Doing a home exchange between Europe and Australia is sometimes difficult.

Let’s face it. It’s a long way to go. One of the problems that Australians would have with home exchange with Europe is that they often want to see more than one European country in order to make the most of the trip.

Which makes perfect sense. If you travel all that way, you’d definitely want to sample some of the rich tapestry that Europe has to offer.

But this should not be a problem though. Why not do two home exchanges? It’s not that difficult to co-ordinate. You spend a couple of weeks in France, a couple of weeks in Portugal, and then take a few days out to travel between the two.

From the other perspective, depending on the number of people that would be interested in this, the system could work very well. Australia is a popular destination for travellers, and generally people are interested in poking around in various different areas across the country in one trip. So, if a European family did a two week exchange in one part of Australia, they could then take a few days to travel around, and then reach their second holiday home exchange destination.

A trip between Australia and Europe could be costly, flight wise. So saving money on other expenses such as accommodation could definitely soften the blow!

Here at Homeforhome.com what we’re suggesting for the Australia Question is simply: double home exchange, two week slots.

But more than anything, we need to get talking about Australia. Who is interested in going there? Who knows people in Australia who would be interested in doing home exchanges? The Australia Question is a big one. But if we can facilitate cheap and comfortable holidays, cracking the big Down Under would be massive for our home exchange community. Massive!

In 2007, the average cost of a hotel room in Europe was a staggering figure. One single night in a 3 star hotel in Moscow would have cost you £194*. So if you went with your family for, let´s say, two weeks, that would amount to a colossal £2,716. That´s nearly four thousand dollars - $3,911.21. Pretty incredible, huh? So let´s take a look at the cost for one night for some other popular European must-see destinations:

Venice £125

Geneva £109

Rome £104

Edinburgh £103

Oslo £103

Copenhagen £99

Barcelona £95

Milan £94

Amsterdam £92

Stockholm £93

Vienna £89

Nice £85

Frankfurt £82

So. You could say that staying in a hotel in Europe is a little on the pricey-side. So if you want to travel in Europe, you´ve got three options. You could make the sticky decision between staying in a Travellers Hostel - which is cheaper but you lack privacy and space - or, spending a phenomenal amount on your accommodation. Or, you could avoid all of these problems, and do a home exchange. To have a comfortable holiday, staying in a hotel in Europe could end up costing the earth. So why not amplify the comfort, the space and the imtimacy, for none of the cost! Home exchange. You know it makes sense. If we don´t convince you, maybe the list of hotel prices will…

(*All figures in this post are quoted from site: http://www.hotels.co.uk/press/hotel-price-index-2008.html#price_changes)