to renew when no-one at all had bothered to make any contact with her throughout the past year?

I replied by sending her copies of all my previous emails in which I had bluntly warned her that because her listing failed to include any description or photographs of the home she was offering for exchange, the likelihood of it attracting any interest among fellow members was virtually zero.

It is absolutely critical you make sure that when fellow members are sorting through the listings, you catch their eye with descriptions and photos. Members will see the lack of both as a huge re-flag warning. Why are you withholding this information? What are you hiding?

Unfortunately, there are a couple of similar listings on the website and from reviewing the weblogs I can see that none of them have created any interest. No-one has seen fit to contact their owners. One listing is located just a mile or so away from that of another member whose records show twenty seven contacts—I wonder if it could be because that member has taken the trouble to write a long description of her home and added ten photographs illustrating the features she has described.

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I realize all too well that despite the huge incentive of free accommodation that comes automatically when you home exchange, you still have to find the necessary travel funds, usually in the form of (expensive) air fares.

Well—maybe I’ve stumbled across some help in that regard. While trawling the net for a travel deal to use myself, I came across a company called Cheap Trips, whose motto is “Spend Less. Travel More”.

But what I caught my eye was their current offer of $100 Airfare Rebate and 4 Free Airfare Vouchers.

So—What’s The Catch?

Well—the “catch”—if you can call it that, is absolutely up-front on the Cheap Trips website. Just like ExchangeHomes, they are a travel club, and as such they charge a small fee of $39.99 to join. BUT, as a member they will IMMEDIATELY give you $100 airfare rebate on flights taken while you are a member.

Do you see what that means? When you join the club for $39.99, you receive $100 in rebates on their guaranteed lowest priced airfares! Plus, you will keep saving on all your future trips, as long as you are a member.

In addition, the four free airline tickets they are also offering new members are subject to availability and advance booking. New members get to choose from over 30 popular destinations, including Hawaii, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Cancun, Mexico, New York City, Las Vegas, California, Orlando, and other locations across America.

It’s a win—win situation! But you need to act fast because I see this is a limited offer.

 
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I read a long post on a blog calling itself “Green Living” the other day. It was really a long, detailed promotional for a vacation home exchange company located Miami, Florida and in its opening paragraph it cites them as being (and I quote) “the original home exchange”.

Not so. The company they are promoting as being “the original”, first went on line on May 16, 2001. Maybe vacation home exchange companies such as HomeLink and InterVac that have been continually in business since the early fifties (50+ years) somehow just slipped their minds.

Then there is HomeBase Holidays, that launched in 1985, my own company ExchangeHomes.com in 1986, The Invented City in 1991, IHEN in 1995, Global in 1998 … and the list goes on. In fact, scores of vacation home exchange organizations were launched and have been operating successfully long before May 2001.

I don’t know why this blog chose to promote this company as they did. It’s just very unfortunate that they have besmirched their credibility by their lack of legitimate research.

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We are currently offering a really great deal on Membership Fees. Until further notice, everyone joining and paying $39 will receive a membership for two full years instead of one. Similarly, anyone who is already a member and pays the normal $18 to renew will have their renewal extended from one year to two.

That really is a pretty good deal—less than $20 pays for a full year’s vacation accommodations!

We’ve also recently heard from a member who told us that she and her family have just finalized arrangements for their forty seventh home exchange. She and her husband had sat down and hastily estimated how much they believed they had saved by home exchanging:

• 25 two week home exchanges………………..$52,000
• 3 three week home exchanges……………….$10,000
• 1 one month home exchange………………….$ 5,000
• 7 ten day home exchanges……………………..$ 9,000
• 11 weekend home exchanges………………….$ 6,000

That’s a grand total of $82,000 and she emphasized that this figure was very hastily arrived at and was most probably much lower than the true amount. I would be inclined to agree with her because last summer my brother who is usually a banner carrying home exchanger decided at the last minute to spend two weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii. He left it too late to find an exchange and ended up renting a house and those two weeks cost him $6000!

