Sunday, July 24, 2005

Temporary Car Breakdown Cover in Spain

Once again the taxing question of car insurance, this time for temporary breakdown cover, poses a problem for GTI Home Exchange member Suzy Topolski HE13483. Suzy writes: "do you have any advice regarding getting breakdown cover on our Spanish exchange partner's car. She has annual personal cover.....so is even fine with our car in UK........... so we need to know if we can get temporary breakdown cover in our name for a Spanish registered car. It seems we are fine for insurance.
Thanks.

If anyone, and particularly perhaps one of our many Spanish members, has any information on this point, would you please kindly post a reply on the GTI Weblog, or if you do not feel confident with this, please send me an email and I will pass the information on to Suzy, as well as posting it on the weblog for the benefit of other members who may have the same difficulty in arranging temporary breakdown cover whilst abroad.

Kath Botterill

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Fodor's Travel Guides

Newly registered GTI Home Exchange member, Pam Heaphey HE17085, mentioned the famed Fodor's Travel Guides in response to our question 'Where did you hear about GTI'? Curiosity aroused, I decided to take a look at Fodor's on-line. Whilst I could not find any direct reference to GTI Home Exchange, only our much more expensive competitors with membership subscription quoted in US$ being singled out for reference, I was impressed with the site and the amount of information available to travellers worldwide. It also offers the opportunity to register for their regular newsletter and really is worth a look.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Plea for Email Etiquette

An email received this morning from Lynn Armstrong HE15580 emphasises yet again how disappointing it is if members do not receive replies to their preliminary exchange enquiries: as Lynn says "it seems many members don't bother responding to exchanges proposed through the site! I don't know what the solution is, as to me it is only a matter of etiquete to say no, thanks!". I couldn't agree more, Lynn, and we repeatedly stress how important this is in our communications. Even if a member is not interested in a proposed exchange, they should reply as promptly as possible, so that the member knows the position and can continue looking for other compatible exchanges.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

GTI Newsletter Summer 2005

The GTI News Summer 2005 was posted on the web-site on 30th June, just before we lost our telecommunications for approximately 10 days owing to a severe storm. We are pleased to say that this did not prevent it being distributed to those of you who are on the GTI Newsletter mailing list, having registered to receive the Newsletter via email. If for any reason you have not received your copy, (ie you may have changed your registered email address, or your mailbox may be full), you may view it from the GTI Home Page by clicking on the GTI News link in the righthand menu.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Back in Touch

Owing to a severe storm and lightning which struck our main telephone cable approximately ten days ago, we have regrettably experienced an unprecented break in our communications, and have been unable to access the internet, receive emails or telephone calls from members and prospective clients during this period. Whilst we very much regret this break in our service, there was regrettably nothing that we could do about it and we were obliged to wait on the goodwill of the telephone company to re-instate our service. Fortunately, my daughter, Alison, now acting as our representative in the United Kingdom, was able to respond to many of your queries on our behalf. We are now back on-line, but do sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that this break in our usual high level of service may have caused.