HOME EXCHANGER, PHONE HOME

Before it became common to communicate using mobile phones or the internet, a common source of friction between home exchangers was the telephone. A swapper would make calls at the exchange home and not know how much money to leave to reimburse the home owners. If s/he guessed wrong, or didn't realize that a particular call cost money to make, the swap partners could be stuck with a huge phone bill. Needless to say, many angry misunderstandings resulted.


COMMUNICATE ON THE WEB

These days, a lot of communication occurs over the internet. If your swap partners have high-speed web access you can communicate via email. There are also lots of options for using your computer to make phone calls via high-speed web access (more on this later).


NEW PHONE OPTIONS

These days, home exchangers can bring their own mobile phones on a swap and make their calls from their own accounts. Usually. When traveling internationally you may have a flashback to the bad old days. Your existing mobile phone may not work overseas unless it has the capability to receive multiple types of signals. Even if the cell phone provider claims you will be able to get calls overseas, you could arrive in a new country to find that your phone doesn't work after all. Since it is unlikely that your domestic provider has customer service overseas, you may not be able to fix this.


PHONE SOLUTIONS

There is a way to ensure you can make calls from overseas without inconveniencing your exchange partners, or worrying that you will come home to a stratospheric phone bill. As long as there is high-speed internet access at the swap home or in a nearby internet cafe' you can make calls via your laptop computer or your swap partners' computer. You can use a "Voice over Internet Provider" (VoIP) to make calls over the internet. You can do this by plugging a headset into your computer or by using a regular phone hooked up to an internet signal router.


We have a regular land line phone but we blocked international calls from being made on it. But our home exchange partners are welcome to make unlimited domestic or international calls from our VoIP phone. The VoIP phone is a regular cordless phone. It is connected to the Vonage router. It works exactly like the landline except it costs only $25 per month for unlimited calls to the US and the countries below. Included with the monthly fee are all of the features that a land-line company charges for: call waiting, email phone messages, caller ID, call forwarding and so on. I can also use it to make calls from my computer via a headset when I travel.


It is much more hospitable to provide free calls to your swap partners than to forbid them to use your home phone. If you want to give VoIP a call, send me an email using the link in my profile. I will send you a link entitling you to two free months of service. Try it, you'll like it!

Here are the countries to which your swap partners will be able to call for free. Other countries are also available for pennies per minute. An asterisk after the country's name means you can call both landlines and mobile phones for free:

Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahamas*
Bahrain
Belgium
Brazil
Brunei*
Bulgaria
Canada*
Chile
China*
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guadeloupe
Guam*
Hong Kong*
Hungary
Iceland
India*
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Kenya
Latvia
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Macau*
Malaysia*
Malta
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico*
Romania
Russia
Saipan*
San Marino*
Singapore*
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand*
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States*
U.S. Virgin Islands*
Venezuela
Zambia




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THE NEXT HOME EXCHANGE TREND?

There is a trend coming in home exchange but it isn't the one you may expect.

No, it isn't the surge in new home exchangers, though I see this trend emerging. A weak economy is actually good news for swappers.

With the desire to spend frugally, home exchange seems to be moving into mainstream consciousness. Recent articles on home swapping appeared in major weeklies like Time, Newsweek and New York magazines.

The economic downturn seems to be driving more adventurous travelers to try a home exchange vacation. Swap clubs are reporting increased membership and more new exchangers write to me for advice every day.

It's good news that home exchange is catching on but my crystal ball shows a different trend, one I expect to see more about in the coming years....

WHY MOST VACATIONERS OVER-PAY FOR TRAVEL

My summer vacation has been fascinating, and not just because I am seeing beautiful and remote areas for the first time. Instead of my usual home exchange travels I am on a last-minute cruise. I am learning a lot about the way most people vacation.

Cruisers are in some ways the opposite of home exchangers. On-board ship one's activities and meals planned by others. There are lots of obsequious workers about in faux-military costumes. Movement on or off the ship is strictly controlled. Far from having a bedroom for each family member, laundry machines and free internet access, four of us are sharing a 250 square foot room, washing our duds out in the sink and paying a dollar for two minutes of internet access.

On the plus side, someone makes our beds for us twice a day and leaves a piece of candy on the pillow.

The most interesting aspect of my anthropology observations has been the approach to off-ship travel taken by most of our fellow vacationers.

"Shore excursions" are big business. Each day brings a new lecture on which excursions to book, and exhortations to sign up quickly before the roster fills up.

The strange thing is that we are cruising Alaska, which is technically part of the United States. English is spoken here, companies have telephones and my credit card or cash work as well here as back home. Yet most of the other passengers leave the ship only in a paying group to do a ship-sponsored activity.

