Swapping pads getting popular
By EMILY SKEHAN Special to the Daily Press
SANTA MONICA Swap until you drop.
That’s the new motto of many city residents, who are packing up and taking off on vacations — by switching homes with strangers.
Summer in Santa Monica ushers in school breaks, beautiful weather and swarms of tourists. While people come from all over the world to indulge in the beachy culture and nightlife of Los Angeles, residents of the California holiday Mecca don’t always want to stay put for that very reason.
Some city residents are taking advantage of their globally desirable location to get a change of scenery and a fun vacation without the burden of overpriced hotel stays. Increasingly popular services such as homeexchange.com and homelink.org help to hook up families who want to trade houses — across the nation or across the world.
Through such Web sites, hopeful house-swappers can browse online listings of residencies across the globe and contact homeowners in their desired location. Interested clients can inhabit each others’ apartments, houses or boats for anywhere from a few days to a year, and search for homes that are kid-, pet-or party-friendly. Generally, no money is exchanged, because the two parties both receive lodging and utilities.
Oftentimes, homeowners will also trade cars and other location-specific amenities like surfboards.
Shannon Kildare and her husband Greg live in a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment on Montana Avenue.
“It’s a small apartment with a maximum four-person capacity,” said Shannon Kildare. “Yet, people with enormous chateaux all over the world want to switch with us!”
The Kildares, who are registered with Homelink International, have used the networking site to travel to Quebec and Edinburgh, Scotland, in past summers, and soon will be heading off to the French Riviera.
House-swapping is the only way the Santa Monica couple plans to vacation from now on.
“It’s a much better way to travel,” Kildare said. “In other countries, when you stay in hotels, it’s the same experience everywhere. On the other hand, when you stay in someone’s house, you get a taste of how they live and become a part of the local culture.”
Still, foreign cultures aren’t always so easy to get acclimated to.
“You have to deal with all the weird appliances and electrical outlets,” laughed Kildare, who added that it’s all a part of interacting with and learning about the place you stay.
Besides the alternative vacation lifestyle that home-swapping affords, it’s also a cheaper way to get there.
“The Travel Industry Association says accommodations are the largest cost of travel,” said Helen Bergstein, founder of the Digsville home exchange club. “When you exchange homes, you’re eliminating 100 percent of that cost.” Home-swappers also save money on food, being able to purchase meals to cook at home rather than eating out three times a day, as well as on transportation, trading cars and avoiding rental fees.
Home exchange Web sites generally charge about $50-$150 a year, a considerably lower amount than a few nights in a premium hotel. Savvy travelers can also find free house-swapping services online — though they usually have less listings — or use the popular site craigslist.
The best part about home exchanging is that “you make friends,” said Kildare, who is still in contact with the families with whom she has swapped homes. In addition, your absent hosts serve as would-be travel agents — they can advise you on the best local attractions and sometimes even leave coupons, tickets and other gifts that would be hard to come by without a local’s help.
The connections you make aren’t just with the people who let you stay in their house. Local residents will often drop by to check in on their temporary neighbors, both for the comfort of the homeowners and to make friends.
Santa Monicans have the advantage of living in an alluring travel destination.
“Everyone knows about Santa Monica,” said Kildare, noting that the city is always on television and associated with celebrities. “It’s a fabulous location. People with kids, especially, love to be close to the beach.”
“Southern California is one of the top destinations in the U.S.,” said Bergstein, “it’s either Los Angeles or New York.”
The concept of home exchanges is not limited to these specific arrangements, however. There are also hospitality exchanges, a sort of “I’ll be a guest in your house, then you in mine” scenario, as well as projects like Couch Surfing International, which encourages people with a spare bed or couch to host strangers — soon-to-be new friends — from all over the world.
Even home exchange services are broadening their horizons.
“It’s not all just two week vacations anymore,” said Helen Bergstein, “as people become more comfortable with home-swapping they start to think, ‘Hmm, it’s a long weekend, maybe I should go out to wine country or into the city.’”
Despite the lower cost and, perhaps, more culturally authentic vacation that home-exchanging can provide, some travelers still prefer traditional hotel stays.
“A lot of people still want to stay in a hotel and feel like they are being taken care of,” said Alda Gonzalez, guest service supervisor at the Santa Monica Viceroy Hotel. “When people go on vacation, they’re looking to take some time off from the responsibilities of a house.”
Gonzalez doesn’t think home exchanges are a threat to the hotel business.
“House-swapping is, in many ways, invading other people’s environment, but when you’re staying in a hotel room its yours while you’re here,” Gonzalez said.
Paul Vogler, vacationing from Germany, was out shopping on the Third Street Promenade with his son Tim, having come from their nearby hotel on Sunset Boulevard.
“My daughters wanted to stay in a hotel because it’s more comfortable,” said Vogler, who was convinced by his family to vacation in the luxury of a hotel rather than his choice of a mobile home. “For Europeans right now, staying in a hotel is not that expensive, because of the exchange rate from euros to dollars.”
Some travelers might be wary of letting a stranger inhabit their house.
“Everybody’s fear is how are they going to take care of my home?” said Kildare, “but by the time you switch houses you’ve had months of contact.”
House swappers write, e-mail and talk on the phone, exchanging information, keys and mutually understood guidelines for taking care of each other’s residencies. Services like Homelink International also allow users to upload contracts they create together and are then held accountable for. After returning home, house traders evaluate each other and their experience.
“The biggest thing that would make a swap less successful is a difference in housekeeping styles” said Bergstein, whose Web site now asks posters to specify their level of neatness.
Although mishaps do occur, they generally aren’t that big of a deal to homeowners. Kildare reminisced on how her Scottish guest accidentally burned a pan while trying to make tea, noting that the foreign workings of appliances can lead to minor damage to homes or property.
“Then again,” she said, “we kind of did the same thing — their dishwasher was unlike anything I’ve ever seen!”
Even miscommunications about housekeeping standards or minor scrapes inflicted upon exchangers’ homes do little to damper the bonhomie of a house-swapping endeavor.
“When that kind of stuff does happen, we all just laugh about it” said Kildare.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 6, 2007. Read the original PDF.