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Are you planning a vacation but finding accommodation an expense that is limiting your destination choices and the length of your holiday? Have you been looking through the list of holiday villas and holiday homes and they’re just too pricey? Well if you live in a house or even an apartment you should consider participating in a home exchange. Home exchanges are similar to time shares but more beneficial in many ways. To qualify you simply need a house and be willing to swap it with someone else. It’s much like house sitting.

When you look for a home exchange, don’t worry about searching for a similar house or apartment. Just look for a place that will suit your needs in a destination that meets your interests. Home swapping is increasingly popular in big cities and expensive countries such as the United Kingdom. If you have a home in a vacation area or a large tourist destination city then you will find it easy to locate something that fits your needs. Even if you have a home in the country you can find people to exchange with since many city dwellers are looking for a break from the crowds.

Hotel costs can be a big chunk of your holiday funds so a home exchange will save you money that can be spent on sightseeing, nice dinners, shows or allow you to visit more expensive destinations. Not only will it save money on accommodations but since you will be living at a home you can prepare you own meals. Another cost savings includes pet boarding since many are willing to pet sit for you. Car exchanges can also be arranged and therefore save on car rental expenses.

Switching homes is popular with single travelers, couples and families. If you have a family with small children you may be able to find a family with children of the same age; their home will be kid friendly and the children can use each others’ toys and games. Retirees and those with flexible work schedules find it especially beneficial since they can schedule their trip after they find a suitable home exchange.

Many people worry about letting perfect strangers into their homes which is a valid concern. The most important thing is to get to know your exchange person or family and clarify any matters upfront. You can chat in email, exchange photos and even chat on the phone. If you still want reassurance you can ask for professional references. You should also clarify cleaning expectations since that is one area that can be left to interpretation. You may want to have a third party, such as a family friend, do a walk through of the home at the beginning and end of the home exchange.

Finding a holiday home or hotel for your next vacation doesn’t have to burn a hole in your pocket. Home exchange can be the answer to an affordable and enjoyable vacation.

About the Author:
Focusing on the area of Torrevieja, Leroy Calstard writes mostly for http://www.alicante-spain.com . His publications on Alicante are published on his website.

Most industry insiders wisely advise that if a bargain travel offer looks too good to be true, it probably is. If the deal is unbelievable, don’t believe it. That’s all you need to know to steer clear of what has become a continually growing, and disturbing, trend in the travel business – the travel scam.

It takes a variety of forms. One of the most widely known and advertised is the $30-49 Hawaiian vacation. Callers who responded to the ads were told that they would receive a voucher good for two round-trip air fares to Hawaii for their $48.00 (with postage and handling). All they had to do was stay seven nights in a hotel and book the stay – through the travel broker that placed the ads – 45 days in advance.

The actual cost of the trip was upward (often well upward) of $1.000.

While few who took the trips had any complaints, the total price they paid was not much different from the cost of any number of similar packages offered by a number of travel retailers. And in a period of deep-discount air fares – when some very inexpensive travel packages are available – it is often difficult to discern whether a travel bargain is really a bargain or simply a stroll down the garden path.

All travel scams appeal to the same human weakness: the desire to get something for nothing, or as near to nothing as possible. It may be a weekend in Cancun for the price of a bus ticket to Cincinnati. Or it may instead be your singular chance to throw some money down a rat hole and then sit around for months before discovering that fact.

And by the time you’ve discovered it, it’s probably too late to do much about it. Besides, the amount involved may not seem all that large; certainly not large enough to hire a lawyer and go after the perpetrators.

Some of the most prolific of those perpetrators are operating out of California, which is one reason that the office of the California attorney general has been very busy investigating consumer complaints and following up with lawsuits.

When the buyer makes a selection, he or she is often told that those dates are booked and to make other selections. This can go on for months until, in many cases, the buyer gives up. At that point, many disappointed buyers just eat their losses’ such consumer-protection matters from the attorney general’s office.

“It’s where you buy a certificate for a vacation, generally to Mexico, but sometimes to other resort areas,” experts say. “The certificates are sold by a couple of companies, usually through distributors around the country. They are way oversold and usually for an amount of money that makes it not financially feasible. The certificate usually gives the purchaser the option of picking a primary date to travel and two alternate dates – but only after a 45- to 60-day waiting period.

