Green Theme International Multilingues et Yahoo

Pour plus de six ans Green Theme International Home Exchange a offert des pages multilingues de leur site web GTI Home Exchange (Echange de Maison GTI). Maintenant Yahoo! Search vous offre la recherche multilingue (encore en Beta). Si vous voudrez l'essayer allez au Yahoo France et cliquez sur le bouton 'la recherche multilingue' des options de recherche.

Yahoo! Search - Essayez la recherche multilingue !

Plus besoin de parler cinq langues pour profiter de ce que le Web peut
offrir ! Vous tapez vos mots-clés en français, et la recherche multilingue
de Yahoo! Search les traduit en différentes langues puis donne
les résultats traduits en français.
o Découvrez des sites que vous n'auriez pas pu trouver autrement.
o Mots-clés, titres, descriptifs, tout est traduit en français.
o D'un clic, accédez aux sites en VF et en VO.

Une simple option à cocher

Pour activer la fonction, il suffit de taper vos mots-clés dans la boîte de
recherche, de cocher l'option " Recherche multilingue " et de cliquer
sur le bouton " Rechercher ". Par cette simple action :
o votre requête est traduite en plusieurs langues (pour l'instant,
anglais, allemand, espagnol et italien) ;
o la recherche s'effectue sur chacune des traductions ;
o les sites trouvés sont traduits dans l'autre sens et affichés en français.

Des résultats plus nombreux et en français

La recherche multilingue de Yahoo! Search permet à la fois de trouver
plus de résultats qu'auparavant et d'y accéder en français.
o Plus de résultats : 5 fois plus de langues, c'est potentiellement 5 fois
plus de résultats. Voyez la différence s'afficher avec le nombre de
résultats trouvés.
o V.F. et en V.O. : la langue d'origine de chaque site est affichée.
Vous pouvez choisir directement la V.O., mais vous pouvez aussi voir
la page traduite, et grâce au système d'onglets, naviguer sur le site,

The Home Exchange Poacher

The purpose of home exchange agencies is to put you in touch with other people interested in exchanging homes for vacations. A good home exchange agency will have spent many years building an extensive member base in many countries, creating an attractive web-site to attract a constant stream of new members and initiating improvements to the web-site to make it very easy for their members to use. A good home exchange agency will build up a dialogue with their current members to provide them with lots of help and be available to answer their questions promptly.

As a result of this close relationship GTI Home Exchange members are usually prompt in advising us if they receive any unsolicited mailings from people who are trying to abuse our system. It has recently been brought to our notice that a lady by the name of Ans Lammers has been sending unsolicited messages to some members to join her new home exchange agency. The only way that this lady could have gained access to the email addresses of our members is to have joined under a pseudonym, as there is no one by that name registered on our database. When questionned, our members are certain
that she could not have obtained their names and email addresses elsewhere(especially for such a targetted mailing as would be necessary to reach members who are interested in home exchange).

Occasionally new agencies trying to establish themselves will offer free membership for a limited period, but it should be appreciated that free membership does not always attract the type of people you would wish to exchange with: if someone is not prepared to pay a small fee to join an agency, consider whether they may be genuinely committed to arranging an exchange. Whilst we cannot, of course, prevent members from joining another agency if the offer seems attractive and they wish to do so, we would hope that members would be cautious in supporting someone who is prepared to adopt such underhand methods to poach another agency's members.

Generally it is best to stay with an established home exchange agency that you can see has a good range of up-to-date exchange offers, and which operates a private, members-only site for extra safety.

A GTI Home Exchange Member's generosity

GTI Home Exchange members, Rayne and Bob of Seattle, generously offer non-reciprocal hospitality when their planned exchange does not work out.

"We had an exchange planned, but because of the vagarys of e mail, it didn't work. We were very disappointed. Within a week we received a query from a family in England. We live north of Seattle. It was too late to buy affordable plane tickets to be able to do an exchange, but I thought what the heck, let's invite them to stay here for a few weeks. They could use our home as a base during the week when we are at work and on the weekends we could take them on our favorite hikes and to favorite fishing spots.

