Home exchangers avoid inconveniences that jack up vacation costs for other travelers. I noticed this when I picked up the luxury car my California swap partners left me. They are on vacation for over a month while we do our half of a non-simultaneous swap at their Central Coast house.
There is no good public transportation from their rural home 200 miles away to the airport. They had to drive their car and park near the airport. The best parking lot they could find charged over $300 for a month of parking.
On our end, rental car companies wanted $70 per day (including taxes) to use a compact car for the two week peak period we needed from mid-December to New Year's Day.
Instead of our having to pay $1000 to rent a tiny car, and our exchange partners paying $300, we agreed to split the cost of parking. Since we picked up the car weeks before our swap partners returned from vacation, each family owed less that $70.
We got the use of a comfortable car large enough to hold our family of four and luggage. The exchangers can rest assured that their car battery won't die while sitting in a parking lot for a month. The two families saved a combined $1200, thanks to our mutual exchange.
That all sounded great, but when we arrived at the parking lot to pick up the car we found a big problem that almost scuttled the whole deal....
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