Home Exchange Lingo
Nicole Frank is one of the leading experts of the home exchange community. Nicole has been an avid home exchanger since childhood and has completed dozens exchanges around the world with her family. Nicole’s "Key to Home Exchange" appears weekly on RoofSwap.com with do’s and don’t regarding house swapping and tips and advice on a wide array of travel topics. Have a question for Nicole or want to share some insight of your own? Visit our Member Forum section and post your comments and questions.
Dear Key to Home Exchange:
We are looking ahead to when we retire next year and would like to do some longer term exchanges (i.e. a minimum of a month, preferably three to six months). In oder to narrow our search we have used the 'advanced search' but we are finding that there seem to be very mixed views on what home exchangers consider to be 'long term'. As a consequence our results include a large number of exchangers who are actually looking for an exchange duration of just 2-3 weeks. We would consider this to be a normal summer vacation and not a long term swap. Is there any bench mark as to what constitutes a 'long term exchange'?
Kathlyn, New York
Dear Home Exchanger:
As you discovered, home exchange definitions are open to interpretation by each individual swapper. This variation can be a bit frustrating for people who are truly searching for specific sorts of arrangements. I agree with you that two to 3 weeks does not constitute a long-term exchange.
To help RoofSwappers learn more about home exchange, here is the "Key to Home Exchange" official guide to home exchange jargon. It isn't a Lexicon, it's a HomeExicon.
HomeExicon
Book: Experienced home exchangers prepare a guide to their home for their swap partners' convenience. It contains contact numbers for you, neighbors who can help with emergencies, and/or repair persons. The home exchange book often has menus or recommendations for local restaurants, info on local attractions, helpful contact info such as a trusted babysitter, directions to nearby food shops or other necessities, and emergency medical contact info for a hospital, doctor who speaks the exchange family's language, poison control, etc.
Car Exchange: A car or other transportation mode can be offered to one's swap partners in exchange for an equivalent form of transportation or other amenity. People who live in big cities where a car is not an efficient mode or transportation might offer the use of transit passes or passes to a local attraction in exchange for the use of a car. Some families who live in a remote area "sweeten" their home exchange offer by making a car part of it, whether or not their preferred swap partners have something equivalent to offer in return. A contract is strongly suggested in the case of car exchange, due to the highly-variable specifics of local driving and insurance rules.
Contract: Some exchangers like to create a formal contract spelling out how many days the home exchange will last, who can stay in the home, the condition in which the home will be left, and other details. Contracts are essential for car exchanges (see above). RoofSwap has useful home and car contract templates here: http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/page/show/car-exchange-agreement and here: http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/page/show/home-exchange-agreement
Instructions: Before arriving at your home, or upon arrival, your swap partners should find "instructions" on how to use major appliances, electronic equipment, any tricky home systems like the thermostat, and so on. The idea of home exchange instructions is that your swap partners should not have to disturb you or call a repair person to your home in order to use its amenities.
Long-Term Swap: An exchange lasting significantly more than the average lengths of most home swap arrangements. Since the average swap length is one week, a long-term exchange could be defined as one month long at a bare minimum. However, most long-term swaps are undertaken by people who are temporarily relocating to a new area for business or study. Therefore, a more typical long-term swap would be two to twelve months in length. Think of a "long-term swap" as something along the lines of a free sublet where instead of paying rent you offer the use of your home.
Non-Simultaneous Swap: A home exchange in which each party uses the other family's home at a different time. Instead of taking vacation at the same time, the swap partners each vacation at a time more convenient for them. This is typically done by families who have more than one home, a pre-planned vacation when their primary home will be free, or another place to stay during a swap partner's use of their primary home. The vacation home may be available year-round, so swap partners can choose to use it at a mutually agreeable time that is before or after the use of the other party's home.
Non-Traditional Exchange: A mutual vacation exchange need not involve two houses or apartments. Families have traded their homes for the use of a recreational vehicle (also called a "motor home", "caravan" or "camper"), houseboats, yachts, rooms in hotels, berths on scuba or cruise ships, or time share accommodations. I once secured the use of a flat in London for co-workers attending a professional conference in exchange for $400 in vouchers from my work that could be traded for train tickets. Two British couples touring my region by rail were delighted to save transportation costs in exchange for the use of one of their empty apartments. Other valuable trades that might entice to a swapper to let you use her home without using yours in return are the use of hard-to-ship sports equipment like a racing bicycle or scuba gear, or insider access or valuable passes to local attractions.
Note: It is normal to welcome your swap partners with a note left in an obvious location. It can be simple -- just saying "hi, enjoy our home." The same is done when leaving to thank swappers for the use of their home.
Swap Gift: A small token of appreciation left for the exchangers after you have used their home. The swap gift is optional and should have a value of perhaps $20 to $50 to avoid embarrassing swap partners who are not in the habit of leaving a gift after using your home.
Hope you enjoyed the HomeExicon.
Happy Home Exchanging!
Nicole Frank,
Your Key to Home Exchange
Are there other home exchange terms you find confusing? Do you have a home exchange question f your own? Send it to NicoleF (at) RoofSwap.com