"I was at a point in my life when I really needed to have a new experience and I thought it would be interesting to invite a family from so far away, that we had never met and take the risk. It paid off wonderfully. Our familys were as compatible as if we had been life long friends. Meryl and Chris were relaxed, friendly and very interesting. Their 4 teens were active in a diverse range of things. We had nice interaction with each one of them. Danny, the youngest, might remember the funny american lady (me) who would punch him on the shoulder affectionately every now and then. Ruth and my kids played soccer and Adam and my 17 year old discussed regae music for hours.

"One of my favorite memories was canoeing with the Dad, Chris. The water of the lake was clear and the sunlight reflected thru the depths. Chris is a sound recorder and has worked from Barrow Sound, Alaska to the Antarctica. I asked him if by chance he had ever met Dervla Murphy, my favorite travel writer, and he had !

"Meryl and I did the household chores together and got on in quiet a sisterly way. She and I both have hectic lives. Chris is gone for long periods and so she is on her own with a full time job and 4 kids. To see her canoeing on the lake, by herself, in peace is something I remember often.

"So Kath, best wishes in your business, you can tell it brings a lot of people joy, in an affordable way !"

Rayne

"Dervla Murphy's latest travel book Through Siberia by Accident"

Great Times on Home Exchange - Final Part

John & Val's GTI Home exchange partners, Gavin and Ailsa, comment on their first Home Exchange experience.


Gavin & Ailsa outside John & Val's home

This was our first experience of a home exchange of this nature and it proved a magnificent way to enjoy an extended visit to another country. Without it, we could never have stayed for as long as we did. It was made even more enjoyable when we overlapped in Hong Kong and were able to meet Val and John and have a meal together; it blew away the thought of strangers living in our home. The actual exchange of home and car was for 3 months and was completed very successfully. We recommend the concept to others.

Gavin & Ailsa

Great Times on Home Exchange - Part IV

Towards the end of our stay we flew to Australia for about 5 days stay in each of Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast at Surfer’s Paradise. We experienced sunny 20-25C temperatures for most of our antipodean trip. Then very regretfully it was time for the long flight home via Singapore.

We have always found everything in order on our return and even though we may move things around a little where we stay to suit, we replace them. Online banking and Visa take care of cash flow. Any problems and there is always a relative nearby to contact, or one can email the exchangers. We always leave guide notes to operate equipment etc., emergency contact phone numbers and details of places of interest.

We don’t regret for a moment the time and money we have spent traveling abroad over the years. Home exchange is such a rewarding, stimulating and enjoyable way to experience the world and its people.

Great Times on Home Exchange - Part III

Our trip to New Zealand via Hong Kong

A year ago we decided to visit New Zealand this year for three months (Mar-May 2005) and soon contacted a retired professional couple, again through Green Theme, who were interested in visiting the UK to do some more detective work on their family history. As usual we only made broad plans here. Invariably it is best to book flights on the net, especially any internal ones. This time we decided to fly Singapore Airlines by recommendation, and to spend 10 days in February in Hong Kong on the way. There we met our exchangers on their way to our home and had an enjoyable meal together.
Val & John enjoying a meal with Ailsa & Gavin at a restaurant in Hong Kong

Our visit to a Ceremonial Tea House in Macau









Then on to New Zealand and Auckland where we got a shuttle bus to Hamilton. On the way we chatted to a fellow passenger who was head of a technical college there and he generously offered to lend his holiday home on the Coromandel Peninsula for a few days. Hamilton is a lovely city with a beautiful park; river walks; and of course a rugby stadium. The modern exchange home was in a leafy suburb close to the city centre and the country roads south. We got to know our neighbours and after a couple of weeks we began our grand tour of North and South Islands, seeing over 1800 miles of stunning scenery. Highlights included a railway trip in the mountains near Christchurch; bathing in open air thermal pools; boat trips on lakes and fiords; experiencing Maori culture; Art Deco architecture in Napier; geothermal activity at Rotorua; close-ups of many of their unique animals; and an underwater world in Auckland.

