The definitive and optimised version of HomeForHome is already online! In case you didn´t know, it´s the new and effective portal you can use to do home exchanges across the world.

HomeForHome.com provides a quick and easy means of helping people find the best and most afforable holidays, in their ideal destinations. Holidays that are anything from traditional and relaxing, to unexpected, in vogue, or totally original.

Basing itself on the concept of exchange, HomeForHome makes contact and communication between people from different countries extremely easy. It also makes the concept of cheap holidays of a high quality a real possibility.

Are you starting to think about trying a new and totally unique style of holiday?
If so, we advise you to sign up for free at HomeForHome.com! Why?
1. The registration is totally FREE! You can register your home, upload your photos and details, include videos, details of your family, say whether you will exchange vehicles, if you accept smokers or pets…ALL FOR FREE.

2. Our portal HomeForHome.com is aiming to be simple, easy to navigate, and sensitive to your needs. We ask you to register with the site when you first access it, putting in your basic personal details, and you´ll also be able to choose a screen name (user name) if you don´t want to use your real name to communicate with other users. We will also ask you for some other details (such as a brief description of the home you would like to exchange.)

3. The communication between users is easy and of the highest quality available, thanks to both a system of internal mesaging and an online community: within this it is possible to send messages to everyone, and exchange information, ideas, opinions, search for home and holiday exchange partners, etc.

4. You can ask for personal help for whatever doubt or need you may have by asking a question in the community section, or by sending an email to the homeforhome team (just write to info@HomeForHome.com).

5. An automatic translator will enable translations from one language to another, for the occasions when the person you have contacted, or wish to contact, doesn´t speak your language (or one of the languages that you speak.)

6. A section dedicated to the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) will answer and clear up any doubts or uncertainties.

7. A home exchange search will facilitate the search for properties that meet your interests, or help you find homes that you have already seen and would like to see again. In this same way, you will be able to search for new houses or destinations that interest you.

8. The registered houses are archived clearly, and in order: by just having a look it will be possible to see the state of the house or home in question. The distances of the property in square metres will also be specified, alongside the number of rooms, and the various commodities or characteristics of the home in question.

For any question, doubt or problem you may have, you can write to us at: info@homeforhome.com
Enjoy your Home Exchange!

It´s normal for people to have a few questions on their minds before doing a home exchange. Some of the most commonly asked questions are:

1. Will my home insurance cover my holiday exchange?

We can tell you that the majority of insurance companies recognise the importance of ensuring that your property is not left unoccupied for long periods of time. The damages caused by break-ins, fires and natural disasters are generally always guaranteed, even if the house is occupied by third parties. It is also important to remember that an occupied house is a lot more secure than an empty one in terms of break-ins and robberies. So, having people staying in your house provides a good safe-guard against theft.

And we mustn´t forget that when people are in our home, we´re in THEIRS. So we´re providing a mutual service! You can always call your own insurance agency and ask for more detailed information about your particular contract.

In general, the areas covered by home insurance are:

• Fire, explosions and lightning

• The costs of putting out a fire, and recovery of the damage

• Rain, wind, hail and snow

• Collisions

• Planes falling

• Sound waves

• Smoke

• Acts of vandalism

• Flooding

• Costs of extracting and repairing the damage caused by mud

• Water damage

• Electrical damage

• Aesthetic damage

• Loss of clients

• Reproduction of lost documents

• Fridge contents

• Fracturing of mirrors, glass, marble, ceramics, granite, natural stone, and china

• Break-ins and thefts (covering furnishings, cash, credit cards, damages, replacement of keys and locks, and annexed properties)

 
2. How can I guarantee that my house will be secure in the hands of unknown people?

We always ask our users to do an evaluation after doing a home exchange. This ensures that any user who shows the remotest sign of bad behavior will be automatically eliminated. However, in the history of property exchange, there have been almost no cases whatsoever of bad conduct. This is because it´s rooted in the notion of mutual trust and respect. Also, we are always here to help the exchange and communication between two prospective exchange partners, and this interaction is an essential part of making a good exchange.  

So, Europe. What does it have to offer? France. Spain. Italy. Germany. England. Romania. Poland. To name but a few of the choice cuts of the continent. Whether it be the impassioned political fervour of the French, the darkly elegant style of the Italians, or the striking openness of the Dutch, you have to admit - there´s a wealth of culture over there. And how exquisite it would be to understand the seamless poetry of Dante, the tortured prose of Proust, or the emblematic tales of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra´s Don Quijote, in their original versions.

The best way to learn a language is to get yourself in a country where it is spoken. This way you really drench yourself in the culture, you are constantly absorbing new vocabulary from the road signs, the posters, the conversations you over-hear on the metro – and most importantly of all – you make friends you can talk with.

