05/06/2007

House Swap

Exchanges grow as way to take affordable, comfortable vacations

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Abby Beale and her husband Chuck have been participating in house-swapping. So far they’ve stayed in homes in North Carolina and Florida. Their home near Frankfort offers a spectacular view of Upper Herring Lake.

FRANKFORT — Abby and Chuck Beale want to trade their "fine rustic retreat with beautiful sand beaches” near Lake Michigan and Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, Traverse City and "many fine wineries” for a home or cottage in Greece or Italy.

For a few weeks, that is.

The Beales are among a growing number of people who offer their homes, cottages and condos in exchange for others in places they'd like to visit.

"We have a guest suite with its own kitchen and bathroom,” Abby Beale said of the accommodations they can offer in return.

So far, they've exchanged with a couple who have a mountain residence in Wolf Laurel, N.C., and a home across the street from the ocean in Daytona Beach, Fla. They're now looking to go to southern Europe in 2008 and for people there willing to make the swap.

"We've gotten e-mails from Ireland and Canada,” she said, but they've turned those down because they don't have plans to visit those places.

They organize the exchanges through one of several online sites at which people may list their homes with photos and view others available for trade.

The service the Beales use, Home Exchange, charges $99.95 for a year membership and has about 15,000 listings in more than 100 countries, according to its Web site. Other listings in northern Lower Michigan include a Victorian summer home in Bay View, a condo at Shanty Creek resort in Bellaire and a cabin in the woods near Gaylord, as well as homes in Harbor Springs, Leland, Traverse City and Williamsburg.

Not everyone who participates is going to find true love, as the characters do in the recent romantic comedy, "The Holiday,” in which Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swap homes in Los Angeles and England. But several people from northern Michigan who have made exchanges have found it allows them to take relatively inexpensive vacations.

Abby Beale figures they saved $1,000 per week or more in lodging on the two trips for which they've swapped.

Staying at someone's home may also put the traveler in the heart of the culture in which they visit.

"Most people would be staying at a resort and would be isolated from the local population,” said Timothy Young of Empire, who uses the service primarily for business purposes.

"But when you stay in a village, if it's a long stay, you definitely get to know the neighbors,” he added.

Young, who owns the organic food processing business Food For Thought with his wife, Kathleen, and Evan Smith, has tapped home exchange for business trips to Chicago and for a professional retreat on the Caribbean island of Dominique. In exchange, they offer a guest house on their property near Lake Michigan that is fully equipped with a kitchen and bathroom.

"I probably never would've gone there, otherwise,” he said. "In Dominique, we were invited to neighbors' homes.”

The Youngs offer their guest house instead of their home because the summer months are their busiest, and that's when many people want to come to northern Michigan.

"The guest house allows us to do non-simultaneous exchanges,” he said.

The Beales, on the other hand, are looking preferably for a simultaneous exchange.

"Somebody's watching your house while you're watching theirs,” Chuck Beale said, adding that they'd like to have someone who can take care of their horses while they're gone.

Swapping homes is not for everyone. Some people say they don't like the idea of having strangers in their houses.

The Beales don't have those concerns.

"Really, what can they do?” Abby Beale said. "We're staying in their homes at the same time.”

The Web site encourages participants to trade phone calls, e-mails and photos before agreeing to a swap.

According to the Web site, "in over 10 years of operation, we have had no reports of out and out malicious damage or deceit.”

The system works for those who have a place where people will want to stay, such as a home on the water or in a city or town where tourists tend to go already.

"Obviously, I live in paradise,” Young said.

But what about those who don't?

Young said he's known of people who market suburban homes as places for business travelers to stay. He has stayed at a variety of places during frequent business trips to the Chicago area.

"We've had a house in the suburbs and a penthouse condo,” Young said. "We've had a pretty good mix.”