The Home Exchanger

Real-Life Home Exchange Romance!

In the new Cameran Diaz-Jude Law-Kate Winslet-Jack Black movie, The Holiday coming out next month, romances bloom when two strangers swap homes.

This happens in real life too! One of Intervac's members in Paris home swapped with a couple in Colorado. Romance bloomed when he met a friend of theirs in Colorado. Now the  two are dating!

The Denver NBC station did a story about the home swap turned love match yesterday. Click here to see the story, which also gives a good introduction on how to do a vacation home exchange.

Intervac: As Seen on The Today Show!

OK - this is a biggie that has been in the works for a long time. The Today Show profiled two Intervac customers as they did their home exchange!

One family lived in Colorado, and the other in the DC area. After the exchange segment, Al Roker interviewed Travel and Leisure's Heidi Mitchell about how to do a home exchange.

This is a fabulous piece and really shows what it's like to do a home swap.  Check it out here, then click on The Today Show link.

Intervac featured on CBS News in Boston and Austin

Click here to view a good CBS TV story about home exchanging, featuring Intervac members Scott and Laura Haas.  I am also interviewed.

There has been a tremendous amount of media coverage about Intervac and home exchanging this summer. A selection of media coverage includes:  an interview with National Public Radio, two features in the New York Times, a story in the Chicago Tribune and much more. Clearly, home exchanging is catching on in the US like wildfire.  Intervac has been around since 1953, and this level of interest in the US is unprecendented in our history.

Become a member of our large home exchanging community! Click here to join Intervac: until August 30, 2006 you will receive a FREE catalogue from Intevac if you become a web member.* Simply put "The Home Exchanger" to answer the question how did you hear about Intervac.

*While supplies last.

Intervac in the New York Times (twice)

The New York Times has done two articles on Intervac and home exchanging in the past month. The first featured Intervac custome Lori Horne (photo at left), a longtime exchanger. Click here to read about it.

The second quotes me, Jessica Jaffe - I'm the US Representative for Intervac - several times, and tells how home exchanging has become a sub-culture.  Click here to read that story.

Intervac Mentioned in Barron's

Barron's, the financial publication, recently wrote a story about the best way to find vacation properties.  Here's what they had to say about Intervac:

Intervac ( http://www.intervac-online.com) has been in the business since 1953, and claims 10,000 listings in 50 countries. Independent organizations are in charge of the swap service in each country. Go to http://www.intervacusa.com for regional information and rates in the States, as well as a thorough frequently-asked-question section on the home-exchange process in the U.S. Fees start at $65 a year. For that, you get access to U.S. listings and your personal entries go into the database. You can browse listings while you're deciding whether to join.

Click here to read the whole article.

Lessons in Saving Money: Home Exchange on Your Next Vacation

Daniel Johnson, of London's Evening Standard, wrote an article about how hard it is to live in one of the world's most costly cities, even if you are making $US175,000 a year. I used to live in London, and it was crazy expensive. Want an example? When my now-husband and I went to Pizza Express, a cheap chain restaurant, the total bill was $US50 for a large cheese pizza and two glasses of wine (and tip). Insane.

Daniel offers tips on how to save money:

"Foreign holidays are the next major item - not a necessity, of course, but given the stresses of city life we can hardly be surprised that London families want to spend some time together in the sun.

My family never spends as much as £5,000 a year, but then we don't usually go abroad. If we do, we negotiate a home exchange. Other families, however, report that a week in a midranking resort for a family of four in summer can cost £5,000 - and more in winter. More than £10,000 a year on holidays is not uncommon."

But the costs of living are high too in the US, and we personally would not have been able to go to Europe at all if we didn't exchange through Intervac.  Because we didn't stay in hotels, cooked some meals ourselves and didn't rent a car during our 2 week trip to Ireland, we saved at least $6,000.

What Arthur Frommer Has to Say About Home Swapping

Arthur Frommer, the famed and well respected budget travel authority, has long been an advocate of home exchanging. His most recent article about the practice notes:

"Is it safe to trade your personal space with a perfect stranger? About as safe as staying in a hotel owned by someone you don't know. Remember that your foreign counterpart is also taking a risk by staying in your home, so instances in which the arrangement goes bad are few and far between. Historically, complaints are nearly nonexistent."