People would buy the certificates for $200 or $300, then were told to send (an additional) $200 to Resort Vacations, $150 of which was to be refunded after they took the trip.

While some certificate buyers took the trips offered and received the refunds, many were frustrated by the delays and “fully booked” dates, and sought help from authorities.

But even you call the Better Business Bureau, and they may have no complaints. So the company can seem on the up and up. They may offer testimonials that profess “It was too good a deal to pass up, and I can’t tell you how many people I told about it.”

So how do consumers avoid travel scams?

• Don’t be pressured on the phone. Get in writing exactly what the trip will cost, what the terms and conditions are and what dates are available.

• Don’t give out your credit-card number over the phone.

• Ask for references from people in your area who have traveled with the packager – not those who have merely bought the package, but those who have actually made the trip.

Join now Free the best [http://weeklytraveldeals.info]Travel Deals of the week.

John “traveltips” Smith is Editor and Owner of Guide Zoo a comprehensive Travel Guide Blog site with Travel Tips and Tourist Guides for the budget traveler. Join now for the best Free Travel Deals of the week.

Are you one of the many users "tweeting" or following others’ tweets on the widely popular social networking site, Twitter? Well, if you aren’t, you may be missing out on some great travel information and deals. Some airlines are now releasing special fares through Twitter, available only to their followers. These fares will not be advertised on their website or through any other channels, just those 140 character tweets.

United Airlines and Jet Blue are two airlines using Twitter to release information on special fares and upcoming sales. United’s version is called Twares, and they include bargain fares to both domestic and international destinations, for a limited time. Jet Blue has a version as well, called Cheeps. Every Monday they tweet about low fares that are offered that day only, from 7am until 3pm PST, while supplies last. By using Twitter, they can tweet once and reach a large audience. Many followers have their Twitter accounts linked to their phones so they receive updates immediately. This allows the airlines to conduct a fare sale for only a matter of hours, sometimes offering highly discounted fares they might not want to advertise for multiple days.

Another reason some airlines are using Twitter to deliver special fare information is based on feedback received from their customers. Some customers have indicated a desire to no longer receive emails about special fares. With the high volume of emails people typically receive in a day, fare sales often get lost in the mix or get blocked by spam filters. I’ve found that many of my travel and airline emails often end up in my spam folder, so I have to remember to check it regularly.

Those airlines who do not choose to offer special fares to their Twitter followers still utilize the social media site to help improve customer relations. There are real people monitoring information related to air travel that goes out through the Twitterverse, especially when it involves their company. I’m a follower of a few airlines and have seen the interaction between the airline reps and unhappy customers. Twitter has really changed how a lot of companies handle customer service issues, including even creating new job opportunities. Many companies have now created job postings and hired social media people to manage their online presence.

This has worked very well since many of these individuals can relate more easily to customers and the issues they typically encounter. The tweets are often a mix of business and personal, giving people a human connection to many of these large corporations. By monitoring Twitter, these employees are able to act on issues and complaints, often while they are happening, helping customers reach a resolution. One example is when someone tweets about issues while they are at the airport. An airline can respond immediately and help the frustrated traveler, hopefully resolving their issue while creating good PR for the company at the same time.

Based on current trends and the increase in popularity of sites like Twitter, more airlines may follow suit and establish a presence on Twitter to increase their sales and improve customer relations. So, whether you believe in tweeting or not, it is worthwhile to set up an account and follow some of your favorite companies and travel sites. If not, you may be missing out on some amazing deals that could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars!

Original article: Budget Travel Tips: Use Twitter to Get Special Airfare Deals – written by Erin De Santiago on Factoidz

I spoke at length the other day with a member who had joined ExchangeHomes.Com a month or so earlier and was becoming frustrated because she had joined with her travel plans for December already set in stone, airline tickets purchased. She told me that she had contacted several fellow members located in her intended location (France), but none were prepared to home exchange with her.

My first question was—when had she bought the airline tickets? She said August. Her ExchangeHomes.Com join date was September 29th.