Here is how a home exchanger thinks: I took the shore excursion book and spent 15 minutes with a guide book on sale in one of the ship's many shops. I found all of the tours that interested me listed in the guide book. Every activity was accessible by walking, shuttle, bike rental or taxi.

Most of the best sights were part of National Parks, which are free to enter with an inexpensive Parks Pass, available at any of them. Others were completely free. The more exotic offerings, like the rain forest zip line ride, were offered by independent tour operators. The ship bought those experiences and resold them to passengers for a huge mark up. They were available for far less to individuals with no more bother than dialing the phone.

In every port we have done the same side trips as our fellow passengers. We know because we see them being herded through the same attractions we are seeing at our own pace. Yet we have paid an average of $10 per person, per trip, including transportation. The ship sells the same trips for $50 to $200 per person.

The reason so many tourists overpay for travel boils down to two things: lack of information and fear of the unknown.

We have never visited any of these areas before. But we are able to call a tour company and book a trip by ourselves. We are not shy about asking a local how far it is to a destination. We have internet access on our mobile phones and can do a simple search for "name of town" plus "local attractions".

Home exchangers are willing to do research and book things for themselves. They would rather go at their own pace than travel in a tourist scrum. Home exchangers have friends and local intelligence everywhere we go -- from those with whom they exchange.

Are you willing to call a taxi by yourself or do you need the concierge to do it for you at a 300% surcharge? Most tourists over pay for their vacations because they are timid. Are you? Or are you a home exchanger?

ARE YOU OVER-PAYING FOR TRAVEL?

Most vacationers seriously over-pay for travel. This summer's vacation is pointing out that fact to me in stark relief.

Thanks to the ultra-efficient New York City public schools not assigning our kids to a school, we were forced to pick a last-minute travel option. For us that ruled out home exchange.

We often get requests for swaps with just a few weeks', or even days', notice. I find this a very flaky habit of some exchangers. It sends up a red flag for me. I won't do it.

So it was a last-minute cruise for us. On each cruise, passangers get the dubious privilege of booking future cruises far in advance, at the highest possible price.

Even when booking traditional travel I am a home exchanger. So I chose my journey from a long list of last-minute cruise deals and paid about half the retail price to a top cruise line that wanted its ship to sail at full capacity. Home exchangers are flexible and maximize our resources.

Of course we have home exchangers staying at our place. We owe non-simultaneous swaps to several families. Whenever our home is vacant we offer it to those to whom we owe a debt or hospitality.

Nothing exposes the divide between home exchange and traditional travel like taking a cruise.

* On board the ship you lodge in a cabin the size of most swap homes' closets.

* Separate bedrooms for each child? Try a bunkbed two feet above your nose and a sofabed you can't get past to use the bathroom.

* A full kitchen to store beverages and prepare healthy food? No, it's four heavy meals a day and a midnight chocolate buffet.

* Most swap homes we stay at have wireless internet access or a computer we are allowed to use. Cruise ships charge about a dollar for two minutes of web access.

So why, you may ask, are we on a cruise instead of a home swap? Two words: Kids' Club. Except for imposing on relatives, a cruise is one of the only ways to travel while enjoying built-in quality child-care.

And the way most cruisers travel make it clear to me that they are not prime candidates to become the next wave of home exchangers.

The "shore excursion" is the clearest example of how most travelers are suckered. Learn how I saved thousands of dollars on package tours next time.

HOME EXCHANGE PODCASTS

The folks at KnowYourTrade.com interviewed me for their informative Podcast series. Their goal is to help you have the perfect home exchange. Here are my 2-cents: http://knowyourtrade.com/podcasts/podcast9.mp3


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HOME EXCHANGE NEW YORK CITY

There has never been a better summer to visit Manhattan. This is one of the coolest summers on record. Temperatures have rarely been above the low 80's. We often have at least a few days when the highs hit the 90's. Not this year. We have had more rain than usual but aside from that it has been balmy and comfortable.


Due to the economic climate, prices are dropping everywhere. Restaurants all over town have special deals. There are also some amazing events scheduled for August. One of my favorites is the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors series. This year they are featuring some amazing musicians like Bang on a Can Orchestra, as well as theater, dance, and roots music: http://www.lincolncenter.org/press_release/PR_OOD09_Announcement_5-5-09.pdf


I am taking my little cousin to an exciting-sounding new event called "The Rockette Experience". Girls 10 and older get a behind-the-scenes tour and are taught two Rockette dance routines by an actual Rockette dancer: http://www.radiocity.com/rockettes/ If you know a girl who loves jazz or tap dance class, this is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plan a NYC vacation around.


Here's a great subscription for New York City meal deals: http://eater.com/tags/dealfeed


Hope to see you here soon!

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