Anyone have experience with house exchange

The guy who presents the Sunday Business Show was on The Last Word last week (on their holiday segment-whatever evening it is on) and only had good things to say about it.
 
CCOVICH said:
only had good things to say about it.
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On house exvhanges in general or the homelink website?
Do you know what the deal is with the car exchanges some of them offer, is it just a case of transferring your insurance over?
 
Two of my neighbours do this every year and have had no complaints. They usually keep a room locked with all their personal things in it. Not a problem apparently as other party usually does it too.

They simply put the exchange people on to their car insurance (named driver). One of my neighbours usually gives my name in case the foreigners have any problems in the house. Never is a problem unless they get Americans who like to call at 7.30 a.m. to chat and ask advice on how to spend their day!! In fairness, this has only happened twice.

Both families have had some pretty good and even exotic (Hawaii) holidays doing this and it's a comparatively cheap way to see the world, particularly if you have kids. Always threatening to do it myself.
 
Thanks liteweight - what about the type of house you get? Would it be similar to the size of your own, or are there people out there who wouldnt mind slumming it in a 3 bed semi in exchange for their 5 bed detached with private swimming pool!:)
 
Well if you had a 5 bed with swimming pool, would you swap for a 3 bed semi?? Actually, if you're cose to dublin, Cork, Galway or some well known scenic place, they do!!

One American couple staying on our road had organised swaps in all the provinces. Don't know how they managed the logistics of it at home cos afaik they would have had 5 Irish couples going into their house one after the other. All went smoothly for my neighbour though.
 
Ya - im living in carrigaline, cork - 5 minutes from beach - 7 minutes from airport 10 minutes to kinsale etc. It's pretty close to everything. Also in our three bed we have the attic converted so it could be looked on as a four bed, we've a hot tub aswell - i know it's nothing like a swimming pool, but it's a few steps up from a water feature!:)
 
purplealien said:
Ya - im living in carrigaline, cork - 5 minutes from beach - 7 minutes from airport 10 minutes to kinsale etc. It's pretty close to everything. Also in our three bed we have the attic converted so it could be looked on as a four bed, we've a hot tub aswell - i know it's nothing like a swimming pool, but it's a few steps up from a water feature!:)
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Jez, I'll swap you, howdya fancy slumming it in my 3 bed semi! ;) Yours sounds great, a hot tub - impressive! How much would one of those set you back, out of interest? Sorry for hijacking
 
roxy said:
How much would one of those set you back, out of interest?
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Got it in Argos - only three grand! I know 3 grand is alot of money but as my husband and i don't get out very often (2 young kids!), we thought we'd treat ourselves.We had been pricing around before they came to Argos and the cheapest was 8 grand. Plus you can bring it with you if you ever move house. Well worth investing in.
 
purplealien said:
Got it in Argos - only three grand! I know 3 grand is alot of money but as my husband and i don't get out very often (2 young kids!), we thought we'd treat ourselves.We had been pricing around before they came to Argos and the cheapest was 8 grand. Plus you can bring it with you if you ever move house. Well worth investing in.
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I might stick it on my SSIA wishlist along with all the other things! You'd think I was becoming a millionare the way I go on!
 
Hi Purpleanlien

a lady who did a great house exchange with a family in Malibu was interviewed on 2FM on Wednesday. This is the link - you need to have Realplayer to hear this. The interview is about 1hr 15 mins into the show.
[broken link removed]
 
roxy said:
I might stick it on my SSIA wishlist along with all the other things! You'd think I was becoming a millionare the way I go on!
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At least you did it!
Can't imagine what my reasoning was for not doing them!:mad:
 
We did 2 house exchanges. We used homelink.

The first one was to Australia for 4 weeks. We swapped with a retired couple ... who only used their house as a sleeping place ... everything anyway personal had been removed.

We also swapped our car in Australia ... I wouldn't recommend doing this to if you are swapping to a country with automatic cars ... when we got home the car clutch was nearly worn out.

The second one was to Holland for 2 weeks. We swapped with a lovely family who drove from Holland to Ireland. They left us lots of info on things to do and we learned lots about the culture in the country. They did not remove everything personal from the house ... so at least it felt like someones home.

The advice I would give if you are thinking of swapping is to be specific about your requirements, know what you want ... do your research about the area. Ask lots of questions and don't settle for the first offer you get ... try to get to know the people.

I would also suggest you swap with experienced swappers too ... they know what they are getting in to.


If you have a family it's a great option. You have all the comforts of home in a different place. I would suggest you swap with a family who have children of similar age to your own.
 
Henny Penny said:
We also swapped our car in Australia ... I wouldn't recommend doing this to if you are swapping to a country with automatic cars ... when we got home the car clutch was nearly worn out.
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Really good advice Henny Penny - i would never have thought about that.Thanks. Do you think the more experienced house swappers would choose first timers?
 
Hi purplealien

I don't think experienced exchangers would have a problem swapping with first timers ... it's all about where you want to go and when ... if you have a choice of possible exchanges try to pick an experienced exchanger if you can.
If you want all the comforts of home, make sure you are swapping with the exchangers home not their holiday home.
Good luck if you do decide to swap, we found it a great experience. You got to see parts of the country that are off the tourist track and you really get a sense of the country because of it.
 
My sister and her family, and other friends of ours, have done this for years -right now sister is in Holland, last year Sweden, two years ago San Francisco. It takes a while to get the place/country you might want, I gather you have to be open to changing ideas about locations, say--if you really had heart set on california this year, you might have to accept Italy instead--they LOVE doing it and feel they get a real flavour of a country from living locally meeting friends and neighbours of their swappers. The houses vary in "style"--some are opulent others quite humble. Sometimes they swap cars too. Some people offer their holiday homes for hte swap or a week in the family home and a week in the holiday home. Getting holiday dates coordinated sometimes can be an issue. Now the sister and hubby are retired they have joined an active retired peoples house swappers club--and go at off-peak times getting great value flights. They used Intervac.ie for years -had 5 kids so it was an ideal way of getting kids abroad. Myself? too lazy to clean the house for visitors!!!!
 
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