As soon as the kids' school let out for winter break we flew west to spend 10 days in Southern California. We are using a five bedroom, 4.5 bath "cottage" built for Los Angeles movie stars of the 1920's. It is located on the grounds of a luxury hotel. As guests of the home-owners we have free use of all the hotel amenities. Man, I really love home exchange.
This is a non-simultaneous swap. The exchangers had asked us to do a trade over the week of Thanksgiving but the school only closes for two days so we had to decline. Months later I heard from the exchangers again. They had found a swap but wanted to extend their trip by two days. Could I make my home available to them for those nights? In exchange we were welcome to use their California house for up to 2 weeks while they visited relatives for Christmas. They would even throw in the use of their luxury car.
How could I do a non-simultaneous swap if I wasn't planning to be out of town? This had always been an obstacle when faced with such proposals in the past. I had two small children and their elderly grandfather to house. It would be logistically complicated to get them to and from school from a remote location. It sounded like a complicated nightmare.
As we thought about it we decided that this offer was too good to pass up. We found a resort hotel near my work. Grandpa loved the idea of staying there for a couple of days of pampering. My work has a dormitory where staff are encouraged to do the occasional sleep-in shift to stay in touch with the lives of our residential students. I could sleep away from home and even get paid for it!
Then we were invited to a party in a town on a commuter rail line to our city. We were welcome to stay over after the party in the downstairs guest suite. This non-simultaneous swap was looking easier. A key feature was that we only needed to vacate our home for two nights.
People who visit our city want to stay in a central location like our home neighborhood. Hotels here start at about $400 per night. Since we are not tourists we can go out of town, near public transit into the city, and get a much cheaper, but perfectly comfy, hotel. We also have long-standing invitations from friends and families to stay with them if needed.
Spending two nights away from home allowed us to use this huge, gorgeous house for 11 nights. I will try to do more non-simultaneous swaps in the future, despite the fact that I only have one home.
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