The master bedroom in this Vancouver swap home is large and elegant. It features a spa-like bathroom with a walk-through shower and deep soaking tub. I set foot in it once and have not seen it since. Instead, we are using the small guest room on the basement level.
It's not that we dislike big, comfortable bedroom suites. But our priority is making sure that our kids' grandfather, with whom we are traveling, is comfortable. The only bedroom on the main level is the master bedroom. We would never subject Grandpa to an additional flight of stairs, so it's the big bedroom for him.
In fact, we have rejected several swap offers because there were too many stairs involved for our elder family member. Another option, however, is to bring one of the comfy raised Aerobeds now available. These air mattresses are easy to inflate and can be infinitely adjusted to provide a firmer or softer sleeping surface. They can be set up in a room not normally used as a bedroom such as a den or family room on a level of a swap home with fewer stairs.
This was the solution we used in Napa, where there was no bedroom on the main level. The exchangers suggested we move furniture around to make their family room comfortable for Grandpa and offered the use of their Aerobed in that space. Though there were enough bedrooms for everyone upstairs, it was a lot easier to have him avoid the extra stairs.
If your home has the sort of room that could be adapted in this way, investing in some sort of temporary bed solution could make it possible for a swap family with a mobility-impaired member to accept your offer. It also allows you to accommodate larger exchange groups, which could be something you may or may not want to do, depending on how many people you want in your home.
Occaisional beds can cost anywhere from $100 (a high-quality air mattress) to thousands for a sofabed or Murphy bed wall system into which a bed disappears by lifting vertically onto its shortest edge (see photo at top of column).
Anything you can do to make your home more attractive to different family configurations will garner more and better swap offers for your listing. In the long run it's still going to be less expensive and more pleasant than having to stay in a hotel.
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