Home exchange is a new vacation trend that can save you thousands of dollars. Read on to find out how it works and if it's for you.

Home Exchange - The Latest Trend in Vacation Saving

By Chris Robertson

Vacations are a wonderful - and necessary - way to relax, rejuvenate, and spend time with your family. Unfortunately, vacations are also costly - especially when it comes to accommodations. A week's stay in a hotel can easily cost close to $1,500. Add in a week of eating in restaurants, and that cost doubles. The bottom line is that those kinds of costs can keep you going to the same destination year after year, and prevent you from visiting exciting new places around the world. Home exchange is a new trend that is helping to change all that. How Do Home Exchanges Work?

Home exchange is just what it sounds like: you swap homes with another couple or another family for your vacation. The power of the Internet makes home exchanges an inexpensive way to find vacation accommodations. Suppose you live in Los Angeles and would like to visit Vancouver on your vacation. You simply find a home exchange website, list your home as being available for an exchange, and then find a home in Vancouver that is also listed, the owners of which would like to vacation in Los Angeles. You and the other homeowner work out the details of dates and times, and then swap homes for the time period you agree upon. Of course, the more flexible you are about locations and dates, the easier it will be to successfully conduct a home exchange.

What Are the Advantages of Home Exchanges?

The primary advantage of finding vacation homes through a home exchange is that you have no accommodations costs. Zero. Plus, you'll save considerable money on meals, since you'll have the option of cooking at your vacation home. In addition, there's no resentment factor: your home doesn't have to remain empty while you pay premium prices for a hotel room. You'll also have added security for your own home while you're on vacation, since someone will be staying there. Ultimately, people who regularly vacation with a home exchange find that they can visit exciting new place worldwide at a fraction of the normal price.

Desirable Vacation Homes

When listing your home on a home exchange website, it's important to show it in its best light as a desirable vacation home. You don't have to live in a mansion in order to have successful vacation home experiences; people exchange all types of homes. However, you'll receive more interest if you have several quality photos of the inside and outside of your home, and if you describe your home's features.

Ground Rules for a Home Exchange

Some homeowners are understandably hesitant about home exchanges, and have privacy concerns. That's why it's critical to find a home exchange website that won't reveal your name, address, phone, or email, and instead uses an online form that hides your personal information.

You should use that online form to your best advantage, however. When sending information to a prospective home exchange partner, you should include a description of your property and neighborhood, and outline who will be in your traveling party and when you would like to make the exchange. Before you seal the deal, you should speak with the other homeowner on the phone. Good home exchanges are built on mutual trust, so it's important that you both feel comfortable with the exchange.

If you're not quite ready for a home exchange, or just want a more conventional holiday, many home exchange sites also offer vacation rentals and property rentals. But give a home exchange a try - you'll most likely be pleased by the outcome.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Home Exchange: The New Vacation or Majon's Travel directory

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Vacation Home Exchange V Renting - Trade and Save, or Do You ?
By Maurice S Clarke

Vacation Home Exchange V Renting Trade and save, or do you ?

Ever thought of trading your home with another family for a few weeks instead of renting a Vacation Home?. Lets look at the differences and see if it's an option you might consider.

Renting a vacation property is easy enough, pay a rent for as many weeks as you need. Rent direct with the owner or via the thousands of rental agents, or via a travel agent.

The choice is pretty vast and often you can select properties from a book or brochure, there are sizes and prices to suit everyone. Many allow pets and come fully fitted out.

Bigger properties housing 7-12 or more offer a low cost break as you pay for the property, rather than per person, as you would in a hotel. Downside is you get to do all the work, although some rentals can come with housekeeping or maid duties.

The attraction of renting is usually one of cost and choice, and works best in your own country. Renting abroad involves a high travel cost (per person) and unlike a package tour you are often down to organising and paying for travel from airport to the property. There is usually someone on hand to see you in, the owner or their agent, and most properties provide a good break.

