Home Exchange vs Vacation Rental – and the winner is ….
I recently received a phone call from a lady with this question:
Why on earth would any sane person (her words) even consider a home exchange when they can simply rent a vacation property and not have to worry about total strangers living in their home while they are away?
Well, in these difficult times I suppose the first and most obvious reason is cost. Vacation rental properties are prohibitively priced, often at several thousand dollars a week. Home exchanges quite often include a car as well, so this too can translate into savings of hundreds, often thousands of dollars.
But cost is the immediate and all too obvious response, so let’s look in depth at other genuine reasons why you should choose a home exchange over a rental.
- Security—Insurance companies agree that a home is much more secure when it’s occupied. No home exchange company worth its salt will ever advise its members to set up an exchange after nothing more than a couple of emails. When arranged properly, using the guidelines supplied, by the time the vacation takes place both parties are extremely comfortable with each other.
Home exchangers are a very honest, generous and well mannered bunch. In 22 years and countless thousands of exchanges, we’ve never received a report of theft, malicious damage, or an instance of someone arriving at their exchange home only to find a vacant lot!
I constantly remember an observation my father used to make: Whenever you encounter a person who immediately assumes you are plotting to do ill to them, it’s probably because they are planning something very similar against you. Beware—their guilty conscience is making them paranoid!
- A family home will always be much better equipped than a rental especially if families with like circumstances exchange. Families with babies and young children will find their partner’s homes equipped with items such as child alarms, high chairs, cots, car seats, and general baby paraphernalia. Families with older children will have goodies like Xboxes, Wiis and Playstations as well as sports equipment, books and board games.
Exchange partners can recommend babysitters and for older children there will be ready-made friends living close by.
- Home exchanging allows you to immerse yourself in the local culture. The neighbors are friends and acquaintances of your exchange partners. People they live their lives among every day. Not long ago, one of our members reported: “The folks next door had us over for paella and wine. It was a lovely gesture”.
New friendships can also be an unexpected and lasting bonus. Retired UK civil servant and experienced home swapper, David Hynds remarked:
“We have completed several home exchanges and each one is like a dream come true. In a recent exchange we spent two weeks in Northern California. While there we drove to Oregon to visit a family we’d exchanged with in 2002. Also, during an earlier exchange in Italy, we entertained friends with whom we had exchanged previously.”
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