Travel Insurance for longer term Home Exchange

Dear Kath

I like the new clean layout of the website.

Haven't been able to travel to NZ these past two years - 2 knee replacements! I am still not sure I am up to the walk to all those longhaul, far distant, departure gates just yet.

One matter has worried me, as I now exceed the age most insurance companies are keen to cover - travel insurance for longer periods. 20 odd mainline insurers didn't want to know, so it has been down to brokers only. My doctor suggested Help the Aged and their broker offered the best amount of £600 for three months; others quoted up to £1200. I also discovered that the price of air fares has rocketed since last going out to New Zealand in 2004 - with hardly any discounted business class fares these days, compared with the 90's.

I'm trying to achieve an exchange in Christchurch for next Spring, preferably three to six months. Something might 'turn up' for me in South Island, New Zealand, so I can visit not only my relatives there, but also the earlier exchange partners with whom I am still in regular touch.

Best regards
Godfrey HE12473

Kath's Note

If anyone can suggest other sources for competitive travel insurance quotes for the more elderly traveller and for longer periods, please let us know at Green Theme International Home Exchange.

Longer Term Swaps

Hello Kath,

Its quite exciting setting up an exchange…first time!

Brian and I are hoping to have an extended stay, longer than our potential swap partners, to London during the spring months. There is a possibility of these folk being home in their house in Marlow for a week or so between visiting Perth WA and spending the summer in their caravan in Cornwall. We are wondering if there is a facility in GTI for a house 'sit' for these 2(approx) weeks in between rather than trying to arrange another swap at suchlate notice. We are planning to take up residence back in their house while they are in Cornwall.

If this is not available thru GTI, do you have any recommendations of organizations we might use for such a short stay please.

Many thanks, Regards, Joy and Brian

Thank you for your email, and I am very pleased to hear that your plans for an extended home exchange to UK in the early part of 2007 are well advanced.

With reference to the short period when you will need to vacate the home for your exchange partners to return to it before departing again for their summer in Cornwall, I have searched the database and found the following request HE16462 for pet/housesitting in S W London for April 2007, but as you do not mention specific dates I do not know whether it matches the dates your require.

We do have the options 'housesitting offered' and 'housesitting wanted' within our system, but unfortunately the number of request for 'housesitting wanted' is limited. You could amend your own listing to say 'housesitting offered' as well as 'home exchange' to see if any members approach you requesting your services.

Other alternatives which come to mind as a last resort are to do an Advanced Search using the search criteria of 'Non Simultaneous' exchange for Type of Exchange, and ticking the check box for 'Second Home', which may bring up other potential possibilities; or to search the listings which offer the Rental option as an alternative, as the rents requested by home exchange members are often substantially lower than those wanted for properties rented on a full commercial basis, and there is, of course, the added advantage that no commissions are paid on top of the rental requested.

I do realise that you may have explored all these options yourselves already, so please forgive me if this is the case.

Although I do not know a lot about agencies which actually organise housesitting, I have come across the following:
www.housesitters.co.uk and to offer your services, the URL you require is
http://www.housesitters.co.uk/htm/interested.htm
and
http://www.homesitters.co.uk/
http://www.homesitters.co.uk/html/becoming_a_homesitter.html

and you may find it useful to look at their web-sites before contacting them to see if they can help. I am uncertain whether a specialised homesitting organisation will be able to help because they may be looking for people who can offer their services on a regular basis. I notice that there are a number of homesitting organisations in Australia. Have you by any chance done anything of this nature before because having references could be of great help in this situation?

Home exchange for sabbaticals

If you are an experienced home exchanger you will have learnt that there are many different types of reasons for exchange. Whilst many members are simply looking to fill their regular holiday slot, home exchange agencies such as Green Theme International also attracts a number of exchangers who are planning for sabbaticals or career breaks.

For these members, home exchange is an ideal opportunity to ensure that their home is occupied whilst away for long periods and at the same time secure accomodation of a similar standard in their chosen destination. Accomodation designed for short term rental often lacks those extra facilities which are make longer stays more convenient, such as washing facilities, freezers, transport etc.

Home exchange can also often be a means to engaging with other people in the community more easily - many exchange partners also end up exchanging a network of friends too!

If you are looking to exchange for a sabbatical or career break, look for offers where the member has said they are seeking a long term exchange. You may want to mention the reason for exchange in your offer. And don't forget to check the box in your own administration area saying that you are seeking a long term exchange too. This will help attract members in a similar position.

