other exchange sites

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brendan
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Post by brendan »

I gave homeexchange.com a whirl...the 14 day trial. There are loads of second homes on there so non-simultaneous exchanges are possible.

I sent out a good few enquiries and was politely rejected by most. The reason being that they're already organised for 2015....seems they get it done early in the year.

Anyway, found an exchange which I just confirmed earlier today. We're off to France....at last!
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Yay, result! :D I'll have to take a look at these sites for when the honeymoon phase is over and I can't bear to spend any more holidays at the finca :mrgreen: Are you scoping options for 2016 already brendan?
brendan
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Post by brendan »

I think I'll get the first exchange under my belt but I wanted to let LMHers know that the site is very good.
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

We've been using exchangeholidayhomes com (EHH) since the beginning of 2014 and have already had four exchanges with them.

We are also members of other general exchange sites where you swap mostly non-holiday homes and have found that it is very difficult to organise an exchange on some of them, due to the many poor quality lisings and the many owners who never reply on some of the free sites (GuesttoGuest, for example). Also, having to pay an annual subscription fee put us off many of them, as we were not sure that we would be able to successfully exchange as we need to do this during school holidays.

EHH has been around since 2007 and we used to receive frequent emails from them asking for us to join which we just ignored. I suppose that we didn't believe that it could work or that we were afraid to hand over our precious availability to them. When we finally took the plunge, we were surprised that if you put dates on your listing with them that you could get them back (unlike some exchange sites, such as DAE) and that they check with you first to confirm that your dates showing are still available.

We had our first guests from EHH stay last July. Although it was our high season, it wasn't our peak high season and the request came last minute, so we decided to let them stay, as we didn't think that we would sell those dates anymore.
Since then, we have only used for one exchange a very small portion of the credits that we earned from their stay, as our other own exchanges have been for stays booked within six weeks where we just paid a set fee. All of our own exchanges have been off season where there is choice enough.

Because of EHH it meant that we could stay three times in holiday homes in the Somerset/Devon area to be close to my mother in the last year of her life.
I am extremely grateful to the two ladies who work there, Debbie & Michelle for giving us the opportunity as a family to do this instead of being cooped up in an hotel.

For anyone thinking of joining an rental exchange site, we can highly recommend them. Their current site is a bit slow and searches are quite laborious but their new site should be online this month.
They have a referral scheme, where new members will receive free credits if introduced by a current member. So if you are interested, please PM me (or Nemo, above, as he/she was first with posting about their referral scheme).
Bartlett
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Post by Bartlett »

I have used www.homeexchange.com for exchanges with Australia as well as free site (cant remember the name). I have found homeexchange great. My experience with the free site was that the people listing weren't so committed and were perhaps "testing the water" whereas with homeexchange people were definitely intending to swap and more likely to reply and exchange.
brendan
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Post by brendan »

Just thought I'd report back on our first exchange via homeexchange. We exchanged our 2nd home for someone's real home (Spain for France) and I can't speak highly enough of the whole experience.

We stayed in a lovely house in a great location and had one of the best holidays ever! The whole process was a pleasure - I can recommend it wholeheartedly.
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

Oh...good to know that!

Our problem is that we are in the house when not letying si it would only be the unsold weeks we could exchange at short notice, but we couldn't get away in summer, so the point system sounds like it might work for us.

Mouse
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One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

Mouse, as mentioned in my post above, we can thoroughly recommend Exchange Holiday Homes. Actually, we have just booked to go away with EHH in the next 2 weeks for our family's summer holiday!

We recently used points from guests that have just stayed last minute with us to book a week in a gite with pool in Gascony. For our second week, in Provence, we booked as a 'last minute' (didn't need to use any of our points on the second week, as we just paid £160 for the stay!)

What we like about them is that there is no subscription or joining fee, you do not have to give any availability over at all if you don't want to (and if you do, you get it back straight away if you ask). You are totally in control and can say yes or no to an enquiry (all done via EHH admin). Plus, there are always properties available, especially last minute and even in the high season. We have been members for a year and a half and have already stayed/booked to stay at 6 properties.

The girls that run it are absolutely amazing and one of them searched days on end to find us the gite for our first week.

Considering that these 2 weeks would normally have cost £2,000 to book with the owners, we have paid just £245 total and handed some points over which we accrued from a family staying here for just 4 nights!

We let other owners have our last minute availability that we otherwise wouldn't sell and get to travel all over the world for practically nothing. I really can't fault their setup. Their new website is due online shortly which we're told will make searching for particular properties much easier.

If you want anymore info on them, just PM me. The more owners that join the more choice there is for us all!
Beachcondo
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Post by Beachcondo »

We've done 4 house swaps via HomeExchange, and it's usually pretty hard work to find the perfect match (even though we've been lucky and have been approached for 3 of our 4 swaps).

All our exchanges have been great, but as experiences the ones that we've done with people's permanent houses have been the most interesting. It gives another sensation to walk in someone else's shoes, compared to staying in a second home.
Pessimists only get positive surprises.
brendan
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Post by brendan »

Based on Anglo Dutch´s recommendation I gave Exchange Holiday Homes a go. I remembered the site as soon as I looked at it again. Before AD had recommended it, I´d looked at it and just couldn´t get my head around the system so I gave up. This time I just didn´t bother trying to understand it - just took AD´s word for it!

