Would you like to know how? Learn from the Professor! Click here… http://homeexchangeuniversity.com/2009/11/5-keys-to-maintaining-sanity-while-traveling-with-kids-part-1-before-departing/

There are now three home exchange clubs and one home exchanger assistance service that provide some form of insurance for the home exchanger. This effort represents a quantum leap forward for the home exchange community and the millions of travelers who avoid home exchanging for many of the reasons covered to various degrees by these insurance plans. However, the coverage provided by these policies differs dramatically from one organization to another. 

HomeExchange.com, the largest and one of the best known home exchange clubs in the world, is also the latest to offer insurance protection. Provided through brokers working with the Lloyd’s of London syndicate at no cost to members, HomeExchange.com insurance offers a maximum of $2,250 ($2,500 less $250 deductible) coverage to all members exchanging with other HomeExchange.com members in the event of “illness, injury or death” causing the cancellation of the exchange. It is unclear whether the policy covers both home exchangers or only the “uninjured party.” It would seem that if you happen to be the exchanger whose immediate family member trips and breaks their neck, you’re out of luck for any reimbursement by the folks at Lloyd’s. There is also a $10,000 property and contents damage package for home owners with their own policy in place (renters not included). See details here. 

HomeLink International, the oldest of the world’s home exchange agencies, has a somewhat different approach. First of all, the “plan” is offered only to US and Canadian members, so far as we can tell. Secondly, it is not so much an insurance policy as it is a self insuring fund. A $25 premium is paid sometime during a calendar year and on December 31 the fund is divided up among the claimants “on a pro-rata basis” with a maximum ceiling of $5,000. Furthermore, the coverage seems to contingent on the exchange partner’s inability to fulfill the exchange agreement and does not cover illness, injury or death on the part of the “insured.”Also the self insurance funds may be separate for the US and Canada. See details here. 

HomeforExchange.com, a Dutch based home exchange agency with over 12,000 listings worldwide, has what they call “Accommodation Insurance.” This is quite clearly a form of coverage solely for the uninjured exchange party and meant to supplement accommodation costs and not non-refundable expenses such as airline tickets, rental cars, etc. So if the other guy, say, breaks his leg and can’t make the swap, HomeforExchange.com will pay you from $50 to $90 a day depending on whether you’re traveling alone ($50) or you brought your eight relatives with you ($90). If you decide to cancel your trip altogether (did you ever try to find a hotel room in Paris for $50/day?), then you’re out of luck for any “out of pocket” expenses. Premiums for this coverage range from $4 to $7.20 per day and, from what we can tell, must be paid within six months of the proposed exchange. See details here. 

CHECtravel.com is not a home exchange club. Its members come from many home exchange clubs and, in fact, include several from those agencies listed above. They join for many reasons including the increased level of safety and security CHECtravel provides through the organization’s address verification, mediation services and, of course, Travel Guard home exchange insurance available exclusively through CHECtravel. Unlike the others, the CHECtravel plan covers both exchange parties. In other words, if you enlist in the plan and have an accident that prevents you from making the trade, you’re covered. If your exchange partner gets sick, you’re covered. And for up to $10,000 with no deductible! If you break something in your exchange partner’s home, you’re covered for up to $1,500 with no deductible! There’s also $20,000 in supplemental medical coverage, baggage loss and trip delay coverage and even $50,000 emergency medical transportation. Coverage starts at just $15 and is 5.3% of your total non-refundable expenses. The policy covers all members of the insured exchange party. Trips must originate in the US or Canada. See details here.

It is clear that these four organizations, HomeExchange.com, HomeLink International,  HomeforExchange.com and CHECtravel.com represent a high point in the home exchange business. These clubs and service organization care enough for their clients’ welfare, often at their own expense, to protect them from unforeseen calamities in their home exchange experience. KnowYourTrade salutes them and looks forward to the day when all home exchange agencies will follow their exceptional example.

Global Home Exchange, this month’s KnowYourTrade Treasure of the Month, exemplifies the excellence displayed throughout the community of CHECtravel member agencies. Among its many outstanding features, Global offers viewers and members an industry high of nearly 100% images with its well over 2,000 home exchange listings. It also provides its members access to an additional 6,000+ home exchange listings through a shared database with its partner home exchange clubs, Exchange Homes, Echange de Maison (Another-Home) and Homeforswaps.com.

Global allows search options to the city level plus advice and templates for traders. Reverse search is to the state level. An internal messaging system keeps track of offers. Customer support, as you would expect from such a high quality home exchange club, is very responsive.

There are four different membership choices including a special for beginners, and either a year or lifetime membership for those in the know. Global Home Exchange! Try it; you’ll most certainly like it!

This week I realized the difference between a banana republic and an Islamic republic: bananas!

Are you a residence recycler?  Do you leave a big ugly carbon foot print when you go on vacation? If you have a house sitter, that may mitigate part of your environmental damage to some extent. But do you realize that your house sitter doubles your carbon footprint by living in two residences while you’re away? Meanwhile you’re in a hotel, miles away from your home, consuming a third source of environmental resources. After all, how much of your fun can this planet take?

