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Greetings!
The ExchangeHomes Newsletter is published bi-monthly to
provide information on home exchange vacations for
current and recent members of ExchangeHomes and Newsletter subscribers.
Quick Links to the left to: Member Login, Browse the Listings, Sign Up, Read Our Blog, Go To Our Help Center.
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Address links are to be found at bottom of the page.
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This Newsletter is Also Online
For Anyone Unable To Read The Email Format
If you are unable to read this Newsletter in its email format, for the next 30 days you will be able to click on the link provided at the top of the page and read an online version. After 30 days it will be archived along with all previous Newsletters. To access our Newsletter Archive Click Here
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Trip Cancellation Insurance
A current open discussion
ExchangeHomes.com is one of the charter member agencies approved by CHECtravel and recently this organization has negotiated to offer participating agencies Trip Cancellation Insurance for all their members.
The cost of this insurance would be $30/per year in addition to regular membership costs. Briefly, the terms of the insurance policy are as follows:
- Home exchangers who have paid for non refundable airline tickets, prepaid hotel reservations and/or car rental will be reimbursed to a maximum of $2,500 USD (less $250 deductible) if either the exchanger or the exchange partner cancels for any of the covered reasons, which are:
- Medical Emergency
- Accident Emergency
- Death
- This same coverage applies to your immediate family (up to a maximum of 4 people per listing).
- Coverage applies to all home exchanges made during a membership year, regardless of the number of exchanges made.
Prior to the home exchange, the member will be required to record details of their upcoming home exchange using a CHECtravel interactive form.
ExchangeHomes.com has been surveying members and people generally inquiring about home exchange to discover whether there is an interest in this insurance. We're also running a quick "Yes" "No" poll on our Blog and it would be greatly appreciated if you too would take a moment to participate.
Just click This Link. The poll is at the bottom of the post.
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More About Our "Global" Alliance!
Global Home Exchange
In the last issue of the ExchangeHomes.com Newsletter I was able to report our brand new alliance with another very well respected home exchange club: Global Home Exchange.
All current and active ExchangeHomes.com members were invited to take advantage of a complimentary membership with Global.
Like ourselves, Global is an approved member of CHECtravel and abides by the highest standards and business ethics.
This invitation still stands. In order to receive a free Global membership, you must visit this address:
http://www.4homex.com/exchangehomes.htm
You must join with the same email as you have registered with us, and you must enter EH followed by your Current ExchangeHomes Membership Number after your name. Example: Jane Smith EH 12345.
There will be a brief time lag before your free listing is actually released while Global verifies your current status with us.
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Lifetime Member Retires
Recently, when checking one of our home exchange "Lifetime Members"
listings, I saw that all the dates covered her now past 2008
requirements, so I emailed her to remind her that she needed to update
her information in order to keep her listing online. A day or two later
Laura phoned me to explain that age and infirmities now make it
impossible for her to plan any more vacations away from home.
She reminisced and said that she had first joined ExchangeHomes.comwhen
she was 52 years old and her husband had been alive. Together they had
taken part in home exchanges all around the world. Her husband had died
in 2002 and after a hiatus of a couple of years she had resumed home
exchanging in 2005.
This year Laura had exchanged with Mexico, but she had found the
flight taxing and subsequently she had undergone knee surgery and
recovery has been slow and difficult.
She felt she had no recourse other than to cancel her listing with us, or at least put it on hold.
Our conversation jolted me into thinking: ExchangeHomes.com
first began promoting home exchanging back in 1986 and in the
intervening years we've accumulated an impressive band of Lifetime and
renewing members who've been with us for 10, 12, 14, 16 plus years just
like Laura. It really is a sad thought they many of them may soon find
that traveling is no longer a pleasure for them.
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Members With Multiple Clubs
Several times recently we've had visitors to the ExchangeHomes.com
home exchange web site who have taken the trouble to add listings of
their own, complete with great, detailed descriptions and lots of
bright, illustrative photographs, but they've stopped short of paying
the necessary fee to make the listing go live.
