Just a little note to refresh in everyone’s mind the HomeForHome ethos.

We’re a free online service that enables our users to do free holiday home exchanges across the world. We offer the facilities on our website to people seeking holidays in which they go and stay in the home of another user. In exchange they allow their exchange partner the use of their house for an agreed period.

Exchanges can be non-simultaneous, and can last for however long the users want and agree to.

HomeForHome is very much a community-based website. As such, we strive to maintain the spirit of cameraderie, and the integrity of the homes available.

Homeforhome is not a host site for being wishing to rent or sell properties. Whilst we vigilate the homes that are uploaded on to the site, we ask that if you come across a home that is seeking sale or renting, or any other transaction involving the exchange of funds, that you notify us immediately and we will instantly delete the profile.

We seek to preserve the integrity and quality of the HomeForHome community so that you have the best possible experience of home exchange. Please help us to maintain the dependability of HomeForHome.

It is undoubtedly a good idea to get to know your prospective home exchange partners before doing an exchange. In any well prepared,  decently planned home exchange, conversation prior to the vacation is a must.

Not only does it provide you with a great assistance in finding your way through a) the house, b) the district, and c) the city, but it can also arm you with a wealth of information about top tourist attractions, restaurant recommendations, upcoming concerts and shows etc. The most experienced, expert guide you could have for your vacation is sat there at the other end of the internet, just waiting for your message. So it makes a lot of sense on a practical level to have a fair amount of contact before you set off for your vacation.

On a personal level too, it makes an awful lot of sense to build up a rapport with your home exchangers. If there are things about your home that you are worried about, or that require special care, then establishing a sense of trust between the exchangers is the ideal way of approaching this. It’s good for everyone’s peace of mind to talk through the plans and get to know fellow exchangers so that you feel comfortable and relaxed by the time that your vacations come along.

So, how to set about doing this? Our website provides you with an internal messaging system which is easy to use, and which sends you notifications to your email inbox when you receive a new message. Alternatively you can swap email address, or telephone numbers. An excellent way of building up a solid, personal relationship with your exchange partners is to use Skype. International calls via phone lines can be costly. However, if you download Skype, all you need is a microphone, and you can make either free international calls, or international calls at a very cheap rate (depending on the area).

By all accounts, it’s worthwhile making the effort, and with email and Skype, the only cost is the time you spend.

Security is something that worries us all.

Whether it be about thieves in the night, the salt content of our diets, or people rummaging through our stuff when we do a home exchange, we want to feel safe.

When you look at it objectively, it’s a very sensible idea. Avoiding unnecessary dangers. Not taking risks. Taking precautions against what might do us harm.

So, definitely a good evolutionary feature. We’re not about to turn around to you at HomeForHome and tell you that life is nothing without takings risks (even though there may be a few grains of truth of that.)

With every holiday you take, there is an element of risk. That’s a given. Not something we can guard against. But in terms of the primary concern that people have with home exchange, that an unknown family might look through their personal things, we can offer you an effective strategy against this.

Depending on the size of the house, you can designate a place - or even a room - to putting your private and or most valued things.

These may be photographs, jewelry, ornaments, valuable documents, laptops, specialist equipment. Generally our most valuable possessions are not littered all over the house. With a little bit of organization it’s the easiest thing to manage. Put all of your things into the attic, a safe, a wardrobe, a locked room or even a friend’s house. This way you will free yourself form one of the biggest fears that grips people who aren’t quite sure about home exchange. It’s safe, it’s protected, and you’re not putting anything at risk.

With a bit of forward planning, everything is possible.

Some might say that having a job that fulfils you is something of a luxury.

For many, work is about survival. On the whole, we work in order to pay the rent, put food on the table, pay the bills and simply arrive at the end of the month.

This is not something to be taken lightly. We cannot start making grand claims to have an exciting, fulfilling job that completes us as people, when the reality is that basic material need fulfilment is not something at all easy.

But we also have to accept on some level that a lot of people “fall into” lines of work that aren’t anywhere in line with their personlities, strengths, or emotional make up. Yet it is easy to get used to a comfortable life-style. To the money, the security.