Home Exchange - Short or Long Term

Question:
We would like to offer our house by the beach on the Costa del Sol, Spain, this autumn, for 1-3 or 4 months, in exchange for a country house/cottage in Berks/Oxon/Hants. How do we need to proceed?
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
CJ
Answer:
Dear CJ,

Thank you for your enquiry. Membership of GTI Home Exchange covers both short and long term exchanges, however the majority of home exchanges are indeed shorter term. Having said that, you may find that your minimum period of a month still attracts this type of exchange member. The choice of longer term members is generally more limited, which you might expect. Most members also like to allow time to get to know their exchange partners via e-mail or phone, and make the accompanying necessary arrangements for car hire/exchange, travel etc, so the likelihood of your finding a suitable exchange could depend to some extent on what time in the autumn you are looking for.

We cannot offer a guarantee of success in finding a suitable exchange partner, however your chances are probably greater as your property is in a popular area of the world. If you are looking to exchange in early autumn, you may wish to consider allowing more flexibility in terms of the length of time you could exchange for, in order to increase your chances further of finding an exchange partner. This would also give you the opportunity to try out home exchange as a holiday option if you have not done so before. Remember, your membership lasts for twelve months (or longer depending on which membership option you choose) which could give you the potential of further exchanges during this period.

All joining instructions are on the website, however, I have included below more detailed instructions which may help. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. In the meantime, I hope that we will be welcoming you as a member of GTI Home Exchange in the near future and look forward to hearing from you soon...

Alison
Green Theme International Home Exchange

The cost of membership is just GB£21.00 or Euros 30,00 approx for a full 12 months membership, providing you with password access to the full database of exchange offers with member contact details, and a listing of your own home exchange offer together with 5 photographs (free of charge).

You may register on-line by clicking on the green Join tab at the top of the Green Theme International Home Exchange home page or by clicking the 'Join Now' hyperlink at the top of the right-hand menu. At the next page, click on 'Join Now' again, which will move you forward to the Membership Registration Page.

Choose your membership option (ie Plan 1 for 12 months, or Plan 2 for
24 months membership) and then complete the form with all the information relating to your own exchange offer. During this process you will create your password for later access to the web-site. When you have completed the form, click on 'Continue' at the bottom of the page to save the details you have entered to our database, and then proceed to the secure payment page (choosing your preferred card for payment, and currency). Once you have successfully completed the payment procedure, your listing will be on-line for all other members to view, and you will have access to the database to be able to view all other members' listings with their full contact details.

There is a considerable amount of information on the site concerning the concept of home exchange and help and advice about setting up a successful exchange. If you click on the hyperlink 'Exchange Advice and Forms' under the Members' Area heading in the right-hand menu, you can read this information but there is other information elsewhere such as on the pages Frequently Asked Questions and Member Testimonials regarding their experiences.

Long Term Exchanges

"They sailed away for a year and a day"

I have noticed recently a slight increase in the number of people enquiring about or registering details for Longer Term Exchanges.

A former member wrote: “You may remember that I was one of your clients for house exchange in New Zealand, back in 1999/2000. I am writing to enquire if “Green Theme” is still operative, because we might be interested in looking for a house exchange again in New Zealand, this time for a year in Christchurch?”

We are, of course, very much still operative and happy to help people in finding an extended stay arrangement. However, when I receive enquiries about long term exchanges I do try to qualify my reply and be really realistic about the possibilities because there are far fewer people seeking long term exchanges than shorter term holiday exchanges. In addition, people seeking longer term exchange opportunities very often have very specific reasons for wishing to re-locate for a year or so: ie for work, for study purposes, to research a locality with a view to possible re-location, friends or family already living in the area etc. They are therefore much more likely to be very precise about their destination and to have other very specific criteria such as proximity to schools and standard of education facilities, accessibility to international schools if language is a barrier, availability of language schools, health facilities, ease of access to work location etc. When people do intend to work there can also be visa and other immigration implications for some destinations for stays of longer duration.

Of course some of the above criteria do not apply to retired people who are likely to be the most flexible group in the long term exchange category. I do not mean to put people off seeking long term exchanges: it is not impossible and if the criteria on both sides match up, it can work out extremely well and make possible in economic terms something which would be impossible by any other means.

Here are a few links to the listings of members who have recently joined seeking long term exchanges:
HE16702 House in PENCLAWDD, SWANSEA, WALES
HE16706 House in FORRESTERS BEACH, NSW, AUSTRALIA
HE16710 House in SOUTH PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
HE16713 House in MEDFORD, OREGON, USA