Next stop Australia....

To be continued ...

Great Times on Home Exchange - Part II

Northern California - Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia)- US

Then it was time to fly off to Ottawa having kept in touch by email, and we were met at the airport by our exchanger’s son. Her apartment was well situated in the suburbs on a scenic bus route into the centre through parkland by the river. There we saw the colourful Canada Day celebrations outside the Parliament Building including a display by the Royal Mounties.

Later in our stay we visited Toronto by train. We also drove down to Gananoque near Kingston for a boat trip amongst the Thousand Islands, of salad dressing fame. Our longest excursion in the Mazda sports car was east to Montreal, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia where we stayed in a tiny cabin set in the grounds of a palatial residence where we went for breakfast.

Our return route was across the border through the US seeing F. D. Roosevelt’s home and the Frederic Remington Art Museum on the way. All too soon after that we returned to the UK, via a rescheduled flight, having had a wonderful trip. We finally met our Canadian exchanger when she revisited England last year, having kept in regular contact since our exchange.
To be continued .....

Great Times on Home Exchanges - Part 1 - UK North Oxfordshire to USA Northern California

John & Val's Californian Odyssey

We have now enjoyed three very good long term exchanges because we wanted to spend long enough in other countries to get to know the people and their way of life by living there like residents through a home exchange. We decided that we didn't mind someone else living in our home for some months, but wondered if ours was good enough. Our home is in a good location in the South Midlands close to Oxford, Warwick, Stratford upon Avon, the Cotswolds and on the main road and rail transport systems for London, Birmingham etc., which attracted our exchangers.

After some research, Val, my wife, chose Green Theme International as our home exchange agency and we haven't been disappointed. Through their website we posted details of our semi-detached "cosy" home in North Oxfordshire with various stipulations as to where and when we wanted to stay and for what length of time. As we wanted to stay in the USA and Canada we decided to go for broke and to try to do these consecutively. From the offers we received we were able to stay two months (April and May) in Northern California followed by a further two (June and July) in Ottawa before returning home. With a real sense of anticipation we started planning a year in advance so we had time to get to know our exchangers by e-mail. One benefit of an exchange is that it prompted us to get the home up to scratch, clearing clutter and creating storage space. We have very good neighbours who welcome our exchangers with the key and help them to settle in, even give driving instruction where necessary. We usually buy the Lonely Planet guide to get a feel for the country and to get some ideas of the places we most want to see, but we don’t finalise the itinerary until we get there. Then we have a good chat with locals who love to suggest things whilst getting to know us, quite often coming up with the detailed road maps too. Car exchange is also convenient and cost-saving even though we have to pay extra on our insurance.

Our first exchanger’s red Ford Thunderbird enabled us to travel round California, Reno, Lake Tahoe, the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. We also met up with a couple in Sacramento who Val had got to know on a previous visit. Other outings included supper at a llama farm, a tour of a gold mine and a rodeo near Grass Valley. We were also introduced to a local group of hikers and saw much of the beautiful scenery close up and went for an exhilarating swim in the Yuba river. So the two months flashed by. Then it was time to fly off to Ottawa .....
To be continued ...

Comment ajouter vos photos sur votre page du siteweb Echange de Maison GTI

Question

bonjour,
nous étions précédemment inscrits sous le numéro ID:HE14632;
Mais nous avons effectué une nouvelle inscription, cette fois sous le numéro HE17428. Nous voudrions faire quelques modifications sur cette page, mais ne réussissons à y accéder, car ayant choisi le même code secret, nous sommes ramenés sur l'ancienne.

Aussi merci de supprimer notre ancienne inscription et de nous indiquer comment faire pour ajouter des photos?

