Home Trades
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Well, folks, you know I'm never one to let you down, but this is what has delayed the entire site for so long.
Several of the agencies we were using changed, combined with others, disappeared, or reappeared in lesser forms.
By far the most-used home trading site I have encountered is the Danish-based Singles Home Exchange (no, you don't have to be
single and it isn't even encouraged!) which is fairly well organized and though not free, VERY reasonable at $25 per year.
Another is Prof2000 but I have never actually arranged anything through that site. It is, however free. In fact, until recently, they were almost ALL free.
Craigslist.org is a good suggestion for trades in and within their network of cities (not only all over the US but London, Sydney
and others). You can place a free ad, and I suggest placing it not on your local board but in the local board where you hope to trade if available.
BE AWARE that arranging trades with other Americans, can be a much more frustrating experience.
I supposed there are two reasons for this. #1 hometrading does not have the history it has in other countries,
#2 we are very fear-based in oddly inconsistent ways, and though many are incredibly enthusiastic about trading at first,
I think the reality of having to coordinate travel plans with a stranger, the sheer fear of the unknown involved, as well
as telling a few friends, most of which will relay some story about people coming home to no furniture, a butchered
dog, or some other Grimm's fairytale version of "what might happen."
Having said that, being wise and practical has it's place as well. Many very easygoing traders simply want to give dates,
descriptions, and then fling the keys at one another and I am not comfortable with this. I am not looking for new family
although frankly that has been the result in more than a few instances. Having a cleaning lady come in at the beginning
and end of a hometrade so you come home to fresh linens, etc. is a good idea and is often part of the trade.
WHY WE HOMETRADE
For us, hometrading began for two reasons. Firstly, we run a business and require access to some sort of
computer connection, which at the time, few hotels offered ensuite.
I was a former travel writer, schlepping through China staying in $3 hostels where they washed windows with kerosene,
sharing showers with loud, sweaty Argentinean soccer teams (OK, maybe not SO unbearable!).
My partner, despite his undying affection, made it very clear that he would endure no such nonsense.
And well, once you've started staying in nicer (nicer meaning satellite telly and a toilet only we sit on
during the vacation) it's pretty tough to go back.
Secondly, after the change in the economy, there was incentive to travel as far as cheap airfares were concerned,
but the conversion to Euro sent hotel prices (particularly in southern and Eastern Europe) skyrocketing to 3 or 4 times higher.
But that was just what gave us the incentive to try. WHY WE HOMETRADE is for the experience of living in a
"neighborhood" in another city, for that experience. Doing a load of laundry while you cook up a snack you bought at the local market
is an experience most tourists never get to experience. Also because of the areas we are in, even in large cities, the shop owners become
familiar with us quickly and we have a more comprehensive sense of the culture than we would in the tourist areas, where workers tend to me
far more indifferent to tourists and also tend to be foreigners themselves. We do our best to introduce our guests to San Francisco
from "our angle." Although we are very close to the tourist attractions, we of course know of several off the
beaten path locales most tourists would never find. And that is what I have always lived for as a traveller.
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