Why should you travel to Paris? Depending on who is asked, this question could have several different answers, but which are our top three reasons? We are just about to let you know why HomeForHome is the best place to search for a good house swap opportunity to visit Paris:

1) Paris is the single city with most registered houses waiting for a house swap proposal. Paris alone has more homes registered than most countries!

2) Someone willing to swap their home in Paris could be looking for a different type of vacation, away from a tourist hot-spot or in a different type of hot-spot (for example, Rio de Janeiro is completely different but still a hot-spot). This, combined with the fact that there are over 1600 Parisian homes in HomeForHome, makes it quite likely that you’ll find someone that wants to travel to your area or open to travel to somewhere different.

3) Paris is a year-round destination. No matter when you can travel, you’ll always find magic. Of couse, keep in mind that some attractive areas might not be open to the public during certain times of the year, always check before you make plans. The Internet has become an excellent tool to do so, as many sites have their own websites or you can check websites that offer information for travellers.

Now you know our gold, silver and bronze for Paris.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Today we found something interesting that could be appealing to many of our readers now that we are about to change seasons. What if you could enjoy the sun in any season? Does this get your attention? Well, today, a user has posted an offer in several of the forum topics under the title “Enjoy the sun in any season“, and we thought it might just be a good thing to give it a gentle push by posting the details in our blog as well.

Ner is a user from Roquetas de Mar in Almeria (Spain), an area described as warm in the winter and hot in the summer. If you are wondering why would someone leave warm paradise to spend the winter elsewhere, well, Ner wants to stay for at least three months in an English speaking country to learn English, so if you have a home to exchange where Ner can practice English on a daily basis, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You could be spending part of the winter in an apartment near Playa Serena beach:

Image: one of Ner house’s photos in HomeForHome.

After a quick reminder about the advantages of home exchange, we are back on music road…

It is going to be one of the most important, if not the most important, music event of 2011: Rock in Rio’s return to its birthplace. There is a notable list of confirmed performances, including the best of Brazil’s musical scene plus: Elton John, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone, Lenny Kravitz, Coldplay, Shakira, Evanescence, Mana and Jay-Z. Quality and variety.

There are over one million followers in the social networks that just can’t wait to be a part of it. The festival’s theme is “For a Better World” and since the first edition the organization has been taking actions to make of this statement a reality, applying sustainable practices and supporting educational projects through music and activities that arise environmental awareness.

With more than one month ahead before the festival starts, the tickets are completely sold out for the event but nothing can stop you if you want to start your preparation for the next editions, Rock in Rio Lisboa 2012, Rock in Rio Madrid 2012 or Rock in Rio 2013!

We are going to share more about this festival in our next posts, so you find a way to enjoy Rock in Rio even if you are not one of the lucky people with a ticket.

Image: anankkml / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After taking a quick glance at the activity in our community forums during this past week, it is safe to say that it is still very active and a tool our swappers are using more and more each day to find home exchange opportunities, to make specific offers and also to share their experiences, both good and bad. Luckily, the count is in favor of the positive experiences, that outscore the negative ones by far.

It is also noticeable that English speaking users are less active that other house swappers, so we want to encourage you to get involved and participate, even if you are not looking for an exchange right now, if you build a strong net of contacts using the forum it will help you find trustworthy counterparts more easily in the future and will show people you are a serious possible partner. Plus, it is fun and it doesn’t take a lot of time. Give it a try!

Image: Public domain licence, taken from Wikimedia Commons.

A few days ago we were showing you how to hide your home from the search engine when you are not looking for new home exchange opportunities, but by no means this is what most of our users will do these days… Have you checked the Community forum lately? There is a lot of activity in the different topics, specially those about “Exchange Requests”, with new offers being published daily. Fourteen topics were started only yesterday and one of the got over 8000 hits! Wow!

Weekend exchanges, offers for July, August, and September, and swappers already trying to make plans for Christmas and New Year’s Day… Many keyboards are getting action these days, what about yours? Are you going to stay silent?

Do not let the language be a problem, remember that there are online translation tools, like Google Translate, that can help you get an idea of what the other user is trying to say and you can check a person’s profile to see if they understand English to write them a direct message. Dive in!