Experience with Home Exchange websites?

April 13, 2018 11:03 AM

I'm interested in using HomeExchange.com for an upcoming trip, and I don't see any recent mentions of the site (or home exchange sites in general) on MetaFilter. Has anyone had personal experience with HomeExchange.com? It seems like it's one of those "everything's great unless something bad happens, in which case you're screwed" type of sites, and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the risk.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

I have a colleague who does/has done this sort of thing semi-regularly - he is an academic, and uses the site (or something similar?) to find places for him and his family (5-person household) to live while abroad on sabbatical/visiting scholarships, that sort of thing. I found the concept quite interesting as well, despite not owning any home to exchange, and have chatted with him about it at some length. He has a house in France and AFAIK has done exchanges in Canada, the UK and Australia. Things that stood out from my conversations with him:

- The process of finding a suitable match with whom to exchange seems quite lengthy - he kept me updated last time he did it (he was coming to my city) and the timeline was on the order of months, for a month-long stay. YMMV depending on trip length and geographical location though.
- It's also a good idea to be in loosely in contact for with each other for emergencies (ie maybe don't decide to go camping with no cell reception for a couple weeks in the middle of the exchange). My colleague apparently actually recorded several videos on how to do various plumbing tasks because people kept fucking up his pipes.
- One thing that seemed to come up a lot was vehicle usage (if you have a car, will they have access to it? What if they get a ticket or get into an accident? etc etc)
- Sometimes shit happens, even when your exchange partner has good intentions. Having a clear policy on what happens when things go wrong seems to be key - and in the cases where something unexpected happens, the best (and only) thing you can do is chalk it up to experience and add it to your policy.

I'd say it's definitely not for everyone, but he and his family seem to have had an overall positive experience - not only is it obviously less expensive than a short-term rental (even taking into account the cost of, say, a few minor house things and/or parking tickets from time to time), but they have also gotten the chance to meet interesting people from around the world and do some cool stuff they otherwise might not have been able to afford.
posted by btfreek at 4:42 PM on April 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: btfreek, thank you so much for taking the time to share these observations! super helpful!
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 5:40 PM on April 13, 2018