A correction is in order. Previously, I compared home exchange to hotel stays and mis-reported the cost of the average Manhattan hotel room. It turns out that the average figure is for all hotels in New York City. So those grim airport hotels in Queens and properties in Staten Island and Brooklyn that are over an hour from midtown are lumped together with the kind of Manhattan hotel that most tourists want.
The 2007 average price of a New York City hotel room is $303. Per day. Plus 15% in taxes and fees. That means a Manhattan hotel room costs closer to $400 per day. And the average room size of 154 square feet may well be smaller in Manhattan. It's big enough, however, for bedbugs, and for the used hypodermic needles an Italian visitor's toddler found under a hotel room seat cushion. And it was a well-respected mid-level hotel chain, not a flop house.
Now do you see why home exchange is the best way to travel? The average Manhattan home is 1255 square feet, which is about 10 times the size of that bio-hazard infected hotel room. And it's free.
OK, so I understand why thousands of people write to me each year asking for a home exchange. Is it too much to ask that they read -- or at least skim -- my listing first? After I finish this series on the Florida swap I am going to take to task everyone who spams home exchangers with inappropriate requests. Let's all resolve to be better swappers in 2008.
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