Home exchange is a rising trend. Every day more people decide to try this way of travelling and enjoy its many benefits. HomeForHome is the fastest growing online home exchange service. Why should you try home exchange? Why choose HomeForHome ? Read on…

Home exchange is very simple.
HomeForHome offers you the tools to make it even simpler.

Home exchange is fun and exciting.
In HomeForHome ’s community forums you can have a lot of fun meeting people from all over the world.

Home exchange offers a lot of different alternatives.
HomeForHome makes it easier for you to find people sharing your same interests: long-term home exchange, short-term home exchange, weekend exchange, car exchange, permanent home exchange, study exchange, exchanges for families, travelling with pets…

Home exchange is the best way to lower travel costs.
HomeForHome takes the word cheap to its lower level: everything is free.

HomeForHome has a few extras, including these:

• Our Support Team can offer you guidance to complete the registration process and get acquainted with the website’s tools and resources.
• It has a built-in translation tool so you can receive and answer messages and requests in many languages.

HomeForHome is a home exchange website, but we leave it to our users to take advantage of our services and innovate. Creativity is always welcomed. The only thing we do not admit is trying to take profit from our services (we do not allow any commercial deals and we ask our users to report people who really want to rent their place instead of a free home exchange). Do you want to hear about some creative ways to swap? Here we go with two ideas:

- Register your motor-home or your yacht. If it can be used as a home it can be registered for home exchange in HomeForHome (no funny interpretations, please - we are serious). A user may be interested in using your motor-home to take their home exchange journey to a whole new level.

- What about an hospitality exchange? Hospitality exchanges are a variation of home exchange when each swapper receives their partner as a guest in their home. This could be a particularly interesting choice for those who want to make new friends and re-discover the beauty of their home town. We have seen some of our users starting forum topics about receiving a child from another family in their home while their child stays with the other family to learn a foreign language, a very special student exchange. This could even be arranged to be non-simultaneous so the visitor has a friend of the same age to show them around. Hospitality exchanges could also be a great idea for retired people or first-time travellers that are not confident about travelling to a whole different country on their own and would rather have some company. As for home exchange, hospitality exchange is not for everyone, some people may be thrilled by the idea of receiving people from a different culture in their home but this may be too much for others.

Image from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Home exchange is more than just travelling. It involves getting to know the people who are going to be staying in your home (and trusting you with theirs). You do not have to become friends with every family that exchanges their home with you, but you are probably going to make some friends along the way.

Image by graur codrin /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One detail that is important to enjoy a home exchange is to feel welcome. It is that first moment when you are starting your stay at the house you chose as a home for the next few days or weeks and if you do not feel comfortable since the very first start you are probably not going to enjoy it 100%.

What can be done to ensure a great start for the family that will stay at your home? A nice welcome package. Like those little details hotels use to make you feel as a special guest, there are little details that will help your swap partner feel good from the very start.

Here are some examples of things that could be part of an excellent welcome package:

- A bottle of wine and bread or some snacks or maybe fresh vegetables in the fridge and milk for their children. Anything you can imagine that could make a good first impression.

- A short “how to” guide explaining the basics to get all your appliances to work (dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, Wi-fi, DVD player, etc.).

- A list of relevant phone numbers (a trusted neighbour, baby-sitter, pizza delivery, doctor - you probably get what this list is all about).

- A local map and some leaflets with information for visitors. You may even use a marker to highlight important routes in the map, like the that to market, to important attractions, to your favourite restaurant (maybe you share the same taste!).

These are just a few ideas to get your creativity going. Let it fly…

Image by br3akthru /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What comes to your mind as you enjoy your summer home exchange? We would love to know what does the summer inspire in you (even if you haven’t gone on vacations yet)… Let’s see if you empathize with these inspired phrases about the summer days:

- Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language. (Henry James)

- A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. (James Dent)

- A life without love is like a year without summer. (Swedish Proverb)

- Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. (Sam Keen)

- Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. (Russel Baker)

There’s one for every mood, right now I would have to say I’m closest to Sam Keen’s ideas.

And for those that are eager to find their first home exchange deal, the summer may be an excellent time to put some time into home swap searching so let us remind you about what HomeForHome has to offer other than over 16,000 listed properties: Our active community has opened over 3,000 topics to propose exchanges, suggest improvements to the website, ask for help and even share their successful home exchange experiences.