Réponse
Cher Bernard

Merci pour votre email conçernant votre reinscription avec Nom de Utilisateur: HE17428
et votre problème avec accés à cause de duplication de votre code secret. J'ai supprimé votre ancienne inscription comme vous avez voulu et maintenant vous ne devriez pas avoir difficulté à accéder la partie administrative du site qui vous concerne, utilisant le même code secret.

Au sujet de l'emplacement des photos, voici le procédure à suivre:

Entrez dans la partie administrative vous concernant par cliquant sur le 'link' Login au-dessous du titre 'Members' Area' sur la page en anglais ou sur la page en français pour arrivez au page:

http://www.gti-home-exchange.com/ihea/memberlogin.cfm

Entrez votre adresse email dans la première boite suivi par votre mot de passe dans la seconde. Cliquez sur le hyperlink 'Manage your Photos'. Vous arrivez à la page où vous pouvez ajouter ou modifier vos photos. Notez, s'il vous plait, que toutes photographies doivent être en .jpg format et, si possible, pas moins de 220 pixels en taille, afin de maintenir la qualité des photos. Photos avec une largeur plus
grande que l'hauteur sont les mieux.

Souvenez ce que vous avez intitulées vos photos, et le titre du dossier où vous les avez garder sur votre ordinateur.

Utilisez le bouton 'Browse' pour choisir une photographie de votre ordinateur. Marquez la photo numéro 1, 2, 3, 4 ou 5 qui convient, et puis cliquez le bouton 'Upload'. Bientôt vous verrez la photo pour l'image que vous avez selectionnée dans la boite pour cette photo au-dessus.

Pour remplacer une photo, il faut supprimer la vieille photo avant d'enregistrer une nouvelle photo. En cette instance, vous retrouveriez peut-être que la vieille photo apparaîsse encore une fois après que vous avez cliqué le bouton 'Upload', mais actuellement elle a été remplacée, et quand votre 'session' à ce moment sur votre ordinateur s'est terminée, vous verrez la prochaine fois que vous entrez le site que la nouvelle photo est en place.

N'hésitez pas à me contacter si vous avez besoin de renseignements complémentaires.

Kath Botterill

Home Exchange at Christmas

With Halloween's witches and hobgoblins now back in their hideouts for another year, thoughts naturally turn to the Christmas festive season, and if you have not yet made your plans and fancy a change of scene there are a number of home exchange opportunities available on the GTI Home Exchange website.

If the lights and markets of Paris appeal, New Yorkers might well wish to consider Harry and Isabelle's offer, HE17340.

"Apartment overlooking Paris (Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame... )next to Père La Chaise cemetery, 20 minutes from city centre (Les Halles) with direct metro line. Lively quarter with cheap restaurants, a lot of shops and markets. Nice neighborhood, a lot of friends and a janitor in the building always ready to help you !"

"We hope to spend Christmas in New York, December 19 until Tuesday, December 27 and need an apartment for this period. We can leave ours even longer, because we can go to Normandy."

Another Christmas offer comes from Spain, HE13924

"We offer a lovely cottage near Seville(km), with a large garden and a beautiful decoration. During Christmas lovely city center located appartment available. 2 adults (seniors) and 2 young people,of 24 and 18 years old."

And another from Arnhem in Holland, HE16553 whose owners are interested in England, Italy, Finland and Europe in general. We are open for offer around Christmas time, one or two weeks.
"Comfortable house with a large living, 3 bedrooms and a garden, build in 1974, in Arnhem, on the edge of National Park De Hoge Veluwe, one of the Netherlands' oldest and largest national parks. Together with the Kroller-Muller Museum and the sculpture garden it offers a unique combination of nature, art and architecture. Arnhem, fames from World War 2 “A bridge to far” is one of the fascinating cities of the East of the Netherlands near the German border and has everything to make your stay unforgettable. If you love culture, a walk, ride a bicycle, if you want to visit the large attractions, pleasantly go shopping or go out to the woody surroundings. Children welcome. We have a 5 years old boy, toys available for use and two large playgrounds behind our house and the a big sandbox."