When I was a child, we did a house exchange with a Belgian family. We stayed in their house for four weeks. All my brothers and sisters were older than me, and whilst I had a fabulous time playing with the new doll´s house that I found, eventually I wanted some company of my own age. It just so happened that there was a little girl living in the house next door. Lea, her name was. She was taller than me, wore brown buckle-up shoes, and spoke no English. And we had the best time together. Even now, I remember going with her to buy chips from the local chip shop (chips dressed with a particular sweet and sour cream that I´ve never been able to find anywhere else in the world), dressing up to perform a play for her parents, and going cycling in the velvety forest with her school friends. While I don´t remember being conscious of speaking French, it was certainly the language we spoke in, and as all children do with languages, I took to it like a duck to water.

And I now see just how wonderful and welcoming that small community was. The neighbours especially, welcoming strangers into their houses, looking after a little foreign girl, helping the slightly eccentric English family make friends and feel welcome in a different city. For the rest of my family, living in that neighbourhood for a month was the perfect way to really practise their French and make exciting new friendships.

If you´re interested in European culture, and are looking for an opportunity to practise or to learn a new language, doing a home exchange is the ideal way to do this. You get delivered right into the marrow of the community – socially, culturally, and most crucial of all - linguistically.

So if you´re a dab hand for languages, or if you just want to practise some French asking for a croissant and a white coffee while you read the paper in a quiet café in Bordeaux, a home exchange ensures that you´ll make new friends and not only see, but really live the new culture.

There is a British couple who used to do home swaps with French families in different cities in France. Now, they´re both retired.  Living gleefully in France for six months of the year, in the bosom of a local rural community. Every Christmas they receive invitations to spend the festive season celebrating precious friendships with their old exchange partners.

The warming solidarity of two parties seeking to share their homes for the mutual benefit of an intimate, and inestimable holiday can easily lead to a momentous friendship. Not only do you both partake in a beautiful experience of having a stress-free, fabulous time exploring and relishing a different culture. But you also enter into the heart of someone else´s living – their home. In this way, if you choose, you can cultivate a really special bond with a shining variety of people from a whole range of different cultures. It´s not only culturally enriching, but also personally touching.

There is, of course, no obligation to invest yourself in a personal level, but it´s one of the many opportunities offered by home exchange - to integrate yourself on a worldwide level, and colour your life with a medley of cultural exchange. Whilst you´re taking pleasure in the many different flavours of food, weather, architecture, history, natural landscapes, and local entertainment, you are also afforded the opportunity of making enduring friendships with people from different countries.

Part of the excitement of a home swap is the sweet sense of adventure, and this is not only limited to the holiday. There´s a whole world out there, waiting for you to try it out.

Home exchange is such a cheap, easy and comfortable way to travel across the world AND go on holiday with the peace of mind that someone is looking after your own house. So how about doing a property exchange for short breaks as well?

What happens if a friend decides to get married under the jewel studded Parisian sky, or against the back drop of the sun bleached stone of Tuscanny? Why not use the occasion to explore the region and make it a long weekend doing a flat exchange? The accommodation would cost you nothing – it would only need the planning!

Of course there are plenty of people in the same situation who would water at the mouth at the idea of spending a weekend in England. Perhaps attempting to fit in a trip to Australia in three days would be pushing it a little, but an exploration of any place offered by the rich tapestry of European terrain would be more than possible.

And if you´re wondering whether all this could be possible, then the answer is, without a doubt, YES. Doing a home swap is just like having friends in your house – no contract would ever prohibit you from doing this.

You can look up a various university social networks that can tell you all about interesting places to visit for students, or people who are seeking entertainment and a little fiesta time in a foreign city. Also, we at homeforhome.com can always advise you on the ways and means through which you can organize your home exchange successfully and happily.

We hope that it won’t happen but…What can we do if we get ill right before our home exchange holidays and we have already bought the flight tickets?

The probability of cancelling a trip is very low, but it can always happen that you feel sick at the very last minute.

If we have already bought our tickets then we may lose our money. And if it’s true that nowadays we can change our flights till the last minute, we should remember that maybe if we are ill we won’t be able to know exactly which dates will be suitable for our new journey. So…How can we avoid to worry about this problem?

The best solution can be assuring our trip. After a research in the web we saw that there are plenty of travel insurance offers. You normally can choose what areas you want to cover: medical and other expenses, cancelling and cutting short your trip, etc. Furthermore you decide if you want to cover a one-off holiday or lots of trips throughout the year.

To share with you an example, we considered the offers found at www.moneysupermarket.com/travelinsurance. This site gives us the comparison between different insurance companies and helps us to find the best offer.

In our example the parameters we entered were:
• single trip for two people (30 and 34 years old) to Australia, from the 20th of February to the 5th of March and the cheapest resulting travel insurance cost was £19.39. And, for instance, the cancellation trip insurance alone covers up to 3000 pounds. Other sections covered are:

1. Passport and Travel Documents
2. Medical and Other Expenses
3. Cancelling and Cutting Short Your Trip
4. Personal Cash
5. Personal Liability
6. Personal Belongings and Baggage

The countries included in this policy are: Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Balearics, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Corfu, Corsica, Crete, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Eire, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Holland, Hungary, Ibiza, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Kos (Greek Island), Lanzarote, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madeira, Majorca, Malta, Minorca, Moldova, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rhodes, Romania, San Marino, Sardinia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tenerife, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City, Yugoslavia (Former).

