Here is a story by a "27-year veteran of the travel industry. She had a bad first home exchange and - surprise! - recommends paying for hotels instead. Can you spot how she set herself up for avoidable problems?
"I ran a short ad in the Honolulu paper. we needed at least two months, probably three. Off went another advertisement. Victoria is a popular place, it seemed logical that there might be someone in all of Honolulu, or anywhere on the island of Oahu, who would like to come to Canada for three months. People said, "no way will it work". Oh doubting Thomases - we had an excellent letter in two weeks."
So far so good. But this was 1988. Before the internet. She did not get photos of the swap home and discovered that:
"The yard was a mess, the house looked shacky, and we almost didn't go in. Tired, disappointed, even angry, we acknowledged that we'd already placed ads with this home's phone number, Mr. would be already ensconced in our condo in Victoria, so we knocked at the door, stepping around crusted pet dishes. "
I have never had this experience and you need not either. It bothers me when travel agents try to knock down home exchange.
What did this travel agent do wrong? How can we avoid her mistakes? Send us your comments.
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