What About the Need for Backup Plans?

At the beginning of this blog, I stated that I think that Vacation Home Exchanges are based on trust, and I stand by that. Over time, you will build an interesting relationship with your new friend/home exchange partner. Joan and I had been emailing about our Vacation Home Exchange that would take me to Aguilas, Spain, for about eighteen months. (Picture is Aguilas from the Castle.) Shortly before Joan and her husband came to Boston (and had a great time visiting Boston as well as Maine and Vermont), she wrote, “We have been communicating since April last year now, I shall really miss your messages when all this is over.”

But I also think that you need to be flexible when you are travelling, since so many things are totally out of your control! “Is the train/bus/flight/boat on time?” “Will we make our connection to get to our destination?” “Is the flight overbooked?” “Is the grocery store open today since we have no food to eat?”  “Did I leave my bathing suit hanging on the hook in the bathroom in Badesi?”

Well, the list goes on, of course! So you do have to be creative and find the solution to the temporary little glitches along the way! But what if there is a major change in your plan? 

What if your exchange family has had a major health issue so they cannot do the exchange now or ever? What if the home turns out to be not what you had expected, so you do not want to stay there? Perhaps you cannot stay there due to something in the home that causes an allergic reaction. (Luisella explained ahead of time that she is allergic to feathers, so she wanted to be sure that none would be near her in the house)

So you will need to come up with a Backup Plan-and sometimes quickly! (In the case of allergies, you would want to be sure to add that to your list of questions before you have committed to your home exchange. Spell things out in your early emails so you would either decide not to exchange with that family, or they would be able to accommodate your needs.)

In most cases, you probably won’t know until the last minute that you will even need a Backup Plan! So here your flexibility helps you to solve the problem! Remember that your exchange partner has made this arrangement in good faith also, so if the problem is something that involves them, they will be as anxious as you to find a positive solution so that you both win!

If you need to quickly find another place to stay, it will-in all probability-require that you pay to stay somewhere! Since you’ve arranged the exchange to keep your expenses down, you might want to explore hostel options in the area. (Hostels are not just for young people! Families all over Europe use hostels, as a very workable, low-cost housing option!) There are also books about monasteries in France, Spain, and Italy which now provide lower cost and sometimes Spartan housing to travelers. Eileen Barish is the author of these books; the Italian book is called The Guide to Lodging in Italy’s Monasteries. When you are looking for other housing, you can check out www.tripadvisor.com, which has many hotels with good feedback to help you decide quickly where to go.

When we were in southern France several years, we decided to move out earlier than planned and used Rick Steve’s book as our guide for alternative housing. He usually has good hotel choices in central locations. Unfortunately our choice was not one of his better recommendations, but we had not checked www.tripadvisor.com!

Of the seven exchanges which I have done to date, this was the only time when I decided to leave early. I think you do want to “keep in the back of your mind”, as you are planning a Vacation Home Exchange, that you MAY need to do something not planned, so it is wise to keep in mind the need for back-up plans.

PS. I did not address any health-related things which might also call for a back-up plan, as I will address that later…..

AND PLEASE, send me any questions that you have about doing Vacation Home Exchanges! Thank you…