Home Exchange - Let's go skiing

Following up on the 33rd Daily Mail and Ski Board Show last week, I thought it was appropriate to draw attention to home exchange ski opportunities which occur on the GTI Home Exchange website. Holidays relating to a particular theme are easily found by using the Detailed Search and clicking on the appropriate Theme from the drop down list. In the case of skiing, there are no fewer than 184 listings which mention the possibility of skiing. For example:


HE13107
Apartment of 2 rooms situated at the 1st floor of a pretty chalet with a balcony giving a magnificent view of the Alps.




HE17293
80m2 flat situated on golf course with view of the Alps. 10 minutes walk to village via the golf course. Country skiing directly at the door. Downhill skiing up to 3000m altitude. Also possibility of exchange of our house in San Jose, Costa Rica during school holidays.

Home Exchange Agreements

Believe it or not, very few members take the precaution of completing our simple Holiday Agreement Form, so it is gratifying when one does occasionally drop through the letter box. The Holiday Agreement Form is provided for members to exchange with each other, sending a copy to us to hold on file. It not only helps to clarify the terms of the exchange arranged, but also means that in the unlikely event of the need to make a claim against your travel insurance, evidence of an exchange having been arranged is held by a third party (ie GTI Home Exchange).

Having received the Holiday Agreement Form from Barry and Joyce of Rotherham, we are aware that they are off to Queensland, Australia, in November to enjoy Christmas down under in Gladstone. The Great Barrier reef is accessible by launch from the marina or by road from their exchange home. The beach, where there are bbq's, tables and play areas, is a short drive. As well as the family’s new car they will have the use of a Pajero 4WD with fridge, small boat and all fishing and camping equipment.

Meanwhile their exchange partners will spend what will probably be a somewhat cooler festive season in South Yorkshire, compensated by the fact that they will be able to spend Christmas with the family. Needless to say it was important for Terry and Patricia from Queensland to be in a comparatively precise location within easy access of Sheffield where the family live. So, whilst we recommend that the most successful exchangers are people who are able to be flexible about destination, we have proof here that you can be quite specific about a destination, and with ‘Lady Luck’ on your side, link up with compatible exchange partners using the GTI Home Exchange system.

We hope everyone has a really splendid time and look forward to hearing from you on your return. (Don't forget the Exchange Feedback Form is available for you to give us your feedback about your exchange experience. You may either copy and paste it, and send it to us saved as an MSWord .doc file attached to an email, or post it to us).

GTI Home Exchange 2 Year memberships

GTI Home Exchange member, Catherine, has just renewed her membership for our Membership option Plan 2 which gives her membership for a further two years at a discounted subscription rate.

Catherine says: "We did a home exchange to France this past summer and are hooked! You may view our listing HE15845. Please contact us with questions!"

From the picture that Catherine has posted on her listing, Davis, a sunny university city in California, certainly looks a lively place to visit. She says "It's a great place for touring Northern California; 10 mins to Sacramento (state capitol); 1½ hrs to San Francisco, the wine country, the Pacific Ocean; and 2½ hrs to the Sierra Nevada mountains (hiking, 1849 gold rush sites, Lake Tahoe, and Reno casinos)".

Contacting GTI Members

HE16210
Some time ago I received a message from a GTI Home Exchange member stating that they were having difficulty making initial contact with 2 other members, as their email address as available for their listing via the members' area appeared to be incorrect. As a result both of their messages to these members were returned unopened to them with the standard sort of ISP message ie:
"I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned below could not be delivered to one or more destinations".

Neil, who brought this to our attention, said "We have double checked that the address we sent to is as listed on the GTI site and they match so should have got through."

Members and visitors to the weblog yesterday who read the post about the recent GTI website upgrade will note that we have tried to address this problem of members' changing their email addresses and forgetting to update them on the website, by allowing members to include an alternative email address. For your security and to avoid spam, both addresses are available only to other registered members.

