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Frequent flyer miles sound great in principle—travel with a certain airline and earn points that you can cash in later, or use a certain credit card to earn points without even traveling. What could be better than free airline ticket? Airlines, unfortunately, aren’t so keen on your sudden desire to fly for free. Their goal is to sell seats not give them away, no matter how much they try to entice you into earning frequent flyer miles. By being aware of some simple tricks of the trade, you can not only increase the amount of flight points you earn but also stretch them as far as possible.

First, earn the maximum amount of points every time you fly by choosing a specific program and following all of their rules and regulations. Be aware of their promotions and partner companies. You could earn miles by buying flowers at a specific florist or staying at a particular hotel. Keep updated by reading their websites and newsletters for promotions. Certain techniques can also earn you more miles. Fore example, see if you can earn extra miles for business trips by paying for the flight with your own credit card and having your boss reimburse you. Or if your spouse flies less than you, he or she can use a free frequent-flyer mile ticket while the paid ticket goes on your account, earning you more points faster. While you are actively earning miles, stay organized. Save receipts, and watch out for errors in your statements. Know how many miles you have and how many you need to qualify for free trips or other perks that come along with a certain status as a frequent flyer. Finally, don’t waste your miles on cheap flights or by cashing them in on other purchases, such as magazine subscriptions or club memberships.

As wonderful as a promotion may seem, frequent flyer miles are, essentially, cash, and you can bet that an airline wants to save itself money by having you spend your cash on something other than an airline ticket.

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Home exchange vacations are definitely not just for families with children. Over the more than twenty four years that ExchangeHomes has been in existence, we’ve received countless reports from members who have enjoyed home exchanging long after their families have grown up and left.

As one member put it: “Fred (my husband) and I have been avid home exchangers for more than twenty years; our first exchange was when our children were 4 and 8, and as they grew older we traveled further and further afield. In fact, I can honestly boast that home exchanging allowed us to show our two sons the world.

But, our boys now have lives and families of their own (and home exchanging too), Fred and I are visiting places that we are enjoying, but wouldn’t have been a lot of fun for two kids looking for excitement.”

Several years ago I wrote a post about Marylee, an Atlanta lady aged 57 who wanted to escape the city during the Summer Olympics in 1996. She had never home exchanged in her life and was very nervous at the prospect. She merited the extensive write up I gave her because she had contacted me in 2007 to tell me that she had just completed her twenty fifth home exchange at around 68 years old. You can read my original write-up by clicking A Tale of Two Cats.

Similarly, in November 2008 I wrote about Laura, a lady who had first joined ExchangeHomes in 1988 when she was 52 years old. During the following twenty years she had her husband had taken part in dozens of home exchanges, but in 2008 she had been forced to stop traveling following difficult knee surgery. You can read that original posting by clicking Here.

And how about a wolrd tour while home exchanging? Take a look at Joe and Mary’s story Here.

Those are just three examples of mature ExchangeHomes members who have benefited enormously from home exchanging. You can find many more such stories by clicking the link to this blog’s Archives at the top of the page.

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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Some readers may not be aware that home exchange isn’t a new concept, thought up by some American entrepreneur. Far from it! Home exchange was actually born in Europe, back in the early 1950’s of academic parents. Scandinavian school teachers with long school summer vacations, a desire to travel, but limited funds, hatched the plan to exchange homes and visit and experience each others countries and cultivate international friendships.

Yes—home exchange began in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark!

The first two pioneering “clubs” to be formed around the concept of home exchange, were InterVac International Home Exchange Holiday Service and HomeLink International in 1953. InterVac was actually founded by some of the Swedish teachers who first conceived of the idea and continues to be headquartered in Kristianstad Sweden. The majority of their memberships come primarily from referrals. HomeLink is headquartered in Belgium.

Those two clubs completely dominated home exchanging for thirty years, then in the eighties a handful of other clubs were formed: ExchangeHomes (the owner of this blog), Home Base Holidays, Invented City, Hanney’s Boligbite and Landfair (the last two now vanished).

Since the eighties and present time many people have jumped on the home exchange band-wagon, seeing it as a great way to create their own business. Unfortunately, a great many of them have fallen by the wayside, leaving their members high and dry. Having said that, a few of course have flourished.

A very unfortunate offshoot of the home exchange success has been the occasional appearance of “rogue” companies that hire disreputable programmers who create code that steals or “pirates” large lists of members from established clubs and adds them to the database of the rogue clubs, immediately providing them with the false appearance of a large following.

The worst offender was based in China and called themselves AllHomeExchange.com. Early in 2008 they stole many thousands of listings and because of their location could not be brought to task by legal means. Fortunately, most of the members they had stolen gradually removed their listings from their database and the company floundered. Their URL is now nothing more than a blank page.

Another ploy used by many aspiring new clubs, involves joining several established home exchange organizations and attempting to email their members offering them free listings with their club.

I’m proud to be able to state that ExchangeHomes had the foresight right from the get-go to incorporate safeguards into our programming that prevented all pirating of our listings, both through the backdoor via code and by the less sophisticated means of email. Since we’ve been on the Internet we’ve never heard of one of our members having their listing stolen. Not a bad track record!