Risky sometimes to book direct with foreign owners, large agencies vet both the properties and the owners and although perhaps more costly give better piece of mind. Paying $1,000 and arriving at a run down hut may not be the sort of vacation you seek.

Home swapping offers 2 choices, first to trade a few weeks or longer with another persons normal home. Or trade a period in a second vacation home or time share they, or you own.

The attraction is obvious in that no rental monies change hands and this gets better the longer the stay is. Older, retired folk often look for 3-6 month trades which clearly would be too costly on a rental basis, but a workable option for 2 retired families to trade homes for a long period.

Again a DIY vacation, unless maids are on hand. Number of choices are less, so to succeed you need to be open minded rather than have fixed dates, locations and types of properties in mind. Most experienced swappers seek good clean accommodation in the area they wish to visit. You get to know the owners before agreeing the swap before you go. You rarely build friendships with rental owners you usually do with home swappers.

A home trade often comes with an auto thrown in, so this is a big plus if you can arrange pick up at the airport and makes a big difference in local travel during your stay. Do check insurance cover though and make sure you agree miles and damage costs.

With the advent of the electronic age many home swap offers are viewable on Internet web sites so you can review property (and owners) details, get to know the area through web site links and then open up discussions with potential trade partners. using E-mail the world is just a few seconds away.

More complex to organise than a rental, it can be both an exciting family interest or a drudge, which can put you off the concept. Worries and concerns about having someone else in your home and loads of "what if" questions can again excite you or deter you.

One of the best routes is a Tutorial on the subject which is freely available at the Homes Seekers web site with advice from some of the leading home exchange experts .

In summary - renting is easy, choose your property, book, pay and go - there is a big choice. Home swapping is a way of life, you get more involved and the money saving is not in practice the reason for most people trading homes. The desire to make new friends and contacts, see new places, new countries, learn the language and so on takes over. Home swapping does not suit everyone but it does offer an alterative and to many an ideal way of taking vacations - for many the only way they would go.

If you want to save a few hundred if not thousands of dollars on a Vacation break take a serious look at vacation home exchanging as a useful alternative to traditional house rental breaks.

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Maurice S Clarke is the CEO of Homes Seekers and has created an online tutorial about Homes Exchange and swapping to answer all you "what if" or "how do I?" questions at http://www.homes-seekers.net/swaps

Travel webmaster may freely republish this article provided the copyright and all links remain intact. Please advise publication info of web site or ezine to republish@homes-seekers.net

Copyright © Maurice S Clarke 1997-2004

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A Volunteer Au Pair is typically a young woman between the late teens to mid-thirties who is looking to spend a summer or a gap year abroad and provide part time child care in exchange for free room and board. They trade room and board abroad for their services in child care. An Au Pair will volunteer with the hopes of furthering their education outside of their country of origin, or having the luxury of traveling where they may not typically have been able to afford to do so, giving them the experience of being with a host family in a foreign country. Au Pairs usually have some previous childcare education and experience. However, sometimes this is not the case. The best benefit to hiring an Au Pair is receiving free, part-time child care. Getting a background check and reference check performed by a professional and reputable company is always a good idea. You can also install surveillance to assure that your children are in safe hands. In addition, you can chat with each other on chat, exchange e-mail, watch videos and pictures and get to know each other in the safety and comfort of our website. This is a much more intimate process versus going into the great unknown with an agency. When searching for an Au Pair you will want to host someone you feel comfortable leaving the well being of your child with. You need to host someone you feel could be an asset to your family and fit in with the setting and environment which you have created. Make sure the candidates you review have experience with children in the age range of your own children, this ensure if any problems or concerns should arise with your child, the Au Pair will be able to handle the situation and act accordingly. If you need part time child care a free and volunteer Au Pair might be a cost effective answer to your child care needs. If you need full time care for your child or for your children and don’t want to spend any cash you can host 2 volunteers to take turns caring for your kids. It will be more fun for a couple of friends looking to travel abroad for the summer or for the year and you will have all your childcare needs met. Alternatively, you can agree on hourly rate for any additional hours beyond part time employment.

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