Thursday, July 9, 2015

On Home Exchanging - Guest Blog by Hope Dougherty


In my debut novel, Irish Encounter, the main character, Ellen Shepherd, visits her daughter in Galway, Ireland, and reconnects with friends she made years earlier through home exchanging.
The idea for this minor plot point came from my own experience. Over the past sixteen years, my family has enjoyed three different home exchange vacations to Ireland.

Our first house was in Galway. We spent three weeks there in the summer of 2000.


Then we moved down to County Cork for three weeks. Here’s a picture of us in front of our house in Bandon.


In 2007, we exchanged with a family in Blessington, County Wicklow, not too far from Dublin. 



We loved our time in all three houses and still correspond with the families through Facebook, emails, and annual Christmas cards.

Home exchange is a great way to vacation with a family. It’s cheaper than staying in hotels and eating out every meal. We’re settled in a comfortable home, not living out of suitcases. We get to eat home cooked meals. We get to meet neighbors which sometimes can lead to invitations to dinner, church activities, or community events.

When we began planning our trips, we used two organizations to find other home swappers. We joined us.intervac-homeexchange.com and homelink-usa.org. These companies charge a membership fee, but most offer a free trial period. Options for memberships include joining for a monthly rate or for an annual one. 

The organizations supply the contact information for families, but finding the perfect match for your family is up to you. Partnering families have to put forth a mutual trust of each other. Emailing and Skyping are great ways to discern whether or not a family is dependable and trustworthy. Some families offer references, too.

We exchanged houses at the same time, (a simultaneous swap), but some people choose a non-simultaneous exchange and stay in the swappers’ vacation house or second home. One more alternative is the hospitality exchange with the visiting family staying in the house while the owners are there as well.

Depending on your insurance policy, you may be able to swap cars also. For all three of our exchanges, we used the host family’s cars which saved on car rental fees.

Home exchanging isn’t for everybody. On the last day of your vacation, you have to sweep, vacuum, dust, change the bed linens—basically remove every trace of your family’s stay in the house, except maybe a parting gift. People who stay in hotels can leave soggy towels on the floor and unmade beds. Our family, however, loved stepping into another family’s shoes, so to speak. In fact, we’d love to go again if we could synchronize our schedules.

What do you think of home exchanging? Would you try it? Why or why not?

Hope Toler Dougherty holds a Master’s degree in English and taught at East Carolina University as well as York Technical College. A member of ACW, RWA, and SinC, she has published articles on topics ranging from gardening with children to writing apprehension. She blogs for Almost An Author. She and her husband, Kevin, chat with their two daughters and twin sons through ooVoo from North Carolina. Her first novel, Irish Encounter, was released in May, 2015. Connect with Hope at hopetolerdougherty.com.

11 comments:

  1. I've never heard of home exchanging, but it sounds fascinating. That would be a more inexpensive way to see other countries.

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    1. You're right, Donna. It is inexpensive because you're not paying for a hotel room or restaurant meals every day. When you're traveling with six people, every cost savings is a plus!

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  2. I think I'd really like doing a home exchange... but it's easy for me to say that, because I know my husband would not like to! Especially the exchange part where someone would stay in our house.

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    1. That's a good point, Valerie, but our house was left in great condition all three times. In fact, the glass covering a picture in my daughters' room had a small crack in the corner that I didn't have time to replace before our first exchange. When we came home, the glass had been replaced!

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  3. I have a writer friend (writing as Anna Jacobs) who for several year exchanged houses each winter with someone in England. As far as I know had no problems. However, after packing to live in England for 2 years, of course clear guidelines of what to take would be essential of course. how did you find the differences in culture, Kara?

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    1. We noticed some culture differences--like Irish people seem to shop for fresh food more often. The quantities to buy are smaller; for example, milk comes in litre bottles instead of the big gallon jugs I buy here in the US. Americans like to buy in bulk! In the Catholic churches we attended, mass was over in about twenty minutes with no singing instead of the hour-long service we're used to. We were surprised to find a Baptist church in Bandon and enjoyed meeting the members there. For the most part, the differences we noticed were small. People are people wherever you go!

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  4. Those homes in Ireland look wonderful, Hope--and I think house swapping can be a great idea, although we have done it only within Australia. When our children were little, we swapped our Sydney home one holidays for one in Melbourne and, on another occasion, for one in Brisbane. Both worked out really well. While our home wasn't nearly as large as the ones we stayed in, the folk who used our home didn't seem to mind and had a great time.

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    1. The homes were great, Jo-Anne. I'm so glad to hear you've tried and liked home exchanging. I think because people know what kind of house they're getting because of the shared pictures between partners, usually there's no disappointment. For us, we were more interested in experiencing the new area than being concerned about the size of the house. Hey, if you're ever interested in traveling to North Carolina, just email me!!

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  5. Brilliant idea, Hope. I'd love to try it but NOT the car!

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    1. Thank you, Rita. I agree--driving in a new place is unsettling, especially driving on the "other side of the road." We drive on the right side here. In Ireland, they drive on the left side. Our cars were standard stick shift models. I got the hang of changing gears with my left hand (!!), and driving from one point to another was okay. BUT intersections always made me hold my breath--figuring out which lane to turn into was always a little scary!

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  6. Hope, fascinating post! Congrats on your debut book release :)

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