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The concept is called home exchange vacationing, and after more than 80 such swaps, the Barbours have written the book on this low-cost way to immerse oneself in another culture.
It gives one hope to read, Home Exchange Vacationing: Your Guide to Free Accommodations. Are there really more than 200,000 trusting souls worldwide who are leaving house keys under the flowerpot for complete strangers to use?
Yes yes yes, we're told in this happy book, which includes comments from a survey of 4,000 home exchangers who have discovered the joys of trading houses with folks all over the world.
At first glance it defies comprehension -- how does a family find these intrepid homeowners? How do you coordinate schedules? And at the heart of this, how do you know these strangers won't hock grandmother's tea set while you're away?
The answers are all here. The Barbours list directories of home exchange opportunities, tips on how to correspond with another family, how to prepare your own house for home exchanging, and how to make the most of this unusual travel option.
At the heart of the logistical complexities is something quite simple: trust. The Barbours suggest that most people doing this are trustworthy and eager to trust others, so thereีs a self-selecting quality to the pool of folks who enjoy house swapping.
My ultimate question is even addressed here: what do you do if you live in a wildly unglamorous place? Why on earth would someone in Hong Kong want to swap houses with someone who lives in, say, Charlotte, North Carolina? The Barbours' survey indicates that more than a quarter of home exchangers are open-minded folk, that it helps to be near the ocean or mountains, but it's not required. And besides, if you live there, Hong Kong can seem pretty tame in contrast to the Queen City.
I'm packing my bags for dowdy old Hong Kong. There's a key under the flowerpot.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.