Well, we´re off to Portugal for a long weekend via EHH. AD is absolutely right in saying that the backroom girls are a joy to deal with (pity they don´t run OD or HA). I kinda get the points thing now. There´s a new website due anytime now which should make it easier - the present one is beyond clunky.

Anglo D - please can you pm your name or property ID so that I can credit you with the referral and you can enjoy even more holidays!

I´d be delighted to get some points if anyone signs up based on this post!
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I have been a member of EHH for several years now (as per my original recommendation on page 1 :wink: ) The problem I had with the existing site was loading dates and then having to email them to get them delisted when they were sold. It was just another admin duty too far, especially for last minute dates that might sell within hours of putting them on EHH. I'm desperately hoping that owners will be able to edit their own dates on the new site to get round this. Hoping the new site will appear soon, but we're still waiting.

I've had about three enquiries for dates, but ultimately the enquirers didn't pursue it, so I have been loathe to book a holiday myself until I have accrued some points. It certainly would be a lot cheaper than many of the holidays we've had in recent years!

Perhaps I need to force myself to get the dates on there to encourage my first booking. Then I'd have no hesitation in booking something for myself. What I like about the system is it's just holiday homes, so no actual homes or possessions to worry about and the point system meaning no simultaneous exchanges or even having any connection with the home owner, other than as a normal guest!

I just looked at my listings they definitely need updating; I'd like a cheap holiday next year, so perhaps I really need to pursue this!
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

brendan wrote:Based on Anglo Dutch´s recommendation I gave Exchange Holiday Homes a go. I remembered the site as soon as I looked at it again. Before AD had recommended it, I´d looked at it and just couldn´t get my head around the system so I gave up. This time I just didn´t bother trying to understand it - just took AD´s word for it!

Well, we´re off to Portugal for a long weekend via EHH. AD is absolutely right in saying that the backroom girls are a joy to deal with (pity they don´t run OD or HA). I kinda get the points thing now. There´s a new website due anytime now which should make it easier - the present one is beyond clunky.

Anglo D - please can you pm your name or property ID so that I can credit you with the referral and you can enjoy even more holidays!

I´d be delighted to get some points if anyone signs up based on this post!

Thanks, Brendan, have just sent you a PM.
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

Nemo wrote:I have been a member of EHH for several years now (as per my original recommendation on page 1 :wink: ) The problem I had with the existing site was loading dates and then having to email them to get them delisted when they were sold. It was just another admin duty too far, especially for last minute dates that might sell within hours of putting them on EHH. I'm desperately hoping that owners will be able to edit their own dates on the new site to get round this. Hoping the new site will appear soon, but we're still waiting.

I've had about three enquiries for dates, but ultimately the enquirers didn't pursue it, so I have been loathe to book a holiday myself until I have accrued some points. It certainly would be a lot cheaper than many of the holidays we've had in recent years!

Perhaps I need to force myself to get the dates on there to encourage my first booking. Then I'd have no hesitation in booking something for myself. What I like about the system is it's just holiday homes, so no actual homes or possessions to worry about and the point system meaning no simultaneous exchanges or even having any connection with the home owner, other than as a normal guest!

I just looked at my listings they definitely need updating; I'd like a cheap holiday next year, so perhaps I really need to pursue this!

Nemo, you don't need to accumulate any credits to make a first booking. EHH does offer the possibility to book two holidays as soon as you join. But if you don't want to go into negative credits with them, you can pick from the many properties available in their late offers section. There are four of us, so we normally go for the 2 bedroomed properties and just buy the credits for the week's stay straight out for £159 (which includes their admin fee). We've had some wonderful last minute holidays in the UK over the last couple of years.

As far as I remember, Michelle from EHH said that the member's property availability on the new site would still have to go through them. This so that they can advise any other members who are known to be interested in those date pairs from that particular property that the availability is being withdrawn.

We too have received a few EHH enquiries where the other member didn't proceed with the booking. One member recently even asked for high season dates for 2016. :wink: I did offer an alternative in our shoulder season for next year, but they didn't take it up unfortunately. So far we have received two bookings, both from the same family from Ireland.

There are some second homes on the site, most of which are not commercially rented out. Actually, we have just returned today from one of these EHH second home properties in the South of France. The owners many personal possessions were scattered all around the house but they do rent the property out on other sites as well.

We too find it works much better with a 'credit' system as we have found on other sites that trying to arrange a reciprocal exchange was very difficult.

Looking forward to their new website (with hopefully a much better search system), which they say is coming very soon now.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

Thanks AngloDutch, I was aware of this but we don't do last minute holidays sadly. I still have one child at school and with visiting my own properties plus refurbishing our own house, spare time is non existent. So at the moment it's just a main holiday in the summer that I book ahead. I'm sure I will eventually get an exchange but having dates on makes it more appealing. One of my adverts doesn't even mention that I'm dog friendly so I'm definitely missing a trick! I bet there are dog owners on there who want holidays and have more limited options.

The update of the advert is on my to do list, but very sad I can't update my own dates.
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Bassman
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Post by Bassman »

I used this company a few years back for an exchange http://www.dialanexchange.com/
It works similar to RCI timeshare exchange, you bank a week you can them request a week. We were going to the Canaries and there was lots of availability there. I banked 1 week in our 2 bedroom in April for the exchange.
Havent used them since though!
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