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Home swaps off the beaten path
A great money-saving alternative for families around the globe
 | Nancy Atwater shows the web page of her home outside Sperry, Okla. She and her husband Mike participate in the home exchange vacation program through Homelink USA and have swapped their home with others as far away as Lancaster England. |
Mel Root / AP |
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. - When Nancy Atwater first heard about home exchange programs, she thought it would be a great way to travel. Her only concern: Who would want to vacation in her home in Sperry, Okla.?
The appeal of home exchange vacations - where people swap homes, and often vehicles and even pets - is basic: free lodging with many of the comforts of home.
It's easy to imagine swapping for a vacation destination - a loft in New York, a pied-a-terre in Paris, a beach house in Florida or a ski condo in Aspen. But what if your hometown doesn't immediately come to mind when vacations are being planned?
"At first there was skepticism about who would want to come to Oklahoma, but the answer is all sorts of people," Atwater said. "It's people who realize the U.S. is more than just the East Coast and the West Coast."
Over the years, she and her husband, both retired, have arranged three exchanges through home-swapping Web site HomeLink International. They've gone to England twice and are planning a trip to Virginia Beach for Easter.
Atwater said they have had many more offers for their home - from people living in Austria, Japan and Paris, to name a few - than they could accommodate because the timing simply didn't work out.
Sheila Shockey, who has traded her home in Shawnee Mission, Kan., for stays in Hawaii and Australia and is planning a trip to Vancouver this summer, said her midwestern location is actually a draw. She said people are attracted to Kansas' frontier history and Native American sites.
Staying in a home in a location that is not typically filled with tourists, Shockey said, is a way to get a feel for a place and to get to know people. Meeting locals - often neighbors or family members of the home's owners - can lead to a richer vacation experience.
"You kind of get a sense of what life would be like to live there, whereas if you were staying in a hotel in a touristy area, you don't get that," Shockey said.
Meanwhile, back in Kansas, Shockey's boyfriend was entertaining the Australians in her home, taking them to see fireworks and giving them a tour of the area's sights.
Some people are even surprised to learn why people want to swap with them. Kate Blaszak, a stay-at-home mom, said she was "shocked, absolutely shocked" to receive exchange offers from Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands for her family's home in Cleveland.
When she and her husband signed up on a swap site in 2004, they thought they might get offers from people looking for a place to stay during brief treatment at the nearby cardiac clinic. Instead, they got an offer from a Dutch family of roller coaster enthusiasts who wanted to try the world-class rides at Cleveland's Cedar Point amusement park.
Sometimes people aren't looking for a vacation destination. They're looking to go home - but not all the way home. Atwater said she was contacted by a couple who live in Japan but are originally from the Tulsa area. The couple wanted to visit their families but wanted to have some space to themselves.
Ed Kushins, president of HomeExchange.com, the Web site featured in last year's film "The Holiday," said people shouldn't be discouraged if they live in a place that isn't generally thought of as a vacation spot. They just might have to work a little harder.
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