Exchanging homes for holidays

Lonely widow , no friends. Should I sell my house and move closer to my children n just be a baby sitter?

I wouldn’t want anyone I didn’t know staying in my house. Too many trinkets and precious things around to trust them. Different story with the holiday house though we have such a large extended family that there are enough to keep it busy all year round. So no and I wouldn’t.

We did this 40 years ago through a popular arrangement with the National Housewives Register. (National Women's Register)
There may have been safeguards- I don't remember but it worked well for us. We exchanged letters in advance and met briefly to swap keys.

The children loved playing with all the new toys but people don't usually live in holiday areas so the house was on a housing estate in a suburb. It was a base for touring.

It was certainly a cheap holiday but there was a lot of preparation involved, trying to leave our own house clean and tidy!
I have friends who use
Trusted House Sitters regularly to have their house occupied, the garden watered and the cat fed.

You need to start a new thread Bronx
This is about holiday swaps.

Must say it’s never occurred to me. Too much cleaning/tidying needed in advance, not to mention what about any valuables, private paperwork? Not saying that anyone would be bent on nicking things or nosing into private matters, but if you don’t know the people from Adam and Eve….

TBH it was quite enough when a sister IL from Singapore asked to stay for a couple of nights with her teen dds before we returned from our holidays - they already had keys since nieces had stayed before. All the beds to be changed in advance, not to mention a cleaning blitz - SiL had always had a maid to do it all!

We haven't, but had a long chat with friends of friends at a social gathering a few years ago, who'd done it both in Europe and America. As far as I could gather without any problems. I believe it can entail using each others cars and looking after pets if they remain in situ. So a lot of trust on both sides. I think there needs to be an appointed person nearby to call on if needed.

I have friends that did it for many years - definitely not for me though. The thought of people I don't know living in my house fills me with horror!

You have to be the kind of person who is used to sharing your space.
I used to think everyone was like me but plainly they're not.

I've been hosting volunteer helpers for the past 15 years and I shared a dormitory at boarding school. No secrets here.

The worst part of house exchange is definitely the cleaning your house before and their house before you leave!

I replaced broken toys too only to discover that they were already broken.

My late husband and I did this years ago we went to Lyon in France and we had a brilliant holiday.
Our home was immaculate when we arrived back home and we write to the couple for a number of years afterwards it was a brilliant experience

Wrote

I have a cousin who used to do this. Dont know if she still does. It saved them a fortune.

But she has one of those houses which is nearish to the sea, and always looks up to date in furnishings and cleanliness.

She couldnt understand why everyone doesnt do it!

We usually go away in the winter and though I have thought about this I can’t think who would want to visit our area when the weather is cold.

I dont know where you live, but I suppose you would never know the answer to that one.

Done it once when my children were early teens. We lived in SW London, they lived in Boston. Tall thin house near the Charles River. It was in the Italian quarter, so lovely restaurants. August, so a bit humid. The thing about exchanges is that they're trusting you, so you have to trust them. It worked for us, apart from the cleaning!!

My son said to me, "What if you travelled to do the exchange, only to find out they don't own the house at all."

My friend sent me today some lovely pictures of her exchange last week. She often does it for a weekend and has she tells me done more than 50 exchanges in Europe and America. She lives in London. We have taken on a friend’s house and she just put everything of value in one room , their office. With just two of us there was little mess to clear and a cheap, very comfortable holiday.

We did it when the kids were little, via an exchange agency with a family in Belgium. It was a cheap holiday and the house had everything we needed for two young children (as did ours for them). We actually ended up meeting lots of neighbours and regulars in the local bar - non of whom knew our host family!
I did find all the cleaning stressful though, especially cleaning their house, washing all the bedding etc when we had a ferry to catch!

No, the idea doesn’t appeal to me at all.

Sounds like hard work. I'd rather just pay and have no potential quibbles or misunderstandings.

Can’t think of anything worse for me personally. My house certainly wouldn’t be up to scratch, books, sheet music and my painting stuff everywhere. Hate housework too. Too much clutter.
I live in an area where friends let their houses out for Open golf and one said she wouldn’t do it again as it was too much bother even though the financial recompense was good.

I'm looking into it. I've hosted Airbnb (having the guest/s as houseguests) in a previous house and it was fun, met some fantastic people and made not a lot of money.
We live overlooking a beach, good public transport links and the neighbours would be supportive.
Just looking for the right platform to advertise on.
Guardian is one, but as OP asked, recommendations for others would be helpful.

We have used Guardian home exchange with great success.

It isn’t our main home we exchange but our holiday let.

I wouldn't fancy it with my main home but I think it would be fine with holiday home because there are no personal documents left there. It's got 7 bedrooms so I could put all personal stuff like clothes we leave there in one bedroom and lock it and let it as a 6 bedroom house.