I explained that successful home exchanging depends very much upon flexibility. Most experienced home exchangers will begin sending out exploratory inquiries a year and often eighteen months in advance of their planned trip. It just isn’t feasible to approach a home exchange in the way she had done: book her tickets, leave it for six weeks, then get around to emailing fellow members and expect them to meekly fall in with her intractable arrangements.

Had she considered that no-one is going to want to book a December flight at short notice—the price would be prohibitive. Also, with Christmas dates involved, what family would want to pack their bags and travel to Melbourne for no particular reason, other than to accommodate her?

On the other hand, had she given the entire home exchange a lot of thought and pre-planning, joined at the beginning of 2009 and begun making contacts then with likely partners, the outcome would more than likely been entirely different.

The moral is: the more time you allow, the easier your arrangements will become. The ExchangeHomes.Com website contains an immense about of information to guide new home exchangers. We even provide what we call our Hints & Advice Book which can be read online, or downloaded onto your computer in PDF format for you to read or even print.

For even more help and “take you by the hand” advice, we also recommend Athena Rickby’s great e-book Home Exchange Academy, which has been dubbed the home exchanger’s bible. It doesn’t recommend or promote any home exchange club, it’s just a wealth of great advice, backed by her 25+ years of worldwide home exchanging.

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When you go into a home exchange, your thoughts are usually focused on the excitement of living in a new place for a while.  At the same time, there is always some level of concern about other people living in your home, particularly if the people you’re exchanging with have children.  When doing a home exchange with a family with little kids, keep these tips in mind so that you don’t have to worry about what your home will look like when you return.

Don’t Display, Pack It Away
You really don’t have to keep all those fragile little trinkets out in the living room.  Instead, put any delicate decorations on a high closet shelf till you return, or put them inside a lift top coffee table and request that the lid stay down.  You’ll be able to get everything set up once you get back, and your home will remain intact.

Lay Down Some Ground Rules
No shoes on the sofa, no eating in the bedroom, no ball throwing indoors.  If you’re worried that making such requests is rude or presumptuous, don’t be.  You have the right to set up some guidelines for what goes on in your home when you’re not there, and the parents you are swapping homes with will be grateful that you are being upfront about your expectations.

Close With Cleaning
No matter how well-behaved these kids might be, mess is simply a reality of life with children.  In order to make sure that you don’t come home to a major cleaning fest, suggest that each of you have the house professionally cleaned at the end of the exchange.  This way you can expect a clean home without anyone being insulted.

Even with the best laid plans and the most watchful parents, things can still go wrong, so expect to see some signs of wear and tear.  If you’re still anxious about the idea of a boisterous bunch moving into your home, then maybe swapping with a large family isn’t right for you.  There are plenty of couples without children who would be happy to exchange homes with you, and that might make for a more worry-free vacation.

Linda Harris writes about family-friendly furniture and home decor at Timber and Textiles.

My brother and his family recently set off on a home exchange to England (our native land). The home he offered for exchange is in Northern California. He has his own home-based business and in the past when he has taken a vacation, his sole employee had managed everything for him. However, on this occasion this wasn’t possible. So, he switched his cell phone for one that can be accessed anywhere in the world. His cell phone number was already published everywhere as his business number.

I spoke to him over the weekend and it appears to be working like a charm, with one unanticipated drawback—one several occasions he’s been roused from his sleep at an ungodly hour by phone calls from California. Still, with jet-lag that’s probably not too much of an issue!

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ExchangeHomes.com has a brand new listing where the home exchange members are seeking an exchange during the week after Christmas.

They are Members 27820 and in exchange they are offering a gorgeous 6 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom custom home that sleeps 10 in Farmington, Utah.

The home is located on a quite culdesac with a beautiful mountain backdrop to the east. They say you could walk up their street and be in the mountains in about 5 minutes. They are centrally located between all major ski resorts, 45 minutes southeast to Park City, Deer Valley, The Canyons, Alta and Snowbird. 30 minutes northeast are Powder Mountain and Solitude area. Easy freeway access and 20 minutes from Salt Lake Airport.

They are a family of 3 adults, one teen and one 7 year old child and they are also offering to exchange cars – another great savings!

So—if you are a ski buff, and taking a ski vacation right after Christmas this year, take a look at Listing 27820!

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