We’d love to home exchange, but . . . .

‘We’d love to home exchange, but we don’t think we live in an area which will attract much interest.’ Despite emphasising again and again that there are many reasons why people might want to stay in the most unlikely destinations, such as to visit family or retrace their roots, I often hear statements such as this. If someone with this point of view takes the time to think laterally, there are other possibilities – they could offer their services as housesitters, for example.

‘But are there many people seeking homesitting?’ The answer is yes: whilst not so prolific as those seeking direct home swaps perhaps, there are many reasons why someone might seek this alternative. They might be going on a conventional holiday for a change, taking a cruise, visiting friends or relatives, or even have exchanged their second home rather than their principal residence for their holiday, and would most definitely prefer that their home is occupied during their absence rather than left empty.

Green Theme International Home Exchange members, the Oostveen family who live in HARDERWIJK, Gelderland THE NETHERLANDS HE19888 are eager to provide homesitting services and this is how they describe their offer:

“We're a Dutch family with two well-behaved children who are very fond of farm holidays and quite crazy about animals. It would be great if we could help someone out by doing housesitting and looking after animals while enjoying the countryside.”

As you can see, the Oostveens are not just offering to housesit, but they are also willing to look after animals. Unfortunately, because they are not listing a property for exchange but a service, there is no photograph accompanying their listing, which might attract more attention to it. In these circumstances, it would be nice to include a picture of the housesitting group with the listing.

Because housesitting does not embody the concept of mutual trust as in home exchange where each party is occupying the other’s home, I would always recommend that before allowing anyone into your home to housesit, that you try to obtain at least some references as to their trustworthiness and ability. A considerable time ago my husband (who had had previous experience of working with animals in his youth and later on on our smallholding in Cornwall) undertook the milking for a neighbouring farm whilst they went to visit their family in Canada and it all worked very well. But, of course, the responsibility is so much greater when it applies to a farming situation, and this should be borne in mind before embarking on such an exchange
too lightly.

Write a new byword for GTI Home Exchange

To help us through the more dismal months of the year, it's nice to have a pat on the back once in a while, so we have decided to invite you to contribute a new byword for home exchange in general, and for Green Theme International Home Exchange in particular.

To start the ball rolling, a former GTI Home Exchange member wrote to say we were:

"Bringing a lot of people joy in an affordable way."

That was nice and very encouraging. Now it's over to you to add to that feel-good factor!

Make Sustainable Tourism a priority

At the World Travel Market taking place in London this week delegates endorsed the declaration issued by the second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in October. It calls for the development of "truly sustainable tourism" and demands the sector responds to climate change by mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the changing climate and improving energy efficiency.

United Nations World Tourism Organisation secretary-general Francesco Frangialli said: "It is in our interests to ensure it is possible to ski in the Alps at the end of this century, to dive at the Great Barrier Reef or experience the wildlife of Africa. To consumers, we say give priority to sustainable tourism and avoid wasteful choices."

UK Tourism Minister, Margaret Hodge, said: "It is not for the Government to deny people the right to travel or deny the industry the opportunity to respond to demand. We need to reflect people’s desire to travel and the opportunities this brings, but also minimise the impact of aviation growth.

The industry is doing a lot, but more can be done. Aircraft technology is improving, airports are taking measures to minimise emissions, and some parts of the industry are offering carbon-offsetting schemes."

She emphasised: "Offsetting is not the only answer and is just one tool in combatting climate change. It is up to all of us to reduce energy use.

Offsetting can help people to appreciate their impact on the environment. This is essential if we are to meet the Government’s carbon reduction targets.

Air Passenger Duty has played a valuable role in signalling the environmental costs of travel to passengers and we will replace APD with a per-aircraft duty in 2009.

This will create a better correlation with the distance travelled and encourage more airlines to fly at full capacity."

Whilst Green Theme International Home Exchange is an organisation which enables people to travel, we have always acknowledged the need for and encouraged sustainable tourism, and are seriously concerned about the increasing environmental costs of travel. Please send us your comments about what you see as the future for the travel industry and how carbon emissions should be reduced.

Member Messaging Changes at GTI Home Exchange

A recent email from GTI Home Exchange member Shane, indicated that he may have been confused by the recent changes to our member messaging system when he sent us the following message:

"I am a current member and I am concerned that "recently contacted" is not showing all. Afraid I will contact a member more than once! What are the perameters? Does it show up to a 100? Only last 30 days? Please advise. Thanks.

Love your site. Have had 3 exchanges from it."

Whilst full details of the changes have been posted within the Site Administrator's Message in the Members' Area on the web-site: in case some members have missed the details about these changes, we are repeating them again here.

Site based messages between members

For your security, and to protect your privacy, all contact with other members is now done from your member area. Your sent and received messages are stored there in folders (Inbox and Sent messages). Your on-going correspondence with each member is stored separately for easy reference. Please note: as all contact information you entered on your form (email, phone, fax, mailing address) is hidden, you choose when you are ready to provide contact details to another member.

New message alerts by email

Whenever there is a new message for you (a reply to a message you sent or a message from another member), you will receive a brief email, with the subject line, New Home Exchange message for you from HExxxxx, to alert you to log on to your member area to read and reply to the message.

A few new message alerts may end up in junk folders by mistake and so it is important to skim through all mail in your junk folder before deleting it if possible. It's tedious but, until there are better filters that can sort all legitimate messages from the masses of unsolicited mail, there may be a few 'good' messages that need to be rescued from your junk folder and moved to your in-box. If you can't check through your junk folder, be sure to log on to your member area regularly to check and read any recent messages you may have overlooked.

Home exchange offer messages

When first contacting a member with your exchange offer, use the form at the bottom of the member's listing. If you have compiled a standard exchange offer message and saved it on your computer, you can copy and paste it into the form and then personalise the message before sending. The subject line is already completed and includes your User ID so the member can easily find your listing. When you have finished your message, click Submit. As soon as your message has been sent, you will see the member's User ID under the Recently contacted list in your member area. You can save a record of up to 20 messages sent at a time and delete any you don't want to keep by clicking the 'x' beside it.

After receiving my response to his email, Shane followed it up with:

"Thanks for your response. I thought I was going crazy! Look forward to the new changes. Because of the low storage on recently contacted I was starting to really zoom in based on advanced search because I was afraid to become a pesky American to your members. The ideal improvement might be to note that a listing has already been contacted when searching. At this stage I'm not sure if Shane's suggestion is possible, but we will certainly look into it. The new messaging system does allow the recording of message threads, so perhaps this will assist Shane in keeping track of the results of his communications.

Discussion Point

Do you feel that the number of "Recently contacted" messages stored, ie 20 messages, is adequate? Please let us know your views!