The different companies give you plenty of options to customise your policy. You can choose additional covers (baggage, money, winter sports) and a number of excess options. You only pay for the cover you need. In the case of a house swap the most useful cover may be the trip cancellation one: it is likely that our flights are the most expensive part of your holidays given that we don’t have to pay for our accommodation.

Have good and safe home swap holidays.

The suggestion of the week is Amsterdam, a very popular destination, but always a special city to visit.

Centre of amusement, fun and the Prohibited , it is very famous for its coffee shops and the never ending night life. It is defined the Northern Venice because of its many canals.

It is well known also for the many cultural activities, the ancient and modern architectures and its museums (for example the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Anna Frank House, just to cite some).
We find not only museums but also cinemas, theatres, photography, typically Dutch museums as, for instance, the Scheepvaart Museum or the l’Houseboat Museum.

Many museums then have a special section for children. If you are very keen on museums you can easily get a day or week pass: this will give a cheaper access to several museums.

© Pictures of Amsterdam courtesy of Amsterdam.info.

These are only a few suggestion about the beautiful Amsterdam: start immediately to plan your house swap in order to get extraordinary and cheap holidays. House swapping is the best way to know the town and to save some money without giving up a marvellous vacation.
You can find more information about Amsterdam in the following web sites:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/the-netherlands/amsterdam
http://www.timeout.com/amsterdam

Do you know how much is the average price for a lunch or dinner at the restaurant?

We did a little research about the cost of eating out, since when we’re on holidays we usually like (or we’re obliged) to get out to eat: in fact very often the meals are not included in the hotel’s price.

Well, looking for the Italian restaurants prices it seems that an average price would be around 20 Euros, depending on the popularity of the city we’re in (Florence is much more expensive than Taranto for example); in UK the prices are higher: in London, the so called low cost restaurants, can give us a meal for 13 pounds, thought the average of normal restaurants in London is around 37.72 pounds… A quite big amount of money for a middle worker. In France, if we consider the popular Paris, the prices vary from 20 to 50 or more Euros. For sure there are a lot of Mc Donalds all around the world, but you can’t require from your stomach to relax on holidays eating always at Mc Donald. On holidays one needs also to eat well, with pleasure.

And if a lucky family can maybe afford eating out every day on holidays, the average current family can’t. At most, once or twice a week. Do your accounts: eating out every day in Italy, considering only dinner (therefore supposing not to be hungry at lunch!) would cost –for two people, for 7 days and taking into account an average price of 20 Euros- 280 €. If after that you wanted to have something for lunch too, the price would be quickly doubled…If you think of numerous families then…

Well, think that this cost potentially –in a home exchange- can be deleted. And if it’s true that, on one hand, cooking your own food sometimes can be tiring and boring, on the other hand, the money saving and the tranquillity or comfort you get from cooking and eating in a fully equipped kitchen is worth the effort. At least 280 Euros saved.

The cost of a shopping at the supermarket is much cheaper: with the same amount of money an entire family could eat abundantly and in a well balanced way for more than a week, without giving up sweets or tasty morsel.

How much can you save then house swapping? A lot: not only in accommodation, not only thanks to a possible car exchange, but also in food, since we can eat comfortably at home, without having to spend a lot of money for restaurants. It’s sure that sometimes it’s a pleasure going out to have dinner and being served: but what a home swap gives us is the possibility to choose what to do and to save some money in case we had the need or the desire to do that.

Welcome back and happy New Year to everybody!

To start well our New Year I’d like to share with you an anecdote.

During these holidays I found myself looking desperately for a hotel for my parents who, late with their vacation planning, wanted to go for a little trip.
Well, despite the crisis I couldn’t find any hotel with availability in the surrounding mountain areas. Not even one free room, if not at an unacceptable price. You can’t imagine how much I desired that my parents had planned a house swap on time.
They would have solved their New Year’s Day and began under the sign of originality, trust and money saving. They could have slept without any hurry to have breakfast in the morning or organised a nice dinner for New Year’s Eve with calm and without spending a lot of money in hotels or expensive dinners at the restaurant. They would have gone anyway on holidays in a new place, maybe a big city or a nice and green village in the mountains. At the same time, they shouldn’t have worried about leaving the house empty because someone (the house swappers) would have been there to take care of it.

But my parents, as many other people, didn’t know about the existence of home swapping (obviously now they know).
The fact is that it doesn’t seem real having the possibility to go on holidays, sleeping in a comfortable, real house without having to pay a rent. But it’s the way it is: you give me your house and I give you mine for a short time.
This is house swapping, the solution for our next vacation.

A suggestion therefore: plan in time your home exchange. It will take some time and effort thinking of everything early, but in the end the experience and the money saving will surely be worth.
You can visit our house swap ADVANTAGES SECTION if the concept was new to you.
Anyway, we will be here giving help and advice, sharing ideas and tips in order to get you the best home exchange holidays.