The Home Exchanger

Intervac Spring Catalogue Sent

One day after we returned from the Intervac annual general meeting in Rhodes, the Intervac spring catalogue arrived in the US from our European printer. We were able to turn them around a few hours after receiving them at our office so all spring catalogue subscribers should receive them by the end of the week.

There are a few extra copies so if any existing subscribers would like to receive the latest catalogue, please let us know at Intervac USA Home Exchange.

Intervac Annual General Meeting to Begin Tomorrow

One leg of our hospitality exchange has ended and we have now arrived in Rhodes to participate in the Intervac annual general meeting. The location changes each year, but there has been a meeting of the organizers in all the countries where Intervac is located for decades. The purpose is to renew relationships with our colleagues and to plan how to offer even better home exchange services to our customers. There will be more on this after the meeting begins tomorrow.

                                                   
 

Home Swapping Testimonials

We hear from many of Intervac's members that home swapping has been a great experience, but Dale and Nancy Jackson say that Intervac has actually changed their lives.

"We are thrilled (though not surprised) at your success!  We have been members since 1993 and have loved every one of our 18 exchanges!  I heard it quoted that "you changed our lives" but this time I know it is really true!  The best topic of conversation has been our experiences which you made possible.   We take this opportunity to say Thank You!"

For more testimonials from Intervac members, click here.

Open versus Closed Home Exchange Services

When choosing a home exchange company, it's important to know what you're getting. There are numerous differences between each one, but one of the major differentiators is whether they offer an open or closed system. This means whether or not they allow non-members to contact members.

We believe a members-only system is the best one. The issue came up today because a member of another home exchange company contacted us in order to contact one of the members of our company. We told him that we'd love to have him as a member and that if he wanted to contact one of our members, he should join the service.

That's because most of our members prefer to be contacted only be people who have taken the time and made the small financial investment of actually joining the same organization. Many of our members figure that if the person wanting to do an exchange with them hasn't even bothered to share information about their home in a catalogue or on the web with other members, why would they want to share their home with them. Furthermore, many of our members know that in case something goes wrong with their exchange partner, we always have a record of payment and contact information about each member. The same can't be said for open systems (or free bulletin boards) where members are encouraged to exchange with non-members, who aren't on record with the exchange company.