 Finding a Home ExchangeNow that you have signed up for the Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship you need to figure out where you want to go and how to get there. Your Home Exchange Listing You need to prepare a listing of your home exchange offer. This serves two purposes. It allows other members to find your listing and it also allows them to ask you to consider an exchange with them. When you see a listing for a family that you would like to contact, you can refer them to your listing for more information. This saves time. Fill out the form at www.RotarianHomeExchange.com carefully. Don’t worry about it being perfect, you can always change it later. Describe the location of your home, and the city/town/village and region in which it is located. Talk about the size of your home and the quality of its furnishings and amenities. Mention the age, sex, and occupation or interests of your family members and where you would like to go on your home exchange. Describe your car in detail if it is available to exchange. The listing form has lots of check off boxes. These boxes describe your home and its amenities as well as certain exchange preferences. There is a yes or no question asking if there are children in your party. Answer yes if there are any children traveling with you that are still in high school or are younger. Most of the check off boxes have obvious answers. A few give you room for interpretation. For example, one box says “Exceptional View.” We have a pleasant and expansive view but I don’t claim it is exceptional. Instead I have photos of the view on our listing. There are check off boxes which allow you to indicate that children are OK or No Children. Alternatively you can leave both these boxes blank to leave all your options open. There are similar choices to be made as regards autos, smokers, pets, and plant care. You should have a comprehensive and complete listing, but don’t make it too long. If your essay about your family, home, and region is humorous or brilliantly written this is a plus. You will notice that many home exchange listings are incomplete or poorly written. You will have an advantage over the competition if your listing is complete and well written. The primary objective of your listing is to accurately present your offer and preferences; a secondary goal is to show others your charm and character by the quality of your writing.If you have children and/or are teachers, don’t give dates for your exchange by saying “School Holidays Only.” Folks in other countries may not know the dates of your school holidays. Putting between June 15 and It is beneficial to specifically list the countries and/or regions you are interested in trading with. After listing them, you can also consider indicating you are open to all offers. The reason for listing specific countries has to do with the way the system search tools work. These tools allow users to find people willing to go to a particular place. Another reason to be specific is so that someone reading your listing knows you want to go to a particular place. If you are searching for a family willing to go to New York you know those that list New York or the USA as a destination are likelier to respond to your offer than are those that put “willing to go anywhere” without specifically mentioning New York or USA. You can specify cities or regions of interest in a country or state. The disadvantage of this is if you are too specific you may discourage offers that would otherwise be worth considering. Take attractive photos of your home and put them in your listing. Rotarian Home Exchange allows many photos. The #1 photo is the most important because it will be shown in the summary listing and/or the main listing while additional photos are shown as thumbnails. Photos are worth a thousand words with respect to the quality of your home, your sense of style, your interest in taking care of your property, and the immediate environment of your home. The majority of listings have photos and if you don’t have one or more photos, you are at a disadvantage. The more photos you provide showing your home and its immediate environment the better. Key photos to display include your swimming pool, the living room, master bedroom, a minor bedroom, bathroom, the kitchen, your family, the garden, the view, and the front and/or rear of the house. Some home exchangers promote their offers with their own personal web sites. This is unnecessary with www.RotarianHomeExchange.com as the format allows many photos and essays similar in length to the book War and Peace. You can put a link to your personal web site or to a website with general information about your city or region. Home Exchange Motivation Understanding the motivation of people who might be willing to trade with you (besides the economic incentive) will help you understand how to promote your home and know what kinds of exchangers might be interested. Five specific motivations are discussed below. Good Rotarians. There are members of the Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship that will trade with you because you are a fellow Rotarian with all other factors being secondary (but perhaps important.) Traditional Vacationers. These folks want a marquee destination, a large and exciting city, a place next to the ski slopes, or anyplace nice—as long as it has a lake, pool, or beach. They want to kick back and relax in comfort and luxury or they want to explore the sights, restaurants, and monuments of the world’s great cities. If your home or second home is in a popular tourist destination you will