Those looking for an exchange in the next few months, may check out the Exchange Requests topics.

For those already planning your home exchange for Summer 2011, you may even found open proposals in the Exchange: a period lasting for a few months forum.

And if you are willing to let yourself be surprised by some different offers, take a look at the topics in the Study exchanges forum.

All quotes taken from:
http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/summer-quotes.html

Today we complete our tour through HomeForHome, with the interactive Community and our all-you-need-to-know about home exchange (or FAQ) section.

COMMUNITY

This section starts with a list of all the different forum categories and a brief description of their contents. These are the current forum categories:

- Exchange Requests
- Exchange: a period lasting for a few months
- Long term exchange
- Exchanges for family holidays
- Study exchanges
- Exchanges for retired people
- Other exchanges
- Experiences
- Non-simultaneous exchanges
- Help

By clicking in any of these titles, you gain access to the list of all the topics opened about that particular subject and you will also find a button to create a new topic.

This section is intended as a place for HomeForHome users to communicate with one another, so in each topic, you will find a “Reply” button to add your own comments, and also a link to each participant’s profile, so you can check their home and preferences. The forum is also a good choice for those who do not have a preferred destination and are looking for interesting home exchange offers.

Sometimes, using the Search section may not fit a user’s plans. For example, those looking for a permanent home exchange would waste a lot of time reviewing search results to find a user in their preferred destination that is also interested in a permanent exchange. But we have an option that can make it easier: start a forum topic in the “Long term exchange” category. To start a new forum topic, you need to login, then go to the Community section, choose the appropriate forum category and click the “New topic” button to create your entry. Once created, your topic will be visible for other users and if someone is interested in your proposal they will be able to contact you.

FAQ

Our FAQ section is the place to look for basic information about home exchange and HomeForHome.

In this section, we answer the following questions:

- What is HomeForHome?
- Who does HomeForHome belong with?
- How does it work?
- Does HomeForHome have any rules for home exchange?
- Can I upload my second home?
- Can I trust it?
- Does the Exchange have to be simultaneous?
- Are cars also exchanged?
- What happens with pets?
- Who would be interested in my house?
- How much does it cost?
- Am I going to save much money on my holidays?
- Can you do an exchange within the same country?
- I´m only a tenant. Can I still exchange my accommodation?
- What we say at HomeForHome
- At the time of doing the house exchange, does any type of contract exist between the exchanging parties?

As promised, today we continue with a brief introduction to the different sections of our website: Home, Search, Community and FAQ. Let’s get started with the first two and leave the Community and FAQ for tomorrow.

HOME

In the centre of the Home section we show you the top three countries with the most registered houses available for home exchange and the cities with most registered houses within those three countries. There are some popular travel destinations there: Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome. Every country name or city name links directly to the list of houses available for home exchange in that country or city, so it could be very useful if you have your mind set on any of the destinations shown in that list.

The right side panel is dedicated to showing the discussions in the Community forum that received comments recently and the latest homes added to HomeForHome.

SEARCH

The very useful Search section has two main areas, a left panel where you can choose your search options and a central area where the search results are displayed.

You can specify:

- Travel dates.
- Destination: Country, Region, Town/City. You should always allow a few seconds before selecting the sub-levels because only after you choose the country from the first drop-down menu, the region drop-down menu will load the proper options, allowing you to make your selection, and only after you select the region, the same will happen with the town drop-down menu. You can also select the country and then leave the region and city in blank to search for home exchange offers in any particular country, for example France.
- Type of house. There are three options in the drop-down menu: Flat, House, Rural-house, and a few checkboxes you can mark.
- Services.
- Activities.
- Other. This section will let you select the number of bedrooms, double beds, single beds and bathrooms.

You don’t have to specify your selection for every search option before you hit the “Search” button, but you may want to include all the things you can’t do without. For example, under Services: Internet or Washing machine, or under Activities: Beach!

After you get your search results, you can use the feature “Put in order of” to sort them by area, number of rooms, services, facilities, evaluation (these are opinions given by users that already made a home exchange to this house) and the date the house was first registered for home exchange.

By clicking on the home title you will access the property’s complete description. If you find an offer that you like, you will be able contact the owner directly using the “Contact” button available in every profile or home listed. There is also a button to “Request exchange” in each home description.

HomeForHome is getting ready for some changes. Thanks to all who have contributed ideas and suggestions, the website is going to have some improvements really soon. But, as this is a really busy time of the year for all of our registered users, we wanted to make a small clarification that will be important for many of you.

