When I started a graduate school program my family downsized to a one-bedroom home near the university. We were surprised when swappers lined up to use our tiny walk-up apartment. Sure it is in the "Best Manhattan Neighborhood", according to "New York Magazine". But it's old, not renovated and no one would call it fancy.
Since our new home couldn't offer "plush" we compensated with lots of old fashioned home exchange hospitality. We left a welcome meal in the fridge, got them free theater or concert tickets through a discount program, amassed a library of useful info on places to go and things to do in the neighborhood and made sure we were available for help with anything the swappers needed.
More important than any of that was our flexibility. Because we have a weekend home available we were able to accommodate swappers pretty much any time they wanted to visit. We banked our days at their place against future travel.
Now I have completed my degree. In 2012 we will bid a sad goodbye to our cozy little home. While we are moving up to a much bigger and better place, we may never swap homes again due to an odd feature of our new home....
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