Flies were threatening to drive us from our beautiful coastal California home exchange house a week early. For two days I had been killing dozens of flies in the bedroom, only to have them reappear several hours later. The home exchangers, relaxing in Mexico, claimed to have never experienced a fly infestation before.
No windows or doors were open. Chasing flies around the room and killing them was a disgusting way to spend my vacation. I was starting to long for a room at the $200 per night hotel just down the street.
Fortunately, an exchange home generally has more than one place to sleep. If we could not make the master bedroom habitable, there was still the sleeping loft off the living room. If only we could find the source of the fly problem we could make use of the whole house.
As I chased flies around the room one more time, I saw one crawl behind a light switch plate that was slightly ajar. After quickly readjusting it with a screwdriver I killed the remaining flies. They never came back. I assume something had died behind the wood-paneled walls of the bedroom. After dispatching the remains, the flies needed to move on to browner pastures, so they began crawling out from behind the loose light switch plate.
This was a gross experience and not something I would have had to worry about if I had stayed in a hotel. On the other hand, it is something I might have had to deal with in my own home. As a home-owner, I am used to taking responsibility for home repairs or other issues that come up.
What would your reaction be to this sort of icky situation in a swap home? Would you deal with it, or would it just ruin your vacation entirely? These are the sorts of questions you should ask yourself before you mail away your keys. Home exchange is the best way to travel. But sometimes it's not pretty.
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