Planning your dream vacation? In the first of his two-part look, Jeffrey Strain shows how you can use your empty house to get free lodging wherever you' headed


Illustration by Marco Mancini

With hotels increasingly eating up a bigger piece of overall travel expenses, finding good accommodations at reasonable prices has become an important factor when planning any vacation. It's no longer unusual to have accommodation expenses amount to more than half the total vacation price. Not having to pay at all for a beautiful place to stay during your next vacation might seem too good to be true, but it's not. It's possible to stay in southern France, downtown New York, or any other place in the world you'd like to visit without paying a yen for accommodations. Furthermore, it's really quite easy. All you need to do is look into one of the many vacation exchange programs.

The basic rationale behind these programs is that your house or apartment is an asset which people on vacation in Japan will want to use. Instead of leaving this asset unused while you're travelling, you lend it to someone on vacation in Japan. In exchange, you get to use their house or apartment in the destination of your choice. A vacation exchange allows you to trade your home with an overseas home of equal quality so neither party will have any accommodation expenses while on vacation.

Home exchanges are not usual for the weekend traveller. People interested in these exchanges usually plan a minimum stay of two weeks, although shorter exchanges are possible. Not only does a home give you an excellent base to take short day trips or longer weekend excursions, but it also has the advantage of instantly making you part of the community in the country you're visiting. This enables you to enjoy the country in a unique way unavailable to the average tourist.

The greatest worry most people have is whether or not their house is going to be in good hands. Although there are no guarantees, the odds are good your house will be well taken care of. The families who exchange homes are usually well-travelled and will have the same anxieties about their own house. House exchange agencies report that even minor complaints are rare, with lack of housekeeping topping the list. Frequent correspondences by mail and phone should build a trust which will ease your anxiety. It also never hurts to plan a meeting with your trading partners at one of your homes to begin the exchange.

Attempting to arrange a home exchange by yourself is possible, but troublesome. It usually entails taking out an advertisement in a local newspaper or magazine in the country where you want to travel. A much easier way is to go through one of the many home exchange companies which have thousands of listings all over the world. You list your house in their directory, and receive a directory and periodic updates for a fixed price. It's also possible to receive their directories for a small fee without listing your house.

The home exchange company doesn't actually arrange the home exchange. These services give you contacts who may be willing to exchange accommodations. It's up to you to contact and make all the arrangements with the individuals listed in the guides. The home exchange companies will provide useful information to help make the home exchange easy and thorough, as well as advice on how to avoid the most common problems.

Next week: Home exchange companies and making arrangements over the Internet.

Reprinted by permission of Kansai Time Out.