House swap holidays
House swaps are cheap, but are they safe?
How would you feel about a strange family rummaging through your underwear drawers? With the growing popularity of house swap holidays, people in the U.S. and sought-after destinations around the world are opening up their properties to that very possbility.
This story on SecondAct.com makes the arrangement sound great. Using sites like HomeExchange.com or HomeLink.org, prospective vacationers sign up to trade homes with another family for free. Other sites like TradetoTravel.com don't require this type of tit-for-tat trade. You can simply earn points when someone else stays in your home and then use them at any available property, not the one belonging to the people who used yours.
Guidelines stipulate that vacationers "be respectful" when doing house swap holidays, but that doesn't always happen. An article in the U.K. Guardian details ways to ensure your home is safe during a swap, the No. 1 tip being to make sure you have adequate home insurance coverage.
Would you participate in house swap holidays?
"Gina and Roger Freize had never heard of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. But when the owner of a San Miguel villa found them through a home exchange website, the couple vacated their San Diego condo and spent a blissful week in Mexico."What a gem," Gina Freize says of San Miguel, a Central Mexico town popular with American retirees, artists and writers..."