Yet, with the crisis, that security has now gone. Nothing is sacred. And many people are, despite the very uncomfortable fear and insecurity, have the opportunity to look at what they can do, and if - as we now know - nothing is safe, then what is worth taking risks for.

Maybe this is the conception of our generation. The apathy, the commercialism, the consumer comforts. All gone! We’re ready for a fresh awakening. A chance to really question what we value, and what it is, at the deepest pitted root, that we need to make us feel happy.

What does this mean for home exchange? Well, it’s another symptom of the frost that comes, yet that bring us to a more alert state of consciousness.

It’s something for us to think about. How the change in consciousness, the new awareness that the security we always thought we would have has gone, and how we are taking things out of the matrix, and into our own hands.

How often before have we “fallen into” a package trip that some group of travel agents has loosely hooked together that’s meant to interest us and the whole of the rest of the population at the same time? Just because they sell it, doesn’t make it good.

Home exchanges bring home the real values of holidays. They’re not about package tours, impersonal hotels, and what money can buy you. They’re about giving yourself an experience that fulfils you and gives you the opporunity to challenge youself and try new things.

What is the biggest security risk to your home when you go away?

Well if we`re talking natural disasters, that obviously depends very much upon the area in which you live.

But generally speaking, leaving an empty house is the biggest risk to your property when you go away on holiday.

So what shall we do? Get the house sitters in? Pay them? You could get the neighbours to come round everyday to open and close the curtains every morning and evening. To pick the post up and put the newspapers in a pile. To feed the cat. To turn off the burgular alarm if it goes off for no reason.

It would be a whole lot easier to do a home exchange. You wouldn`t only be saving hugely on the costs of the holiday, but also on money for the house sitters, or the favours that you would be asking of the neighbours.

It´s like free insurance. Some people worry about the security of risks of home exchange. When in fact, if you consider it objectively, it gives you a much securer way of leaving your home when you go away.

You would be in the other family´s house. So there you have it, bound by mutual interest to respect and treat the other person`s home as if it was your own.

On top of this, they will be the general task managers of keeping everything in order for you, and keeping your fortress occupied and protected from harm whilst you`re away.

A win win situation!

So. Keys under the flower pot. Or under the doormat. Does anyone do that anymore? I don´t think so. But there is something really quite romantic about it. Something really very World War 2 era, or something very teenage there, lingering somehow.

Which of course brings us to the question of: how do we transfer keys when we do a home exchange? The most obvious thing to do would be to leave the keys with a neighbour. Safe, reliable, easy and simple.

But what about if you don´t have a neighbour you would feel comfortable asking this from? It could happen. People don´t connect as much anymore. Gone are those playful days of a gentle loan of a cup of sugar, or leaving the front door unlocked so that neighbours can come and go as they please. (Like, to access inside of the house.) So some people might not feel comfortable asking a neighbour to do this.

Or what if the other home exchangers have flights that will arrive at 4 o´clock in the morning and you just can´t quite bring yourself to ask Bob and Sue (or Geoff and Viv) to wake up in the middle of the night to do you this favour.

Well. There are other ways of organizing these things. Firstly, depending on your preferences, you could send a copy of the keys via special post delivery. It´s a bit extreme, but possible nonetheless. Obviously don`t put your address on the envelope.

If you don`t feel comfortable with this, you could organize for a family member, or friend to come around on the day that the guests will arrive, and get them to open up and welcome in the new family. Or, if it´s a “4 in the morning” type scenario, they could put the keys in an envelope and hide them in a specific and predetermined point outside of the house. (Flower pot!! It´s screaming out to you!)

Another way to do things is to get the exchanges to overlap a little, so that the family stays with you one day, and that way you can do everything by your own hand. Often home exchangers do like to meet their fellow exchangers, as it puts a nice smiley face on top of everything, and makes you feel more comfortable.

There are fifty ways to leave your keys to the incoming exchangers. You just need to be a bit imaginative, and don´t be afraid to ask for a bit of help from a neighbour or friend. Most people are more than willing to do it.