At the time that Neil sent us his message he was looking for an exchange in Denmark, and a new listing in Aarhus has just been added to the website:HE17356.

However, Neil's listing currently carries the heading 'Exchange Request Fulfilled".
If you have used the facility whereby you can indicate that your Exchange Request has been fulfilled and you do not wish to receive further offers for the time being, it is very important to remember to uncheck this box when you are ready to receive further offers of exchange.

Green Theme International Home Exchange Website Upgrade

We are pleased to advise members and visitors to the GTI Home Exchange website that our programmer has just completed a further upgrade to the site. We are always looking for ways to enhance the site, make it easier to use and add new features, many of which are incorporated as a result of member’s feedback. Although some of the changes are concerned with administration and will not be immediately noticeable to members and site visitors, you will see some additional options on the membership form, in the search pages and in the member area. If you are a current member you may wish to log on to your member area to check out the changes on the form (View/alter your details) and make additions/amendments as appropriate: (please do not forget to click on ‘Continue’ at the end of the form to save any changes):

Changes on the Membership Form

1 Mailing address is no longer a required field (although it is still useful as another means of contact, but not compulsory if you prefer not to include yours).

2 New box to add a second email address. (Members sometimes change their email address and forget to immediately change it on their GTI membership form, so preventing other members from making contact. It can be useful to have an additional address (perhaps a free web based one like Yahoo or Hotmail). Also occasionally members’ exchange offer messages are blocked and undelivered by a member’s ISP. Again, for this reason it can be useful to have a second email address to use, but it is not compulsory.

3 Type of Residence – Motor Homes/Houseboats have been added to the drop-down list.

4 Type of Exchange – Non-simultaneous Exchange possible (additional tick box option).

5 Ages of Children – As well as the number of children in your exchange party, you can now also include their ages.

6 Dates of Exchanges – You are able to indicate a specific range of dates for two separate periods. If you wish to be more flexible, use the tick-box option Open to offers.

Additional Search Functionality

We have included a new Advanced Search option, Type of Residence, a drop-down list.

Additions to your Member Administration Area

You will notice the following additions to your Member Area:

1 a direct link to View Your Listing (allowing you to easily view how your listing appears to visitors/browsers if you have made any additions/amendments to it).

2 a Member Logout link on all pages once you are logged on (to save having to click back to your member area to log out after browsing listings.

3 all the listings have individual page titles: much better for bookmarking!

GTI Home Exchange 1st Blog Anniversary

It hardly seems possible that it's almost a year since I started the Green Theme International Home Exchange blog, the time has flown. If you haven't yet discovered the GTI blog, please be quick as I believe items retained in the Archives will begin to fall off the blog very soon.

It has been a little disappointing that not more GTI members have come to terms with the technology of blogging, or at least made comments on the GTI blog, as hoped, to create a superb member resource for relating their experiences or discussing travel items of mutual interest. It's appreciated that some of us may not be in the first flush of youth and able to absorb all this technology, as Jo Chambers wrote:
"Hi Kate,
Now I know I went to Aus but the blogspot is just now perhaps a step too far, I do this in the library and hotmail does not like me visiting a site outside hotmail!!. Where would you like our news of our exchange to Australia, as I am disabled, using an electric scooter, we thought it might give confidence to others? Hope more people get inspired to put their experiences on line."
So I posted Jo's article about her trip to Australia for her and she was very pleased. "I think my article looks really good, though I say so myself."

It is in fact very simple to post your comments on the GTI blog. Just click on the Comments hyperlink below the relevant article, and again on the hyperlink Post a Comment. So here's hoping for some feedback.!!

