Property exchange
You may not fall in love by home swapping as Cameron Diaz did in the 2006 movie The Holiday but it makes sense in plenty of other ways. Andre Cooray takes a look
Home-swap holidays are perfect for travellers who want to save thousands of dollars and are willing to try something different. Think about it. If you waive costly hotel fees and the constant need for restaurant dining, you can save a small fortune whilst visiting the destination of your dreams. Home swappers often trade their cars too, so transportation is convenient and cheap.
People have been swapping their homes for vacation purposes since the 1950s, but amid the global credit crunch more and more holidaymakers are exploring this option, especially now that summer is here. Aside from the financial benefits, avid home swappers claim to get a more authentic feel for the places they visit as absentee hosts will often provide interesting details about the area they live in – not just where the top tourist spots are, but the names of good coffee houses, popular takeout joints and cool bars. What’s more, introductions to friends and neighbours are often given.
A lot of people are happy to swap properties with no qualms and a mindset that ‘a stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met’. However, not everyone is so trusting or easygoing which is why Richard Overens started Friends in Far Places, a Hong Kong-based network enabling members to set up their own extended network of friends for home-exchange holidays. A friend of a friend of a friend is the cut off point to joining a network, therefore whoever stays in your home will always either be known to you or to someone you know. This personal connection is Overens’ way of differentiating himself from the other home-swap vacation sites available worldwide on the net.
Friends in Far Places is free for the first 20 members of a network and after that there is a one-off joining fee of HK$700. There is a booking charge of HK$600 per week for each property. But the best thing about it is that your accommodation costs are the same for a family of five as they would be for one person.
This kind of holiday is particularly attractive to the retired who can travel at anytime, second-home owners, teachers (with long summer vacation periods) and families. Importantly too, you don’t have to own your home to join a network. “As you are inviting friends to stay in your home and not earning any income from it, you can offer your rented place in Hong Kong, so it is not just for the wealthy,” says Overens.
What’s more, demand is high locally, from tourists wanting to see Asia’s World City. “The cost of hotel accommodation here is so expensive and therefore even your 700-square-foot flat will be in demand,” Overens explains.
Friends in Far Places works on a credit system so the more times your house is available the more credits you accumulate to stay at locations within a network – even if nobody stays in your property. Simultaneous coordination of stays (via a direct house swap) is not necessary, instead you can choose to stay somewhere whenever it is empty.
For Chris Shannon, a Hong Kong member of Friends in Far Places, the system certainly works. “We joined the network of a colleague at work, and it has places in Asia, Europe and Australia,” he says. “We are returning to the UK next year and as teachers, we will regularly leave our house empty during the summer holidays. We will happily offer it to this extended network of friends and in return we hope to get back for some Hong Kong and Asian holidays with virtually no accommodation cost.”
|
