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HomeExchange.com
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The word is getting around among travelers: hotels are out, staying in villas, private houses and apartments is in. Breakfast at a hotel restaurant is ordinary, coffee and fresh croissants at a charming local bakery is memorable. Hotel rooms are expensive, staying at a friend's loft in Manhattan, a buddy’s ski condo in Aspen, or a pal’s beach house in Australia is certainly much more appealing, more comfortable and less costly. Come to HomeExchange.com and expand your circle of friends!
Home exchange is based on a simple concept: “You stay in my home while I stay in yours”. Members join knowing they can save thousands of dollars over a “hotel vacation”, but find they get even greater benefits of a unique vacation experience of living like a local, not a tourist, shopping at local markets for meals at “home”, meeting friendly neighbors and getting recommendations for things to do and places to eat. And for family, a spacious, wonderful home is much more comfortable than a cramped hotel room.
Created in 1992 by avid travelers who have done hundreds of their own home exchanges,
HomeExchange.com is now the number one destination for travelers seeking the home exchange experience, boasting over 20,000 listings in 100+ countries. From popular destinations like England, France and Italy to more exotic locales such as Fiji, South Africa or a small village in Iceland, the site enables Members to reach their dream destinations in a style and cost savings never before imagined.
The Web site is constantly being improved to make it the very best experience for its Members with features and functions that emphasize the community aspect of home exchange. Site features include free unlimited posting of photos, easy search, save Listings and one-click multiple contact, automatic notification of new Listings in your preferred destinations, Chat function, Feedback on exchanges, testimonials page, a network of foreign sites, and a monthly online newsletter. In fact, with the way the site is set up, it can take just three clicks to arrange a home exchange.
If you are wondering who is doing home exchanges, rest assured, you’ll be in good company -- there are 100,000+ successful home exchanges every year. And Members are quick to point out that doing a home swap does not mean trading homes with a stranger. By the time you exchange emails, photos and phone calls, you really get to know the people you are going to exchange with, and they become friends long before they ever stay in your home. And because this is not a rental or time share, you know your exchange partner is taking the same kind of care of your home as you are of his. It is also a great way to experience anew an area you might have been to dozens of times before. A home exchange vacation is unlike a typical tourist vacation in that by trading homes you are really seeing the area as a local, not a tourist.
- You get a "feel" for the places you visit by living like a local, not a tourist.
- Home exchange partners can become lifelong friends
- If you're doing a home exchange, your home is being cared for while you're away.
- Privacy, flexibility and freedom. Come and go as you please.
- It's a free place to stay.
Every exchange is unique and the concept is successful because of the mutual trust and goodwill between the exchange partners. Home exchange travelers are well educated, adventurous, reliable, and have an interest in learning more about different places and cultures. They are professors, retirees, business executives, home-based business owners, doctors, lawyers and other professionals, singles, couples, families and empty nesters. Home exchange is also a great way to travel with children, take local and weekend trips, go on a group vacation or plan an event like a reunion, and really get to know intimately an area you may have only seen previously from the balcony of a hotel. A growing trend in home exchange is using them for weekend getaways, to visit kids in college, to attend weddings, and family reunions. Many Members take four, five, even more exchanges per year.
Even Hollywood is taking notice of HomeExchange.com. The Holiday, a romantic comedy incorporates HomeExchange as the major premise of its storyline. Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) and Iris Simkins (Kate Winslet), swap homes in England and Los Angeles as a way to get a break from the men in their lives. The experience opens their eyes in many unexpected ways. Both Diaz and Winslet’s characters have discovered what thousands of families already know: home exchange can be the best way to take a vacation. HomeExchange.com plays a prominent role not only in the romantic comedy but in the lives of thousands of families worldwide as the leading online destination for the exchange of vacation homes anywhere in the world.
Nancy Meyers, the movie’s writer/director, says the initial spark for “The Holiday” was ignited when planning her own vacation and serendipitously finding the website. “I had no idea this kind of thing ever existed,” Meyers admitted. “On the website, I saw all these gorgeous homes and thought it would be a wonderful starting point for two women both running away from something. Swapping houses becomes the first step in taking their lives back.”
“Glorious.” “Unforgettable.” “Magnificent.” These are the words you hear from HomeExchange.com Members in describing their latest home exchange vacations. If relaxing in your own private villa nestled along the shoreline of a glacier fed lake appeals to you more than sitting in a room with two double beds and a TV, then HomeExchange.com is definitely the right choice for your next vacation.
www.HomeExchange.com
Contact:
Julie Osborne
Concierge
Julie@HomeExchange.com
1.800.877.8723 US
1.310.798.3864 International
SKYPE julieo1906