Isn’t it about time you considered vacation home exchange? Besides the obvious advantages of living like a local and saving all that money on hotels, restaurants and the million other service charges you’d pay for taking a hotel vacation, what about the value to the planet? After all, isn’t eliminating a third of your carbon footprint for five percent of your year worth the minimal effort to trade homes for your vacation?

I know you’re worried that Paris Hilton may not have enough of your money to go clubbing every night if you don’t stay in one of her daddy’s hotels or maybe Wynn can’t afford to buy another Picasso. Trust me. That’s really not your concern. What you should be considering in the damage to the planet you could be avoiding by residence recycling, house swapping, home exchanging. But how easy is it?

You may have seen the movie, The Holiday? Well, it’s not that easy. But, with the internet, it’s not much harder and it can be much more fun. First, pick an agency. There’s about sixty of them out there on the net, so your best bet is to go to KnowYourTrade.com, the home exchange directory. If you’re into the ecological aspect, Green Theme International could be right up your alley. For diversity there’s Home Base Holidays, Global, and Digsville. If you’re looking to go to France there’s Echangeimmo, down under there’s Aussie, the north of Europe there’s JewettStreet, for educators there’s Sabbatical, and if you’re rich check out IVHE.

Remember, which ever clubs you choose, you’re not just embarking on an amazing adventure, you’re actually greening the planet and drastically reducing your carbon footprint by doing so. Recycling your residence makes everybody smile including the earth.  

Vacation home exchanging has increased in popularity by leaps and bounds over the past several years, propelled by factors including cost effectiveness, greening, and the chance to truly experience the fascination of living like a local while escaping the humdrum of one’s own environment. But there’s a select group of home swapping initiates who have taken the vacation home exchange adventure to an appreciably higher level: these are the CHECtravelers. C.H.E.C. stands for Certified Home Exchange Community and it means “Peace of Mind” for the home exchanger, for the CHECtraveler.

This unique group has decreased risk, increased security, eliminated most, if not all potential problems, and generally made vacation home exchanging a “no brainer” in the most basic sense. CHECtravel is for anyone who’s ever dreamt of what it could be like to become a harmonized part of the lands they visit.

CHECtravel members have raised the vacation home exchange bar through enjoying such features as:

• Vacation home exchange travel insurance with features unlike anything available elsewhere created and provided by TravelGuard, the world’s leader in travel coverage exclusively for CHECtravelers

• Using spam-free email addresses (myname@chectravel.com) for all home exchange trading transactions

• Having an in house CHECtravel mediator for any exchange problems

• Being assured of member address verification, worldwide

• Using the CHECtravel listing consultant service to provide the perfect pictures and copy for your exchange profile

• Getting major discounts on membership in the top home exchange clubs on the internet
• And so much more.

In effect, CHECtravelers enjoy all the benefits of time shares, vacation rentals, fractional ownership and expensive hotel stays with all the security and none of the cost.
To become a CHECtraveler is relatively painless; simply apply for membership on the CHECtravel.com website and within 48 hours (after the staff verifies your address) you’ll receive your approval and your credit card will be billed for the $24.95 annual membership cost. In addition, with your membership, you’ll receive a downloadable eBook, “The Home Exchange Academy,” that provides a bounty of information to both the novice and experienced home exchanger.

The world of vacation home exchanging is waiting to give you the experience of your lifetime. CHECtravel is ready to take you there. The question remains: Are you a CHECtraveler?

One may wonder about a group of people who travel around the planet at a fraction of the cost the rest of us must pay to vacation at the same destinations in second-rate conditions. Furthermore when these elite arrive, they’re treated to VIP status! They are accorded fully equipped residences, complete access to the local culture, all the comforts of home, plus they enjoy the status of honored guests!  Who could these special folks be, one might ask? Vacation home exchangers!

That’s right! These are the travelers who are in the know. They ‘get it’ as so many others try to figure out how to budget their hotel bills, make allowances for restaurant livelihood and so many other out of pocket expenses that come from living out of a suitcase. Home exchangers travel smarter; they live like the locals, spend less and enjoy more. A typical home exchange vacation costs half of a hotel or vacation rental stay. Chose from over fifty agencies on KnowYourTrade.

Plus, if you become a CHECtraveler, you’ll have an entrée to insurance, safety and security your home exchange agency may not provide: CHECtravel gives you access to an exclusive home exchange insurance package from TravelGuard, the availability of English speaking local experts in the most popular home exchange destinations, an in house mediator, should problems arise and so much more.

How secret is this society? We’re not talking about “Skull& Bones” here. Dozens of home exchange websites can be found at KnowYourTrade and CHECtravel is available to all legitimate home exchangers. Join now (no secret ring required)!

Aussie House Swap, The Wonder from Down Under, is our new Exchange Queen’s Treasure of the Month.  This club specializes in Australian and New Zealand home exchanges, although they have recently begun to add more international listings.  It remains, however, truly Australian with a down home attitude and the vast majority of listings located in Oceania.

Aussie House Swap has been around since 2004 and has a following of over 1,500 members at latest count. The newly designed website provides a simple, easy to use interface and makes the process of searching and exchanging undemanding and seems almost effortless.  Customer service is always stellar, with many help articles and a new forum on which members can share last minute swaps or home exchange ideas. Once again, our best wishes go out to Aussie House Swap for a job well done!

Aussie House Swap! It’s Australian for Home Exchange! 

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