hear from plenty of these folks. Road Warriors. These families are going to see the entire region, be it state, country or continent, in three weeks using your car. They may not be staying in your home much as it will be their base. We have traded with several of these families because the location of our home is ideal for this kind of vacation. If your home appeals to these folks, your car needs to be in good condition and you need to accept that they might put 5000 kilometers or 5000 miles on it. If your car is in poor condition or you don’t want it heavily used, you should avoid promoting your place as a good touring base. Local Culture Enthusiasts. These folks want to learn more about the country, its culture, and perhaps the language. They usually want to meet the locals and get to know them. They are happy to see the sights and enjoy the beach, mountains, etc. but their primary focus is cultural. They probably will stay close to the home and not travel far. They will enjoy attending your local Rotarian Club and appreciate meeting your friends. This is the key motivation for our family when exchanging. Special Interest Travelers. These people have a narrow issue of overriding importance. Maybe they want to be in the same town as a relative. I love cycling and this is one of my criteria when evaluating home exchange opportunities. Perhaps they want to be there for a festival or a sporting event such as the Tour de France or the World Cup. And yes, there are Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship members that have traded with non-Rotarians in Deciding Where You Want to Go and When Where you want to go is up to you. However, keep in mind that the Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship does not have members everywhere. Regions with large numbers of fellowship members include North America, Australia/New Zealand, and the Many exchangers will want to go to famous or well-known places. The competition for attractive homes in these places is intense. You can help yourself find an exchange by becoming expert at researching and understanding lesser-known but attractive places in the countries listed above. It is beneficial to a detailed knowledge of any region or country where you plan a home exchange. Before deciding to exchange in a particular place you should understand the weather, customs, culture, and key aspects of life. This kind of research can be done on the Internet, or you can read travel guides and other reference books. Most home exchange listings will indicate the languages spoken by the family concerned. This is important information. My opinion is you should never consider an exchange with someone with whom you do not share a common language. Clear and effective communication is an absolute necessity before, during, and after a home exchange. If you are a couple you can travel anytime during the year. This flexibility means you can choose possible home exchange destinations during their best season, or during the time you want to be out of town, and/or when airfares are cheapest. Places like Southern Florida or Northern Queensland are at their best in the winter while Families with school-age children tend to be limited to the summer holidays, though a quick exchange during the Christmas season or the spring holiday might be possible. Many or all sectors of some countries tend to take vacations at the same time. Businesses and other institutions in these countries might shut down for several weeks when all staff goes on holiday. For example, many French will want to exchange in July or August, even those without school age children. Normal activity in It is possible to arrange a home exchange at the last possible minute, but four or more months in advance is usual. Normally our exchanges are finalized six months in advance, probably because we are a family and must travel over the summer school holidays. An Example of Specific Criteria for Choosing a Home Exchange Every family will have different preferences as to where it wants to go, what is important and unimportant, and what is desirable or unacceptable in a home exchange. Here is the process we use to evaluate possibilities. We want to be in a region with enough activities or tourist attractions to keep us and the kids amused for three weeks. Discovering a new region and/or country is always exciting and preferred. We don’t want to drive more than two hours per day, and on most days much less than that. We want a home large enough to house the family comfortably. A room for each child is ideal, but if we want the children to fight constantly we can insist that two of them share. Having a bathroom attached to the master bedroom is appreciated but rare in Europe outside the We want a convenient location with good transport connections, but not too close to a noisy or busy road. A beautiful garden, a stylish house, and a pleasant view or setting are attributes that often tip the scales in favor of a particular offer. The country or smaller towns are preferred, but center city could be interesting. The ability to walk out the front door and have an interesting walk or cycle ride is a plus. If we are located in the suburbs, there should be a convenient subway, bus, or train connection into the city center. A reliable computer and internet connection is essential; broadband is better than dial up. Satellite or cable TV is better than just a few over-the-air channels. We like to meet people and ask that our hosts arrange introductions and activities with their friends. We want to meet local Rotarians and I want to attend meetings. We want a