Vacation Home Exchange

Have you been considering taking a vacation? Do you find that between the cost of gas, food and other necessities of living out of your car and a hotel that you simply can’t afford to take that trip?  Would you be able to take that trip if you buy and cook your own food? Would it be even easier if you didn’t have to pay for a hotel room? Imagine a low cost vacation with all the comforts of home. 

More and more people are doing something known as home exchange for vacation instead of paying the high cost of a hotel room. The basis of home exchange is that you trade homes with someone elsewhere in the country during your vacation. 

Maybe you want to go to Nashville Tennessee for vacation and someone in Nashville wants to come to your city for a visit. You sign up on any of the various websites now available for home exchange and find someone who meets your criteria. 

You don’t have to have a fancy home, in fact it is probably best if you don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars in rare art hanging around the house as this is a situation where you must trust a total stranger to respect and take care of your home while you are gone. 

Most websites that offer this kind of vacation home exchange do not do background checks but if you want the extra assurance you can find many sites online that will do the checks for a low rate.  The way this vacation works is the exchanging families share everything from the family car to the pets. If you accept a home that has fish or hamsters you might be asked to feed them. In return you get the use the entire house including kid’s toys while on vacation. 

It is always good to check with your insurance company about coverage when allowing someone else to use your home and vehicle during a vacation exchange but in general most insurance covers your home or vehicle no matter who is using them as long as you gave them permission.