GTI Home Exchange Newsletter - Autumn 2005

The GTI Home Exchange Autumn Newsletter 2005 was published on 21st September (the official date for the beginning of Autumn, I believe). Articles featured in this issue included:
-- A Topical Pilgrimage to Cape Trafalgar?
-- Home Exchange Matchmaking
-- Combining Home Exchange, Hospitality Exchange & Rental Options
-- Dipping into the GTI Home Exchange Archives
-- Question & Answer Session
-- Member Suggestion
-- Rare Home Exchange Opportunities not to be missed
-- Exchange within your Own Country
-- World Atlas

If you are not registered to receive your issue of GTI News by email as soon as it is published, you may read it by linking to GTI News. If you would like to receive the newsletter by email, please subscribe to the mailing list on the front page of the GTI Home Exchange web-site.

School Holiday Dates - Les Vacances Scolaires

A new listing from Karine HE17280 prompted this post: Karine mentions in her summary "Nous recherchons des échanges pendant les vacances scolaires de la zone 2." Most people outside of France would not know that different regions of the country have differing dates for school holidays, and it would perhaps not be easy for families to find out when the dates holidays might fall for the region in which an exchange offer is located to see if they are compatible with their own children's school holiday dates. I thought therefore that the following link to the French school calendar would be useful to enable families to check if their dates are compatible before pursuing the possibility of an attractive and interesting exchange offer, only to be disappointed.

If other members know of an easily accessible source of reference in their country for school holiday dates, please post them on this School Holiday Dates blog. I am sure the information will be much appreciated and very useful for people seeking to arrange family home exchange holidays.

If you are not sure how to make a comment or add the information, the procedure is simple: just click on the Comment hyperlink on the blog, register with a username and password and then post your comment. Failing this, just send the information to me with the appropriate URL reference, and I will post it for you.

Know Before You Go campaign

This may be a repeat post on the GTI Home Exchange weblog, but the information is very important worthy of consultation on a regular basis, and of course, just before you travel.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Know Before You Go campaign to help British travellers (and any others who may wish to make use of the information) stay safe overseas. Before you go overseas, check out the FCO website which is packed with essential travel advice and tips, and up-to-date country information.

Home Exchange Match Making

Question: A journalist asked this question this week, in preparation for an article he was writing on home exchange.

Does “like seek to exchange with like” when considering a home exchange?

Answer: Whilst many people would prefer and are often able to exchange with owners of a property similar in standing to their own, this is not something which is set in stone with regard to home exchange. Some people may be motivated more by the location of an exchange offer rather than the fact that the property should offer exactly the same facilities as their own home. There have been many examples of this: one which comes to mind is that of Trisha, a long-term member of GTI Home Exchange, with a beautiful property in Australia, who recently wrote in response to our renewal reminder: “I am in the UK at present and have been so busy with two children getting married within weeks of each other that I have put all else on hold. I do intend to renew our membership and will do so on our return to Australia when I have more time to sort things out.” Trisha was in UK and needed to be in specific locations for the weddings of her children. Similarly Winnie Larsen HE16500 wrote “We are going to a wedding in Edinburgh the 2nd of July and we are looking for a house exchange within that period. Winnie’s example above also indicated that sometimes it is the dates for which the exchange is offered that are equally as important.

Nevertheless, it is probably true that the most successful and carefree exchanges often take place when “like exchanges with like”. For example it is far more likely that a young family will find that their exchange meets their needs and matches up to their expectations if they are able to exchange with a family whose children are of similar ages to their own. There will be toys and facilities that meet the needs of the youngsters of the same age group and it often removes the need to take essential bulky equipment such as buggies etc.

Similarly other specific groups such as Seniors may prefer to exchange with people of their own age. Their properties are arranged more for the convenience and tastes of their group, perhaps with expensive décor, even antiques, and may not be set up to withstand the impact of more vigorous age groups such as families with teenagers. For people wishing to limit their search for an exchange within the Seniors group, they simply need to click on Detailed Search and check the “Seniors/Over 55's” box.

Of course, the final answer is not to close any avenues which you think may lead to the exchange you want be it for a particular reason or the holiday of a lifetime, but to earn a reputation of being an ideal home exchange partner by preparing an enticing exchange offer, and giving the time to getting to know and becoming comfortable with your prospective exchange partners before agreeing to a definite arrangement.