quality host family that is friendly, reliable, interesting, and communicative. We rely on this kind of family to prepare their house for our arrival, treat our property respectfully, and solve any problems that might come up. We have never traded with a Rotarian Home Exchange family because there are few that have children. There are few in Although it is useful and desirable to trade with families similar to your own, no exchange will be exactly even. The place you trade with may be better or worse than your own home. Usually it will be better in some ways and worse in others. The objective is that the exchange home and experience you trade for your home is worthwhile, practical, and enjoyable. It may be smaller than your home, with fewer conveniences, and a dodgy computer. We had such a house once but since it was in a beautiful region with a fabulous view with great neighbors and a wonderful host family, we didn’t mind. And it was much larger and more comfortable than any hotel room. Reviewing Home Exchange Listings You can list your home and simply wait to receive home exchange offers from others. If you have a home in a great location this is a reasonable strategy. If your home is in an average location you will have more exchange choices and possibilities if you actively review home exchange listings and send e-mails asking specific families to consider your home for an exchange. The Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship usually has 150 to 300 listings at any one time. We are hoping to increase this number. There are search tools to make it easier for you to find your desired exchange. Whether you are using www.HomeExchange.com or www.RotarianHomeExchange.com the search tools work the same way. You can search for homes in a particular country or even a region, city, or state of the country. You can search for families that want to come to your region or country. Given the manageable number of listings at the Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship you probably don’t need to do more than choose the country that you are interested in. If you choose to access the database of over 27,000 members of www.HomeExchange.com you will appreciate the detailed search tools. You can look for houses with a particular number of bedrooms, with a pool or without, etc. To summarize these options into categories: Avoiding or Embracing Nuisances. You can veto smokers, pet owners, and families with children. Alternatively, you can look for families that welcome smokers, pet owners, and families with kids into their home. Setting and Regional Amenities. You can look for a home on the beach or in the mountains. You can require that the home be located near golf courses, museums, or restaurants. Home Features. You can search for listings with a swimming pool, car for exchange, or wheelchair friendly (accessible), among many others. Size. You can specify that the home accommodates a certain number of people and has a certain number of bedrooms. Composition and Characteristics of the Exchange Group. You can look for homes of seniors or for single travelers, for example. Search results are presented in a chart format with a line for each listing that is relevant. The chart should have useful summary information such as the location, the dates, whether children are involved, where they want to go, the number the house will accommodate, and a small photo. This information allows you to click through to only the most relevant listings. Once you have reviewed the listings you are ready to begin figuring out which are the most promising. You can save any listing you wish for further consideration. You can then review these listings and research them thoroughly at a later date. A specific how to on search is found in the reference section of this guide. The Advantages of Trading with Similar Families You can focus on trading with fellow Rotarians. If you are willing to trade with a non-Rotarian you should focus on families that want to go to your region or country who are similar to yours in terms of family size, age and gender of children, sporting, cultural, or other interests, class, outlook on life, shared sense of style, etc. These usually make the best partners and they usually are the most interested in your offer. Let’s examine why families with children should trade with similar families. You want a house suitable for children. You want toys, videos, video games, bicycles, a trampoline, a back yard, and a house that is broken in and already used if not abused. My Mother-in-Law has a beautiful home. I am almost as nervous as she is when my children are there. Are they going to knock the decorative china off the antique hutch? Are they going to track mud on the oriental carpet? Will they bounce on the furniture? My Mother-in-Law would never trade homes with us. We want a car suitable for a family. We want to meet locals with kids. My children prefer to hang out with kids their own age rather than with us. It is great when we can go to the beach with another family. We are happy talking and drinking with the adults while the kids swim, pick up dead crabs, throw drift wood at each other, and bury each other in the sand. A family with children similar to our lot will be able to recommend places and activities of interest. Consider the case of families with young children. They want toys, they want a house safe for smaller children, and they may need a high chair, car seats, and crib. The easiest way to assure that all these items are available is to trade with a similar family. Most Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship members are older couples who travel without children. If you are traveling with children you will have a better chance of finding another family with children by using our partner www.HomeExchange.com and trading with non-Rotarians. Contacting Potential Home Exchange Partners and Analyzing and/or Researching Specific Listings The next few pages were written as general advice to all home exchangers. For Rotarian home exchange you should feel free to send an e-mail to any fellowship member. The advice below is included so you can consider trading with non-Rotarians by using our partner www.HomeExchange.com. There are at least two different ways to contact potential home exchange partners. The first way may be characterized as the Shotgun Method. You examine listings and contact ten to twenty potential partners that at first glance seem promising and/or interesting. You send them a quick e-mail asking if they would consider an exchange with your family. You refer them to your own home exchange listing. You can do this as a mass e-mailing at either www.RotarianHomeExchange.com or Homeexchange.com. This is quick and easy and you need only carefully consider those potential partners that respond with interest. The negative aspect of this is that you might have several potential partners respond positively. You suddenly have several possibilities; you will probably end up with one satisfied exchange partner and several disappointed families. Many that practice the Shotgun Method will ignore the majority of positive responses and negotiate only with the most promising alternative. When they confirm their favorite they may or may not contact the others to let them know they have an exchange. The Shotgun Method is popular and makes sense if your home is in an obscure or out of the way location. For example you might need to contact several hundred exchangers to find that one family willing to consider Be sure your spam filter or the spam filtering provided by your internet provider does not block e-mails from potential home exchange partners. Assuming your location and home exchange offer have wide appeal, consider the Focused Method. You only contact potential home exchange partners after carefully examining their listing. You should do all that you can to learn more about their region and location before you contact them. Read and reread their listing carefully. Make sure their home will meet your needs. Then review their choice of destination and other preferences to verify that your home will satisfy their wishes. If their listing leaves you confused on either of the above questions it is reasonable to e-mail them. Look at photos carefully. If the family you are considering trading with are neatness and design fanatics they may not be a good match if you are casual and messy. If you think their furniture and sense of taste is 180 degrees different from yours, consider looking elsewhere. Look at a map to figure out where the folks live. Both RotarianHomeExchange.com and HomeExchange.com listings usually have a map. You can use Internet mapping services for more detail. For For Europe (including For the Maps can give you an idea of positive aspects of the home such as nearness to a lake, forest, bicycle path, golf course, and/or park. You can also see if there are any negatives such as proximity to a busy highway, sewage works, power lines, or railroad. For example, we received an inquiry from In another situation in Use a search engine to learn more about the region and city or town. If you are unfamiliar with their car, use a search engine to learn more about it. Visit the website of the car manufacturer. Finally, if you have the names of the people you can enter them into Google or other search engine and see what you can find out about them. One of our potential partners was a successful entrepreneur while another ran an international outdoor adventure business. If you think all of the above recommended research sounds like too much work you can choose to instead ask your potential home exchange partners to discuss the setting of their house, whether there are any problems with noise and vibration, etc. Making a Home Exchange Inquiry Let’s assume you have found listings that look promising. Now it is time to write a polite e-mail of inquiry. You click on the listing to contact the member. Write them a short note suggesting they consider an exchange with you. The note will be sent to their e-mail address (without you knowing what it is). When they receive the note they should open it and review your listing and let you know if there is any interest. It’s better if your note is personalized so the folks receiving it know it is not one of twenty five identical notes sent at the same time (even if it is). Be sure the words Home Exchange are in the subject line of the e-mail. Opinions differ as to how many potential partners you should contact at one time. It depends upon the strength of your offer. Shotgun Method followers will contact up to twenty or more. If you are using the Focused Method you should only contact several assuming you have plenty of lead time before a potential exchange. Don’t be surprised if non-Rotarians don’t get back to you quickly. Some non-Rotarians will not respond to your offer in any way. They might respond several days or even occasionally a few weeks after you have sent your note. I personally appreciate rapid response and good communication and use this to judge the suitability of partners. I don’t think you should ever call anyone on the phone to discuss a potential home exchange and believe