As you all know, there is a limit to the number of home exchange proposals you can send every week to ensure there is no bulk requesting. But, as important as sending requests, is checking if you have received a home exchange proposal yourself. Well, HomeForHome can send you an e-mail alert when someone sends you a message or proposal. To receive such an alert, you need to mark a check-box in your profile that does not have a “clear” label right now. The current label is:

“I want to subscribe to the newsletter”

Image by Francesco Marino /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, if you want to receive an alert in the e-mail address you used to register in HomeForHome when another user contacts you or sends you a home exchange request, you need to mark this check-box. We believe this will be very helpful to those expecting answers from other users or waiting to come across a perfect proposal.

That’s all for now, keep swapping!

Image by djcodrin /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When one first comes across this whole “home exchange” deal, the first one wonders is “Would this be right for me?” In past posts we have often pointed out good qualities a swapper should have: patience, flexibility, communication skills, thoughtfulness, a sense of adventure, curiosity, honesty, respectfulness, among others. But first things first: if you just can’t help thinking about the terrible things some strangers may do while in your house, then probably home exchange is not right for you. To be confident that you can to create a solid “bond” with someone to trust them with your house is the foundation to hold your swap “career”. If this is not your case, then you will have to pass on this and choose a different mean of accommodation. Hey, we don’t have anything against what hotels, home rentals and resorts offer, we just prefer home swapping to those options.

Now that we established some ground, I think there’s another pillar to succeed at home exchange: patience. You will need it for many steps along the road: to set your HomeForHome account, to add your home to our listings, to surf the site looking for interesting offers, to participate in the forums, to evaluate proposals carefully, to arrange  the swap details once you get lucky, and maybe to wait enough time for your first opportunity in the home swap world to crystallize.

We are not discovering anything recommending patience as a “must” virtue for any traveller, anyone that has been to an airport recently should know what this means, right? But let’s leave patience in the airport for next time.

Every once in a while it is a good idea to refresh the basics of home exchange for those who have just discovered this exciting way of travelling.

How much does it cost? Nothing. HomeForHome offers free registration and does not charge you for using the service.

Image by djcodrin /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Who can exchange? Everybody! Home exchange can benefit families, retired people, single people, people with pets, groups of friends, even people that are not home owners. For example, tenants could swap, because there is no financial transaction involved and the exchange cannot be interpreted as sub-letting (it is advisable, for courtesy, that you let the home owner know about this). Another example: if your parents or grandparents have a vacation home, you could ask them to publish it as available during the time they are not using it and that way you can “use” their second home to swap to different places. However, they should participate in the arrangement as HomeForHome intends this to be between owners, and it should be clear to your fellow swapper who is going to be staying in their home.

What are the rules to participate in a home exchange? The basic rule is that you have to leave the home exactly as it was found. But of course we expect some flexibility, things could be misplaced during cleaning, cooking, etc. The details of every particular home exchange are left to the participants to agree on during their personal communications, which should take place before the actual exchange is arranged. Clear communication of each other’s expectations is the key to a successful exchange.

We will continue with these basics in our next post. If you just can’t wait: check out our FAQ section or contact us to learn more about home exchange with HomeForHome.

Image by Conspirator at flickr.com

Do you remember the days when summer was synonym of three months off school? If your answer is “yes, oh yes, I remember those sweet days” (some could had “it was so long ago!”), well we are sorry your summer vacations are a little shorter now, but there are people that don’t need to remember: school teachers. For those of you that don’t need to remember the old days and still enjoy those months off, home exchange can be a great opportunity to plan a few trips during the summer to start your next school year renewed!

A vacation doesn’t need to be long to help you relax, and certainly three months without work doesn’t mean that you will be able to recharge your batteries. To help you relax and really enjoy your summer, HomeForHome has offers from all over the world. You could easily combine a couple of short stays nearby with a longer trip to a foreign country without spending a lot of money. Remember, home exchange lowers your lodging budget to zero! So, why stay home?

HomeForHome’s forums can help you find other home owners in a similar situation, wishing to swap their homes for a long period over the summer, in your own country or abroad. You could start a topic to find people that share your profession and who will also have a long summer vacation. To do that visit the “Community” tab and find the right forum to start your topic.

Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Switzerland… Where do you want to go?