Someone could ask why it is best opting for a home exchange instead of vacation rentals.

Well, the advantages are evident and quite important: The cost: vacation rental properties are very expensive (hundreds of pounds per week) while house swapping is for free. Furthermore people often exchange cars too, which is a further conspicuous saving of money.

• • A real house will surely be better equipped (as for high chairs, car seats, play-stations, furniture, books and cds) than a rented one that has to be cleaned and emptied very often.
  • An inhabited house normally offers the advantage of helping us to get closer to the culture and the habits of the “native” people. It will also be more likely that we get to know neighbours, relatives or friends of our swapper family. It’s like having a taste of a second life (as we already said in a previous post)
  • The home insurances assure that occupied houses are less exposed to the risk of being robbed. Therefore it is definitely better having our swappers inside the house since they will surely take care of it as if it was their own house (and we will be doing the same with theirs).

Some users asked how they should describe their house in order to improve their chance to get a house swap they can enjoy.

Here some of the questions:

• “Should I specify every detail of my house?”
• “Should I make it seem more attractive?”
• “Do I need a spacious living room and a modern, big kitchen to find a good home to exchange?”
• “Do I necessarily need two bathrooms to exchange my house?”
• “Is it necessary to have a terrace with a beautiful sight to subscribe?”

The answer to all this questions is…

NO!

Your house is like it is and it has to remain the same in your description. Not everybody has a villa with a swimming pool, or a beautiful country house or a house surrounded by astonishing mountains and forests.

On the contrary: the majority of people has “normal” houses, comfortable but simple, sometimes small ones.              When you do a home exchange to have a simple house is not a problem, nor a defect, remember it (see also a previous post)!

The suggestion I can give you is that of telling the truth. Never lie about the state and the description of your house. A house swap is based on mutual confidence and trust and on the fact that it is an easy and economic way of travelling: the main aim is not that of spending some luxury time in a cool villa, but, instead, that of enjoying the comfort and the cheapness of a home even though on holidays (may it be in a big, touristic city or a disperse village in the mountains).

The suggestion of this week -to continue the idea launched through Berlin- goes to France. For our home exchange why don’t we plan a trip to Nice?

Here you find some information and suggestions about this city.

Nice, once colonized by Greeks, is today a compulsory stop for those who visit the South of France and the Côte d’Azur: its economy is mainly based on tourism. Some additional information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice).

Official language: French

Currency: Euro

To visit: Nice is home to an interesting variety of historic buildings, museums, and appealing sightseeing opportunities, but a little out of the ordinary, there’s the marchè aux fleurs (the flowers market). The ‘marchè aux fleurs’ is one of the most famous, both for its size  and its amazing variety of flowers.

Marchè aux fleurs,Nice

Some interesting museums we’d like to suggest anyway are:

1. Musée des Arts Asiatiques
2. Musée des Beaux-Arts
3. Musée Matisse
4. Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall
5. Musée Massena (Massena Art & History Museum)

Typical dishes:

• the pistou soup (soup with vegetables and beans);
• the bouillabaisse, (a kind of seafood chowder);
• the salade nicoise (a typical mixed salad);
  
• the ratatouille, (a vegetable stew);
• the pissaladière (a type of stuffed pizza);
• the daube de boeuf (beef, mutton and lamb stew, cooked in red wine);
• la tarte au citron (a lemon cream tart).

If you have any suggestions about special places to visit, info and stories about Nice, please send them to us!

Au revoir! :)

This is a quite common and sensible question.
From the ‘50s onwards nobody has denounced severe damages, intentional breakages or theft to their properties while on a home exchange.
Surely, some kind of little accident can happen to everybody, but it’s nothing that foresight and good manners can’t prevent.
For instance, if you are couple with no children that lives in a finely furnished house, with a lot of precious or fragile ornaments, maybe you’d better look for people like you as for tastes and “family situation”.
Nothing against children, but it’s quite obvious that playing or moving around the house they can be more careless, awkward or incautious than adults.
To protect your house from any possible damages we suggest three basic, simple rules:

1. Look for a couple or family as much similar as possible to your own.
2. Put everything that can be easily breakable or precious in a closet, drawer or little storage room and lock it: this will remain an off limits area and your stuff will be safely kept.
3. If you are worried or concerned about a home exchange, make sure that both parts complete and sign an agreement where you state clearly what has to be done and who pays in case of damages and/or breakages.

If you follow these simple rules, all the rest will be easy, relaxing and fun!

Generally speaking, both home exchange partners decide (and agree with) the rules to be followed.

As for the phone calls made using the land line, normally the agreement is that of letting free use of it. This is due to the many families who, nowadays, only pay flat monthly fees for their phone calls so that potentially they can call all over the country “for free”. In this case you will decide with your home exchange partner what to do. If you both have the same “flat fee” phone calls service then it won’t be a problem. But if a person wants to make phone calls out of the your fee free area, then he/she will have to pay back for his/her phone calls, once you get your bill. It is always better writing down a little contract (some rules…) about the bills. It will make everything clearer and there won’t be any kind of problems. The same is worth doing for other utilities, electricity, gas, heating, etc., although usually (as the common sense would suggest) the property owner keeps paying these, as always.

The great majority of people, however, only uses their own mobile phones or buys pre-paid phone cards, if they need to call home/abroad. It is also worth reminding that in case of an ADSL internet connection available in the house (on both sides), we can easily make FREE PHONE CALLS using software like Skype.

Lately we’ve heard several news regarding flash floods, wildfires and earthquakes that caused more or less serious problems or damages.
Whatever the gravity of the natural disaster (we are thinking of regions afflicted by tornadoes or areas not prepared for sudden water-floods), if unluckily it happens during our home swapping period, it is very important to be provident and ready to cope with the unpleasant event.

That’s why it is essential to leave clear and precise instructions in case of any emergencies when we arrange our home exchange. Useful phone numbers and addresses must be exchanged: police, ambulance, hospital, doctor, fire brigade, veterinarian (if we are “swapping” our pets too), mountain rescue (if we have planned to go hiking or trekking), disaster relief, breakdown service…If the list seems long and obsessively exaggerated just think that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Also, if during our home exchange we’ll be looking after our home exchange partners’ pets, let’s be sure that we know what to do with them in case of emergency (where to bring them, etc.). Moreover, if our swapper has a very expensive Jaguar or Ferrari in the garage, make sure that someone has the keys to move it in case of need. And viceversa.

It is very important to communicate and to build confidence with our home exchange partners, as we pointed out in a previous post.

Planning a house swap has many advantages, but in order to leave serenely it is worth thinking also to the “safety details”. For instance, it is imperative to have our home exchange partners’ phone number as well as a neighbour’s or a relative’s (people that may know the house and have a copy of the keys).

Who has ever been to Berlin?

We want to suggest Berlin as an excellent destination for a home exchange: for its art, culture, history, beauty, night and day life, the multicultural environment…

Brandeburg Gate

If you have ever been to Berlin send us any suggestions, tips,c omments, stories regarding Berlin. They will be more than welcome!