this is especially true with the initial inquiry. I prefer e-mail because it provides a written record to which the other party can respond carefully after full consideration of what is proposed. The folks you are communicating with may read your language better than they speak it. My written French is good, my spoken French worse. If you receive negative responses on your first inquiries or if after a few days they have not responded write them off and send out several more e-mails of inquiry to prospects on your list. Rotarian Home Exchange and HomeExchange.com automatically keep track of members you have e-mailed or who have sent you an e-mail. If you get a positive response don’t assume the home exchange is a done deal. You need to confirm their interest. There tend to be two stages to negotiating a home exchange. The preliminary stage is for the families to decide that the dates and homes probably meet their needs. Once this is established, there is the confirmation stage to negotiate the details and build confidence and trust. This process of negotiation is covered in the next topic, Negotiating a Home Exchange. You may receive an ambiguous response that is a weak maybe or perhaps they will say they need more time before further consideration of your inquiry. It is reasonable for a prospective partner to wait so they can review all the opportunities available to them. However, you should consider such responses as a likely no and continue looking for a home exchange elsewhere. Responding to Home Exchange Inquiries You ReceiveI recommend you learn all you can about potential partners before responding to their communication. I do the research suggested in the above section. Alternatively you can just respond in a friendly way and start asking questions. It is useful to respond quickly for many reasons. First, it shows you are a careful, courteous, and considerate person. Second, you don’t want to miss a good opportunity because you were slow. The folks that wrote you might have contacted twenty other people. If their initial e-mail to you is not personalized with your names you can assume they have contacted many other exchangers. If you are possibly interested, respond positively but tentatively such as Thank you for suggesting we consider a home exchange with you. I will talk to my wife and get back to you. If you need more information ask for it. Get back to them after you have talked to the boss. If you are definitely interested respond enthusiastically such as Thank you for suggesting we consider a home exchange with you. Your family sounds great, and we have always wanted to spend a month on If you are not interested I think you should politely decline, for example, Thank you for suggesting we consider a home exchange with you. If the folks have a problem and you are the type to be bold, you can point it out: We understand that you are not able to furnish your company car for our use. However, we find a car an essential part of a home exchange. If they are really interested in your property and are reasonable they could meet your objection by offering to pay for your rental car while they were using your vehicle. Probably the most difficult situation is where the offer is ok but you think you might get something better down the road by waiting. I think the best response is an honest one: Thank you for suggesting we consider a home exchange with you. We think You should always consider a home exchange inquiry an expression of preliminary interest. Recognize that when you respond to an inquiry positively, the person who first wrote you may be unwilling to exchange with you. This can happen because they wrote to twenty families at the same time and you were only #17 on their hit parade. Perhaps they didn’t read your listing carefully until you responded positively; maybe they wanted to be next to the ocean and hadn’t noticed your inland location. The Problem of Too Much Interest in your Home If you have agreed to have your home listed at HomeExchange.com and it is in a popular location and/or especially attractive you may receive too many home exchange offers. If you don’t have the time to deal with a barrage of responses, there are a few steps you can take to reduce interest in your home. You can modify your listing to make it more destination specific. For example, you can say The Problem of Not Finding an Exchange If you are having trouble finding an exchange, it may be because your offer is perceived as less attractive and/or your destination and/or date preferences are unrealistic. There are a limited number of members in the Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship and what you want or need may not be available. You will need to modify your expectations or use our partner, www.HomeExchange.com. By clicking a button on your listing your information automatically is available at www.HomeExchange.com and you can review the 27,000 plus offers and contact them. These are not Rotarians but they tend to be good people. Many of the members of the Board of Directors of the Fellowship have traded with non-Rotarians with good results. Once you have found a potential partner that is ready to discuss the possibility of exchanging with you, Congratulations! The next phase of the process is to negotiate the details with them, build confidence and trust, and make sure an exchange will work out for both of you. Sign me up now for the Rotarian Home Exchange Fellowship! Take me to the next topic, Negotiating a Home Exchange Take me to the listings at www.HomeExchange.com Take me to the listings at www.RotarianHomeExchange.com |