Another chance to win a one-year home exchange membership!
Written by: Julie Ovenell-Carter[A week or so back I received a personal email from Tony DiCaprio and Anne Marie Babkine, Canadians who live in France--poor them!--and run a home exchange site called 1stHomeExchange.com. They have some great tips for prospective home exchangers, so I asked if I could post their note here at TheseBoots...]
Dear Julie:
We are Tony DiCaprio and Anne Marie Babkine, a Canadian family from Montreal currently living in the south of France. We’ve followed your blog (on and off) but hadn’t visited in a few weeks. We just dropped by and noticed all this activity in the past several weeks regarding home exchanging, your contest and your speaking on CBC Radio.
Thank you for covering home exchanging so thoroughly. Getting more people familiar with this travel alternative benefits all the exchange clubs and exchangers (like ourselves).
We are passionate about home exchanging–so much so that in 2005 we started our own home exchange Website, 1stHomeExchange.com and EchangeVacances.com (French only).
If you haven’t exhausted the home exchange topic [note from Julie: I don't think it's possible], I’d like to let you know about our latest article that may be of interest to you and your readers:
We’ve been working on this for a while and finally finished it. It covers the tips you included in your own article, Top 10 tips for a successful home exchange, plus much more.
(Incidentally, we loved your “Communicate, communicate, communicate” tip title. It complemented our own “Contact, contact, contact” tip that we were using with our own members and visitors. I’m using it in the article – hope that’s OK with you? [Note from Julie: Sure is!])
It’s unfortunate we missed your blog over the last couple of weeks–we would have loved to participate and also provide a free premium membership for your contest. (OK, our membership fee is only CAD $75–not quite the cost of Intervac’s and HomeLink’s–but with over 16,000 homes in 130 countries it still makes for a pretty good prize!).
[Note from Julie: I think so too--and so I'm going to open this contest up one more time...
Another chance to win a home exchange membership
Everyone who entered the previous contests will have another shot at winning a one-year home exchange memberhip with 1stHomeExchange, and anyone who missed out on those first contests will have until April 15 to enter. And if you retweet this contest on Twitter or blog about it with a link back, I'll give you a second entry!
Best of all, this is a border-free contest--anyone in the world can enter this time.
Just leave a comment below telling me why you want to do a home exchange...]
Kathryn
on March 31st, 2009I love to travel and the idea of really living in another country by being in a home in a neighbourhood really appeals.
Laura Byrne Paquet
on April 1st, 2009I entered the previous contest, so please just delete this entry if it’s an illegal duplicate! But, as you know, I’m a huge fan of the whole home exchange concept. Thanks for running the contest!
M.A.
on April 7th, 2009I think a home exchange is ideal for many people.
Nigel Pottle
on April 8th, 2009I travel all the time, and would love to have the opportunity to live in a place where it feels like I “live” there, instead of always being in a hotel. And I live in a great place in Vancouver with a fabulous view.
Donna Majeau
on April 13th, 2009I’ve never heard of home exchange until our friend Stuart told me, I think it’s a great idea! I haven’t travelled much, but the the thought of being in the hub of a community and doing as the locals do is very appealing.
Heather Davis
on April 13th, 2009Great site! My husband and I and our two kids are planning a full year of travel in 2011 and trying to figure out what we’ll do with our place then. A home exchange trial ahead of time would be a great way to test the waters.
Jenn
on April 14th, 2009I want to give my family the chance to really “experience” a different culture and what better way than to live like the locals!
Amy Quarry
on April 14th, 2009I think home exchanges sound fantastic – I have been pestering my husband to try it fo rmonths now!
Kath
on April 14th, 2009I have often considered home exchange as a way to travel but have not yet had the opportunity to do so. Now that we have a very young family (two boys under the age of 3), it seems the perfect way to go.
Murray A
on April 14th, 2009We would love to do a Home Exchange. We are hoping to do an extended ‘explore’ of the UK in 2010 but not sure how a Home Exchange would work with that. We own a wonderful waterfront ’small’ home which would be great for someone who wants to enjoy the rural atmosphere of an island community yet close to Vancouver and Whistler. How can exchanging this with a ‘home exchange’ in the UK work when we would not be in any one spot for more than 2-3 nights at most?
Noa
on April 14th, 2009We have two kids (5 and 11 months) and we live in commercial drive area(Vancouver). We have traveled a lot (mostly shoestring) before kids and we want to travel with them as well. We have had a home exchange once that was short and sweet and we are looking forward for a longer and further one. It is difficult to plan though when the work situation isn’t stable either these days.
BTW how do you work out leaving your car for people (in bc) if you cannot transfer the insurance onto their names?
We believe that sharing our resources will make a better world, isn’t that what we teach our kids:)
Elisa R K
on April 14th, 2009HI Mrs. Bowen:
My daughter and husband would be happy to participate in a Home Exchange with me thru your site. We own a home in the Fraser Valley and enjoy a slice of a Mt. Baker view as well as clean air and closeness to all amenities. It’s a quick walk to everything. Our ideal exchange would involve a country setting in England or Scotland, Germany or France.
Julie Ovenell-Carter
on April 14th, 2009Hi Noa,
We know it makes good financial sense, but I share your conviction that sharing our homes makes good environmental sense as well! Talk to your insurance broker, but you should find that generally the insurance goes with the car, not the driver. So you can let a “guest driver” use your car without compromising your insurance–although if the driver is young or has license restrictions that’s not always the case. A quick call to your broker would answer your questions I’m certain…
Adriana
on April 14th, 2009I have always wanted to do a home exchange but I lived in a very dangerous city. I have now moved to the most beautiful city which is in high demand from tourists so I will be starting my search of the perfect vacation soon!
Sarah
on April 14th, 2009What better way to experience a new culture than to become part of it?
paula
on April 14th, 2009What a great idea – this would work really well for us as we’d so love a vacation in another country, but can’t afford a huge hotel bill.
Diane
on April 14th, 2009I heard of home exchanges years ago but got busy having kids and didn’t look into any further. By accident, luck (?), I was directed to your site and am now thinking that this would be a great way to get the family to a vacation destination further afield than our usual weekend trips to nearby destinations. I live in a beautiful city and hope there would be other travelers interested in swapping homes. I miss traveling and this seems like a perfect way to explore a new city from the comforts of home (someone else’s home, yes, but it’s way better than a hotel).
Mary
on April 14th, 2009I like vacationing in another culture and still feeling like I have a comfortable ‘home’ base to return to each night!