may-2010

TRAVEL TREND
House rules
• Read about potential
exchangers on home-swap
websites, where they have
often been ‘reviewed’ by
other users.
• Agree who is responsible
for cleaning, and what to
do if there is any damage.
• Write an idiot’s guide to
running your house.
• If you have children, a
household with kids
roughly the same age is
likely to have necessary
toys and paraphernalia.
• Have a friend at hand to
check the house when your
guests leave.
• Check your insurance. If
you’re away for longer than
two weeks, your cover may
be reduced or you may
need to increase your
premium.
• “Mostly, trust your
judgement,” says Ed
Kushins, President of
HomeExchange.com. If
something doesn’t feel
right, politely withdraw from
the proposed exchange.
is to do your homework and make
sure you have a good feel for the people
you are exchanging with.”
Indian-born Tahir Malbreck and
Swedish wife Anja fi rst swapped in 1983,
exchanging their humble two-bedroom
fl at in central Stockholm for a similarsized
Upper West Side apartment in
Manhattan, New York. Not only did the
couple get an enviable location (close to
Central Park) for free, they also got
Marnie Pasqual, the owner, a bombastic
French-American script writer, who met
them for coffee and a doughnut at JFK
Airport on arrival.
“You really immerse yourself in the
place you are staying with a house swap –
far more than when you are staying at a
soulless hotel,” says Anja, who has visited
Marnie’s pad several times since. “I don’t
even bother bringing a travel guide anymore
because Marnie usually leaves a list
of cool things to do on the kitchen table.”
So how does it work? Once you’ve
signed up to a home exchange website
(for an average of €10 a month), it’s much
like online dating, but random people are
replaced by random houses. Generally,
there’s everything on offer from rambling
Scottish castles to garish Miami
penthouses and, occasionally, yachts
and camper vans.
Naturally, anyone in a tourist hot spot,
such as London, New York or Paris, can
expect a barrage of offers from across the
globe. But those in a more remote part of
the world, or with a slightly dishevelled
abode, may feel the need to up-sell, but
Kushins stresses that ‘honesty is the best
policy’ to save disappointment.
“If you are uptight about your home,
then you should steer clear of home
exchange at all costs,” says Oshins. “You
have to accept that someone might spill
cola on your favourite chair.”
But because both parties are equally
vulnerable, there generally remains a large
amount of trust on either side. Egyptian
Jahid Al Shammin and his family
exchanged their four-bedroom home in
Cairo for a beach-side villa in Dubai and
experienced a number of technical issues
with the car that came with the house. “I
simply phoned up the family and the
Pakistani owner just said, ‘use the Audi
TT in the other garage’.”
One by-product of the rise in home
exchange is specialist sites, such as www.
gayhomeexchange.com. It promises “an
insider’s knowledge of the local scene.”
Meanwhile www.sabbaticalhomes.com
offers long-term properties to academics.
But for anyone wondering whether
to dip their toe in the water, it’s a case of
deciding whether you are the type to
have a fi t if a stranger breaks your
favourite mug.
“It’s a bit like bungee jumping,” says
Anja. “You are scared at fi rst, but the rope
never breaks, and once you’ve done it, you
just want to do it again.”