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.

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.

Since we have had a great number of users registering in the past few weeks, we are going to take a quick tour to help people find where everything is in HomeForHome and get acquainted with the website.

The top and bottom panels are visible from every section of the website and include:

In the top-right corner:

- The links to change to HomeForHome in different languages:
ES-Spanish FR-French DE-German IT-Italian

- The link to “Sign up” for those that have not registered for an account in HomeForHome yet. The registration form is also accessible using the “Register free and add your house” button in our homepage. There are two steps to create an account in HomeForHome:

1. To add a personal profile (User registration)

2. To add your home.

After you finish your registration, you will be able to access your account using the “Login” link to navigate through the listings, contact other users and send them home exchange requests.

- The link to “Login” for those that already registered. By logging in, you access different tools to add valuable information about your home. These tools are located under “My homes”: Below each home title (you can add as many homes as you want), you will find the list of tools: Requests, Edit, Photos, Videos, Availability and Remove. Use the “Edit” option to add information about facilities, services, and more.

- The “My list” link, which allows you to see those houses you have added to your list of favourites. For unregistered users, the tool will function whenever you visit the site from the same computer if you allow cookies from HomeForHome. If you are a registered user, you should add houses to your favourites list while logged in so they are permanently saved to your account and accessible from any computer, any time. When you see a home that you like, all you have to do is click on “Add to my list”, and this home will appear in the list of your favourite homes.

In the bottom of the page you will find the links to learn more About us and the Legal Terms and Conditions, access our blog, the contact form and press releases and articles talking about HomeForHome and home exchange.

Next time we will continue with the different sections of our website: Home, Search, Community and FAQ. Stay tuned!

If you are looking for a different experience for your next home exchange, Scotland sure has some ideas for you.

Green Tourism in Scotland

Photo by lmnyberg /Flickr.com

First things first. Over 700 businesses are registered members of the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) and are assessed for their energy efficiency and efforts to reduce their environmental impact, to sustain the quality of Scotland’s natural treasures. As a visitor, your support is required to preserve the quality of Scotland’s environment. So look for the identified businesses while you tour through Scotland.

Whisky Tourism in Scotland

There are 42 distilleries open to visitors, because not only it is one of the country’s most important exporting industries, it has also become an attraction to visitors and whisky fans from around the globe. The tourism and hospitality sector has joined the distilleries’ efforts to arrange a memorable experience adding other attractions to the “Scotch Whisky Trails“. The most complete online reference on this subject is ScotlandWhisky but you should also check out The Whisky Coast, The Malt Whisky Trail, and for information about the industry visit Scotch Whisky Association (SWA).

Just to give you a taste of what you can find:

Speyside is home to half of Scotland’s whisky distilleries, so if you care for a tour covering the different traditional distillation processes, this is the spot. Some of the tourist-friendly distilleries in the area are: Benromach, Cardhu, Dallas Dhu, Glen Grant, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet and the Strathisla Distillery, home of the renowned Chivas Regal blend.

Campbeltown is home to the oldest independent family owned distillery: Springbank Distillery. This is not the only fact that sets this distillery apart, it is also one of the two distilleries in the country that carries the complete process from barley and water to bottled Scotch whisky in one single site and it is also the only one that produces three different single malts using three different production methods: Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn.

“The Enchanted Forest”

An award winning outdoor show, that uses sound and light to tell the most amazing of all stories: the Earth’s history from the beginning to the modern era. Definitely a must if you arrange your home exchange in the area.  The Enchanted Forest is part of the Highland Perthshire Autumn Festival so visit http://www.pitlochryautumnfestival.co.uk/ to find our more and plan a fun-filled autumn home exchange vacation.

“One for All”

All in one: Cairngorms National Park includes the Aviemore, Angus Glens, Royal Deeside, Donside, Glenlivet and Speyside areas. You can find almost anything here, from family attractions to extreme sports there is definitely something to keep you entertained whether it is cold, warm, hot or even raining. Also, businesses in the park operate under the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) guidelines.

More information:
http://www.visitcairngorms.com/
http://www.cairngorms.co.uk/

Image by Salvatore Vuono /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We are really happy to announce that HomeForHome has reached 15,000 registered homes available for home exchange. We keep growing and growing and we are just thrilled!

Last March we announced the accomplishment of the 10,000 mark and just four months later we are announcing this new stunning mark of 15,000 homes registered in the website. Thank you all for making HomeForHome your preferred home exchange portal. Keep enjoying our free services and the many advantages of home exchange:

- Registration in HomeForHome is completely FREE.

- Home exchange is the cheapest way to travel, as the cost of accommodation is zero.

- Home exchange is simple: home owners agree on exchanging their homes during a certain period of time.

- The “golden rule”: treat the house or flat in your destination as your own and leave it exactly how you found it.

- Home exchange is very flexible, with the possibility for car exchange, travelling with pets, family travel, non-simultaneous exchange, long term exchanges, permanent exchanges, study exchanges, weekend exchanges, local exchanges, international exchanges, chained exchanges and many other options.

- The keystone: communication.

If you are new to home exchange, please visit our FAQ page or read some of our previous posts to learn more about this way of travel. If you want to give it a try, we would be glad to have you as a member of our swapper community.

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!

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?