www.homebase-hols.com                                                                                              December 2012 (issue 92)

Home Base Holidays members to the rescue! 

Member experience: kind members help find London accommodation for daughter

Within days, the replies began to come in. Some apologies from people who couldn't help but wished us well with our quest, but one fantastic lady, another Mum, who understood the dilemma we were in. She was able to accommodate our daughter for her first two weeks, which was great. A few days later, we had another reply from a lady who, although she hadn't got the ideal conditions, had a friend who might be able to help us out for a very small fee. If this wasn't suitable, she offered her sofa! Her friend's accommodation was suitable and we very promptly sorted things out. It was an exhausting process - bad enough not seeing your children for months, but to then have them sort out some hard to come by work experience only to be unable to afford to live anywhere suitable, what a difficult situation! 

Jo was able to complete her period of work, thanks to the kindness of some Home Base Holidays members and their friends. She had a fantastic time as the house guest of two families. The first lady and her son have recently spent a week in our home whilst we were away, so we have been able to re-pay a bit of their kindness, although I will always be indebted to these people. I don't think I could quite believe the kindness of people and the willingness to try to help. Jo has made lifelong friends (as I'm sure we will when we eventually meet) and it's great to think that in this suspicious world that sometimes seems full of bad things happening, there are lots of good things too. People do still care and try to help one another out in their time of need. 

When I talk to my friends about how all of this came to be, they can't believe my luck. I must say neither can I! I would recommend that if other people were able to help in this way, go for it. Ask for help, because there are some wonderful people out there. We are human beings and meant to be sociable and you just never know when you might need a favour. 

Thank you Home Base Holidays; I'm so pleased I'm a member".

Clare Child, Lake District, England   

See Clare's home for exchange on the edge of the beautiful Lake District....

Have you had any members go that extra mile to help you? 

If so we'd love to hear! Contact us with any of your home exchange experiences...

Shelley C. Miller (pictured), publisher of the Home Exchange Expert blog, recently interviewed Lois on her experiences of running a home exchange service, and the changes since 1985 when Home Base Holidays was launched. Read the interview here...  

Shelley is a member of Home Base Holidays. Click here to see her attractive home exchange offer in San Diego, California...

A member's tips on arranging a non-simultaneous swap in your 1st home

"Yesterday we received a home swap offer from Cape Town! South Africa was not on our list but we are now seriously thinking about it and having it as a stopover on our way back from Australia. This is what is so exciting about being on the Home Base Holidays website, it just opens up your horizons of travel destinations without the cost being too prohibitive. 

Our experience (we have now completed 18 exchanges in the past five years) has primarily been non-simultaneous exchanges. This is because we travel to Australia every winter for three months to visit our daughter and family and to escape the British winter. England is much more appealing to our Australian exchangers in our summer months! 

Some of our exchanges have been to second homes but our home is our only residence. 

So how do we manage non-simultaneous? 

Well, we often use the time when our exchangers are in our home to explore and visit all the places in the UK that we said we would see and haven't! 

Our lovely family and friends, when they hear that we are "homeless", invite us to stay and to catch up with them. As we are travelling for about a quarter of the year, this catch up time keeps us all in touch. 

The added bonus of non-simultaneous exchanges is that we get to meet who is coming to stay in our home. We take time to settle them in and show them around the area. This, they say, has proved invaluable and resulted in virtually no problems and made for a much more rewarding experience for them. 

We have made lifelong friends all over the world: San Francisco, Mauritius, Canada, New Zealand and lots of states in Australia. We all seem to be like minded travellers who just enjoy the experience of visiting new countries, staying in lovely homes and meeting new people. Thank you Home Base Holidays for giving us this opportunity." 

Bev Morgan 

Bev's home in Newnham-On-Severn, Gloucestershire, England, is a 17th Century Merchants house with many original features including oak beams and open fires. The house is on three stories with views over the River Severn and the Cotswold hills. See her full home exchange offer

Complimentary membership to 2nd swap site (ends 31 Dec 2012) 

If you are a current Home Base Holidays member (or join by 31st December 2012), you are offered complimentary one year membership to a second North American home exchange agency. To take up this offer, contact us (subject line: Global offer) with a note of the password you would like set.  

Contact us to sign up to the free offer!