Get Ready for Your Summer Swap

My mailbox has been flooded with European home exchange inquiries this week. A little bird is whispering that summer vacation is coming, and that bird appears to speak French.

If you are looking for a summertime swap to Europe, now appears to be the time to contact people. Sadly, I am not.

Getting loads of European home exchange offers isn't the end of the world, but it always surprises me when people offer me their home without bothering to read even the headline of my listing. The one that says "no European offers, please".

At first I thought this was just part of a language barrier. My listing is in English. But I get well-written offers from lots of EU countries.

My guess is that few Americans are eager to take an expensive trip abroad yet. If you are American you should have your pick of swap homes. If you live in Europe and want to visit the US, you may need to ramp up your search and/or sweeten the deal by including use of a car or second home.

You have 6 months to nail down your summer swap. In home exchange time that is about 15 minutes. Get going!