He says about Intervac:
"Intervacus.com (800-756-4663): Intervac has been around for half a century, but its old catalog system has migrated to the Web. Its claim to fame is that 80 percent of its listings are international (52 countries are represented), which means, as the site puts it, "You compete with fewer Americans for overseas properties." Access to all listings is $65 a year."

To read full article, click here.  To preview Intervac's 10,000 live and active listings worldwide, click here.

Intervac USA in the Wall Street Journal

I was recently asked by Keith Huang at the Wall Street Journal for tips on doing home exchanges. Here's the article, which appeared on 1/23/2006:

TRAVEL: THE BASICS OF HOME EXCHANGES

HOME EXCHANGES ARE increasingly popular among travelers, offering a way to save money and live like a native. In this vacation alternative, two parties swap homes for a designated period of time at no cost to either.

Online home-exchange services are making the practice easier. About 30% to 40% of those who use such services are 55 and over, and some cater specifically to older travelers.

If you're interested but unfamiliar with home swapping, here's a sampling of frequently asked questions about it.

Q: What are some of the benefits of home swapping?

A: Perhaps the greatest draw, apart from saving money, is the opportunity to live as a local resident in a place that's completely foreign to you. Participants can introduce themselves to next-door neighbors and immerse themselves in local culture. Other benefits can include the use of household amenities, such as a washing machine (which lessens the need to pack a lot of clothes), Internet access, or the use of a full kitchen to prepare food instead of eating out.

Q: What are some of the factors to consider about home swapping?

A: One of the biggest downsides to home swapping -- besides having to thoroughly clean your own home before you leave -- is the amount of due diligence and coordination that it can take, says Jessica Jaffe, a representative for Intervac, a home-exchange service. She says most Intervac USA clients spend four to six months preparing for their swap. Also, participants should be flexible with their vacation destinations since many locations, such as Italy's Tuscany region, have seen recent demand outweigh availability. "If you're only fixated on one place, you're going to lower your chances of getting an exchange," she says.

Q: How can I guarantee that my home won't get trashed by the occupants?

A: Unfortunately, there are no guarantees -- the success of a home exchange depends largely on mutual trust. Participants should spend ample time researching a potential home swap and also communicate with a potential home swap's references: "Talk to someone who's gone through what you're about to go through," Ms. Jaffe says. But above all, before opening your home, participants should check their homeowners insurance policy to determine liability in the event of an accident.

-- Keith Huang

I would add to the last answer that in Intervac's 53 years of being in business, we have never received a serious complaint of theft or damage.  But we recommend that first-timers do ask for references if they are nervous, since most of our members have done exchanges already.

Two (or more) Generations of Home Exchangers

I just spoke with a woman whose mother had previously been a member of Intervac long ago. The daughter now wants to join as her mother had wonderful stories about vacations swapping homes.

Since Intervac has been around since 1953 (we were the first home exchange company ever founded), we have second generation exchangers - those whose parents took them on home swaps when they were little -  and even third generation members. 

In fact, my husband Josh is a second generation exchanger himself - his mom, Paula Jaffe (with husband Dennis, at photo left), was the Intervac US representative for 20 years, until she retired 3 years ago and my husband and I took over the "family business". I had never heard of home swapping until I met Josh, who told me of childhood swaps in Spain and Paris. Now we do a home exchange in Europe every year.

My own parents, who are looking for their first home exchange now, recently told me that they wished that they had known about home exchanging when I was little. It was one of their dreams to take me and my brother to Europe, but the trip would have been prohibitively expensive with the hotels so we never did go. 

Intervac in the Los Angeles Times

I was quoted in the Los Angeles Times today about  home exchanging. One of our customers who has arranged many exchanges over the years through us told the reporter about Intervac, and so the reporter called me.

My quote is "Home exchanging seems to be on the rise, probably due to the price of hotel accommodations, which are hugely expensive in Europe, and the dollar-to-euro exchange, which is historically poor."

Click here to read the article: it offers some good tips.

One note: I would warn against using a free service like  Craig's List - a few members who investigated it said they were very alarmed by the fact that you have no idea who the people are who post their ads, or whether they actually have the properties they say they do. They could be posting their ads from jail! You must be very adventurous to trust someone completely unknown, without references, using a free service.

I would never do it, and I consider myself pretty adventurous and open to home swapping...whereas with a service like Intervac you have paying members whose addresses must be correct. Most of our members have done exchanges before, and have references. We have never had a major complaint of theft or damage in our 53 years of being in business. It's a much safer experience!