Home Swap Websites

gwjones42

I hope this is the right place for this question. If not, I apologise mods.

Here it is.....

I've joined a couple of Home Swap websites (not sure about naming them here). All bar one of them let you join as a basic member to show your house, but you must pay to contact other members. The last one lets you do it all for free. So on this last one, I put up nice pictures of my house, which is in good nick and is in a fairly good spot (Maynooth). I then went on a search around the website and sent a few "Hi.....your house looks nice/ here's mine/ think about it for the future" style pm's.

I don't think I came across as too pushy or full-on, and I wasn't exactly trying to swap my normal house for a mansion, and yet NOBODY has even acknowledged the messages.

My question therefore is.........is this type of non-interaction the norm on these websites or have I just had an unusually bad experience? Also, does anyone have any tips/ advice on how to do well on them?

Thanks in advance

dory

I just put up a notice on travel forums. I used Bootsnall.com and The Lonely Planet. Got a few responses from the LP and did a house swap with a couple from Canada. Didn't happen fast now, had them up for a month or so before I heard from someone. I'd say give them a go.

gwjones42

I never thought of checking with Lonely Planet for this kind of thing.......and yet would doubtlessly be buying their book for wherever I ended up going!! Cheers for that.........for the good info......and for the response itself!!!!!..haven't been getting many of them lately:D

Badgermonkey

http://www.homeexchange.com/

http://homelink.org/

Homelink has an agent in Ireland, Marie Murphy, and you can contact her on 01-8462598 or www.homelink.ie.

gwjones42

Quick update......

I looked around for a few more sites and saw a recommendation for www.switchome.org. It's free and it's French.....in fact most of the listings on it are in French, but I thought hey...I did French in school..............10 years ago..............(and badly), so why not give it a go??

Anyway, my ad went up yesterday, was approved this morning with a welcome message and since then I've received three offers/ expressions of interest already!....all in French, but by the wonders of Google Translate, I've managed to have a good read! The site is a bit awkward to figure out at first and looks like it was designed years ago, but it didn't take too long to figure it out.

I mightn't end up going with any of them, but at least there's a bit of activity on the site and I feel like it could lead to something.

dory

Thanks for the update. Were all the offers for houses in France? I might give this house-swapping malarky another go.

gwjones42

I'm up to four offers now, and yes, they've all been from France so far. The vast majority of the listings on the site are in France, but there is a fairly wide spread of countries with smaller numbers. I get the feeling that not being in France makes it easier to stand out on the site.

dory

Yea, I find it's the same on American sites. Just being from another country makes you a very interesting prospect. I might see if I can get a swap organized for next summer....

gimpotronitus

Don't pay -> sharespark.com is an Irish site thats free, no charges. It caters for swap + share + rentals.

Have only used it once to swap a bike but seemed ok.

jconn

hi folks
I'm planning a family home swap for summer 2019, is this the correct forum to ask questions on what sites to use and register for?

thanks