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Does anyone out there have any experience with house sitting as a method for travel and experience in different parts of the country? Recommendations on reputable companies that handle this and how you get started when you haven't done this before?
Never heard of that. They have house exchanges. Almost did that once. Sorry I didn't go through with it. Many people have had good experiences with doing that.
As I recall there is also one called House Minders. I had a friend who lived in San Francisco by rotating through the local hostels until she figured out where she wanted to be.
I've never heard of house sitting but my wife and I LOVE doing home exchanges. We have traveled over 100+ days a year in home exchanges all over the world. We use HomeExchange.com It's so great and we've never had a bad experience.
2 summers ago we traveled in Europe almost all in Home Exchanges. We only stayed in hotels in 2 cities but we went to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brugges, Monte Carlo, Milan and Florence almost all in Home Exchanges.
I'm not sure what city you live in but if it's an interesting city then you probably can score some home exchanges. My wife says she could never do it with our home that we live in but fortunately we own several rental properties so for us it's not a big deal.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,724 posts, read 58,067,115 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyretirement
...I LOVE doing home exchanges. ...fortunately we own several rental properties so for us it's not a big deal.
That sounds doable. How do you work out the 'car' deal?
I have been avoiding xchange due to having to 'share-your-car'. That is a "No-No" for me, and most home exchange experts said you will never be able to get a 'taker' if you don't give them access to your car. (mine are all 'junkers' anyway, but the liability is my concern). A co-worker did several xchanges and the guests would appreciate the cheap fuel in USA, and really rack up the miles, one guest went over 10,000 miles in 4 weeks. This friend has appreciated the nice Volvos and Mercedes left at the Euro destinations for him to use, but he did very modest driving, and took any trips via train.
That sounds doable. How do you work out the 'car' deal?
I have been avoiding xchange due to having to 'share-your-car'. That is a "No-No" for me, and most home exchange experts said you will never be able to get a 'taker' if you don't give them access to your car. (mine are all 'junkers' anyway, but the liability is my concern). A co-worker did several xchanges and the guests would appreciate the cheap fuel in USA, and really rack up the miles, one guest went over 10,000 miles in 4 weeks. This friend has appreciated the nice Volvos and Mercedes left at the Euro destinations for him to use, but he did very modest driving, and took any trips via train.
Hi Stealth,
No worries about the Car swap as we have NEVER included a car. A few places offered and we never took them up on their offer as we didn't want the responsibility of driving their car or damaging it. We simply rent a car everywhere we go.
In Europe places like London and Paris you don't need a rental car as public transportation is so great. But most other places we simply rent a car.
You won't have ANY problems arranging home exchanges without a car. We never do it as we heard horror stories. One of the couples we exchanged with in La Jolla told us about a European couple that they did an exchange with.
They said that they were shocked when they saw that their odometer said something like 10,000 miles. This couple they swapped with drove all across the USA!
We've had some really fabulous exchanges. Last summer we spent 6 weeks on many exchanges in Santa Monica (on the beach), La Jolla, Portland and Seattle. It was great.
I really find it's the best way to travel around the world in retirement/semi-retirement.
We already have tons of trips lined up for the future.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,724 posts, read 58,067,115 times
Reputation: 46190
Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyretirement
Hi Stealth,
No worries about the Car swap as we have NEVER included a car. ...
You won't have ANY problems arranging home exchanges without a car. ...
I really find it's the best way to travel around the world in retirement/semi-retirement. ...
Great news, I'm anxious to try it, especially in a few 'central' destinations I desire to 'hub' out of.
You might also enjoy using private 'Guest homes', as that works for overnights when you are in between destinations. Usually $10 - $20 per night with plenty of local advice and help, and usually a meal or two. I will PM a couple links to directories. These have really made my travels special of the last 25 yrs.
Thanks for the PM. Much appreciated! We typically don't bother with home exchanges unless it's at least a week.
Home exchanges are great not even just for financial reasons but we travel with 2 young kids and it's impossible in hotels with cooking and the lack of washing machines/dryers. We really love living like locals in each city that we go to. And some of the houses are AMAZING! You'd be really surprised. We've stayed in a few mansion like places.
We started in 2008 but already have done over 30 exchanges around the world. Yeah, as long as you don't swap cars I think you will be ok. We've NEVER had any problems in all the exchanges we've done and made some great friends. In a few cities like Manhattan, we have friends that we made that we use their properties several times and they as well with ours.
We're getting to travel for about 4 months and mostly on home exchanges. We get tons of requests so we have built up credit where we just tell them we don't know when we will go but we ask for the ability to use it in the next 12 months if we give them at least 2 months notice.
I'll check out your links...thanks again for sharing.... it's what these sites are all about.
Best.
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