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Since the onset of the recent credit crunch and associated stagnant real estate market, a whole new trend has been developing where, rather than sit around for endless months in a futile attempt to sell a home, people are simply making a permanent exchange with a property owner located in the area where they need to move. Companies and web sites have quickly evolved to facilitate the process.

As a consequence we find we are more and more being contacted by people seeking a permanent home swap, and as most of them have never heard of “vacation home exchange”, we have to enlighten them. They become very confused.

I would have thought that the purpose of this blog and our associated ExchangeHomes.Com web site was very obvious, but I suppose when someone is searching on the Internet, their mind set interprets their search results accordingly.

The idea of permanent home swapping is an excellent one, but ExchangeHomes.Com has no involvement in it at all. We are a vacation home exchange, holiday home exchange company. In the future I shall be referring people to this post. I hope it clarifies the confusion once and for all.

I know I’ve blogged about this home exchange membership problem before, but because it continues to happen, I’m writing about it again. Repeatedly, people email or phone to complain that they can no longer log on to the ExchangeHomes.com web site. They are indignant, impatient, often angry and accuse us of of a whole variety of misdeeds.

We check our records and discover that they never joined us in the first place. Maybe they intended to, but they are actually members of another home exchange club and are now trying to log on to ExchangeHomes.com using the log on credentials they set up with that other club.

A couple of people have even gone so far as to say that they had intended to join us and thought they had done. They paid their membership fees to club xyz, therefore we should now allow them membership privileges at no charge.

Because it often happens to us, it must happen with other clubs as well. As I said when I wrote about this same issue a long time ago, the problem probably occurs because there are now so many clubs competing for members, all with virtually identical names, it’s clearly all too easy for people to become confused. But, it still puzzles me that people fail to bookmark or write down the exact name of the club they join. Fortunately they usually keep a copy of their payment receipts, and these are what we point them to because the receipt usually reveals to whom they did pay their money.

I was honored to learn this week that John Van Kirk’s Travel Blog – aka The Travel Answer Man, has rated this blog #10 in his list of 100 Best Travel Blogs. He ranks us above some other very respected blogs and I’m thrilled by the news.

During the summer months posts have not been quite a frequent as I would have liked, I regret I was more than a little occupied completely revamping another, pet related blog that I run, but that’s now completed.

Blogging and social networking now occupy a huge chunk of space on the Internet with countless millions of followers. ExchanhgeHomesBlog must be getting something right because our monthly page views have increased slowly yet steadily since this blog launched (initially on Blogger) almost five years ago. Last month (August) we attained 15,254 unique visitors and 39,201 page views.

Unfortunately, I’m more and more having my attention drawn to what I can only describe as “silly” blogs that seem to derive perverse pleasure from deliberately being obtuse and not understanding the concept of home exchange. They then proceed to put home exchange down in a very negative blog post. It’s a pity because a lot of surfers believe what they read or at least assume that there’s no smoke without fire.

Well, thank goodness for worthwhile blogs like The Travel Answer Man.

ExchangeHomesBlog and ExchangeHomes.com are delighted to announce a brand new alliance with BedandBreakfast.com. With summer now over and Christmas beginning large on the horizon, what better gift idea can you think of than a BedandBreakfast.com Getaway Gift Card – Get Free Shipping as well!

I try to be extremely careful who we forge alliances with because I don’t want this blog to appear to be “spammy”, but I honestly believe that the notion BedandBreakfast.com is promoting is an excellent one. Bed and Breakfast is a concept that runs very much on a parallel with home exchange: it’s eco-friendly in that it doesn’t further the growth of concrete monstrosity hotels and allows you to lodge in a situation that’s closer to the heart of the location.

Bed and Breakfasts can also work hand in hand with a home exchange vacation in that you can utilize a B&B on one or two short trips away from the home exchange “base”. Buying one of their Gataway Cards in advance of traveling will make paying for your stay a breeze.

Purchase is also extremely easy—they have an 800 toll-free number, or you can buy online and print out a paper version instantly, or they will happily send you a plastic version, shipped free and usually by Fed Ex.

This is an old chestnut, and I keep hauling it out, dusting it down and repeating it year after year, but it really is extremely important that you make the effort to add several eye catching photographs to your home exchange listing.

At ExchangeHomes.com we have programming in place to track exactly how people—members and visitors—navigate the website and over and over again we see listings with no photographs being skipped over. In short, no viewable photographs translates repeatedly into ‘no traffic’.

Some people seem to feel that publishing photographs on the Internet is a threat to the security of their home. Well, I’ve yet to hear of this being the case, but there is a very easy solution: just illustrate your listing with photographs of your locality and area attractions, then publish pictures of your home on a secure, password protected website such as PhotoBucket or MyPhotoAlbum. Only provide access to those more personal photographs to fellow members after you have corresponded with them and have established a good rapport. Indicate in the text of your listing that more pictures will be available.

We offer a no questions asked Guarantee: if you don’t get a home exchange in the first year, the next year is completely free, on the condition that you have added photographs to your listing (and your Admin Area shows that you’ve initiated some inquiries with fellow members). In view of our proven lack of traffic to listings without photographs, this provision is critical, because each year we do see a small number of people who join, possibly on the spur of the moment, never add pictures to their listing, never send out any contact emails, in fact never even log on to the site again throughout the entire year.

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