ExchangeHomesBlog.com

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

No-one ever pretends that setting up a successful home exchange is easy. To the contrary, if you don’t live in one of the more sought after locations, it can be a challenge. But a challenge is not an impossibility, quite the opposite, a challenge if viewed positively can be enormous fun!
There are a few points [...]

3 reasons I consistently hear from people why (in their opinion), home exchanging would be impossible for them!

I couldn’t possibly trust strangers in my own home.

Yes you can. Your exchange partners will be trusting you to live in their home responsibly and ethically so why should they be any less trustworthy than you? Home exchanges [...]

Since the release of that silly movie “The Holiday”, too many people have labored under the misconception that arranging a home exchange is easy—a piece of cake!
This simply isn’t true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting home exchanging down—just being realistic!
Unless you happen to live in a home that is perfect in every way, [...]

After hearing a number of encouraging recommendations from people already subscribing, I signed up for the Travelzoo Top 20 Newsletter just a couple of weeks ago and I’ve already found a bargain, a very good deal for a B&B in Sonoma (this was a completely spontaneous, last minute trip and I didn’t have a chance [...]

Unfortunately, 2009 doesn’t seem to be starting any different than previous years. Over the past few weeks we’ve received several complaints from members who have sent out home exchange inquiry emails, only to receive no response.
Thankfully, this has been somewhat counteracted by another member who contacted us full of compliments. She said she had joined [...]

Another huge advantage of home exchange vacationing is the opportunity to take your pet with you. This is a definite possibility worth considering if you will be traveling by car or train to your home exchange destination, and even if you will be flying, it’s not out of the question.

Normally, to get the best bargains, flight tickets need to be booked quite a long way in advance. Today, virtually everyone is watching the pennies so it’s highly unlikely that too many home exchanges will be set up if the time is so short, only expensive air fares are available.

Lots of home exchangers, as retirement looms close, start wondering if continuing to live in, or in close proximity to a large metropolitan area is such a good idea. While they were working, city life may have been attractive, but in retirement do they really want to continue fighting the traffic and dealing with the rush on a day to day basis? Maybe retirement could be so much more enjoyable in a slower, more tranquil setting.