Our policy is to give them a couple of days-maybe they feel they
need to spend some more time working on their home exchange listings
first - then we email the potential members and gently remind them that
until they commit to paying the necessary listing fee, all their
efforts are in vain because without activation, their listings will
remain hidden from view.
Three of these people have astonished us with their replies. They
explained that they have already paid a listing fee to join another
club, hence they felt that we should include their properties on our
web site free of charge! One person in fact, all but demanded that we
release his listing for all to view and went on to detail his opinion
that ALL the clubs should join together and publish each others
listings.
This attitude amazes me; I've heard similar stories from other clubs. ExchangeHomes.com
isn't a charity, we too have bills to pay and a living to make. Maybe
the people now expecting free memberships with second and third clubs
should have researched their first choice a little more closely before
committing to them because each of them cited lack of success as their
reason for turning to us.
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Home Exchange and Natural Disasters
While the recent wildfires were raging in Southern California, we
received a phone call from a member who was actually participating in a
home exchange involving a home located close to the areas being
devastated. The family were from the UK and had two young children.
With absolutely no experience of this type of natural disaster they had
no idea of how to cope, or what procedures to follow. The husband
explained that they were caring for their home exchange partners' two
cats-what did they do with them if they were required to evacuate?-and
he was also very concerned about an expensive Porsche Cayman parked in
the garage for which he had no keys.
He explained that before phoning me, he had tried repeatedly to call
their exchange partners in their home in the UK, but had been unable to
reach them.
As luck would have it, I was able to put him in touch with my
daughter who lives just a few miles away from his exchange home. She
has survived many Southern California natural disasters, both wildfires
and earthquakes, so she was quickly able to advise and guide him. Good
fortune also prevailed inasmuch as the fires did not require our member
(or daughter) to evacuate.
Again I will stress the importance of leaving clear and concise
instructions for your exchange partners in the event of any type of
emergency, especially if the care of pets is involved. Similarly, if
you own a valuable car-off limits to your home exchange partners-in
could be prudent to provide them with means of moving it in a crisis.
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A Home Exchange Really Can Be Free
Home Exchange vacationing has always been lauded as a means of free
vacationing or free travel, which technically it isn't, because
families and individuals still have to travel to and from their home
exchange destinations. It's also been all too evident recently that the
price of travel has been increasing exponentially.
So-I thought it was about time I shared a method my brother uses,
and has passed on to me, where even the traveling can be 100% free as
well.
Use a credit card with mileage rewards!
No-I mean REALLY use the credit card for absolutely
everything-grocery, gasoline, paying utilities, buying clothes for the
kids (and yourself!), medical and dental expenditure-EVERYTHING!
The
clincher is that at the end of each month the outstanding balance on
the credit card is always paid off in full-NO EXCEPTIONS. Instead of
writing checks or using your debit card for various day to day
transactions, leave all your cash in the bank and use it to pay your
credit card, then the next month begin the entire process all over
again.
My brother does exactly the same thing with all his business expenses as well.
Both last year and this, he used his accumulated mileage rewards to
take his family (wife and two children) to England on vacation, flying
out of San Francisco. All their travel expenses were covered and of
course, they exchanged homes. This year the exchange included a car;
last year it did not, but he was able to fund a rental car with mileage
rewards.
Of course you have to be disciplined and always pay the balance in
full every month, but when the routine is established that's easy
enough, after all the necessary money should be sitting in your bank.
Another nice touch-deposit your paychecks into a savings account and
transfer out just the amount necessary to pay the credit card balance.
The fact that it's not available in your checking account will force
you to use the credit card, plus it will earn a little interest for you.
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Contibutions
To This Newsletter and Our Blog
We always welcome contributions from both Members and subscribers to our two publications. How about putting together a report on your recent home exchange a piece of advice, or a list of tips? Anything you believe could be of benefit to your fellow home exchangers.
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Anne Pottinger
Editor
ExchangeHomes.com
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