Why swap my home : The Advantages of a Backswap
SAVINGS:
The concept of house swapping is simple: to have a privileged place of residence, for free, gay-friendly, anywhere in the world.
Imagine yourself in your villa directly on the beach on the French Riviera, in an apartment in a prime spot in the centre of London, in a chalet just 2 minutes from the ski slopes, or even in a ranch in Texas, USA. And then imagine that it's free and especially fit to your desire.
As is the case for all of us, you too have a limited holiday budget. When heading off, apart from the plane tickets, you have to pay for hotel rooms, restaurants and often car hire. Whatever your budget, it's easy to find oneself rapidly in the red.
With Backswap you will only have to pay the plane fare (or any other means of transport) for your next holidays.
And then, you won't spend any more money than if you were at home, or even less if your chosen destination has a lower cost of living. It is not uncommon to save 70% compared with the same trip under the usual conditions. Or even, depending on the destination, to spend less than if you had stayed at home!
Still not convinced? Simply compare the price with 2 or 3 weeks of holidays in a hotel, in a resort or renting with a car. With Backswap you're putting money away for your next very big trip. You will fly off twice as often, and this big trip will cost you twice as less if you decide to go for another Swap.
With Backswap, more often than not you will have a room for each child. You will have all the benefits of a true home. You will be able to live like the locals. Your Swap Partners will prepare you a list of their best gay- friendly addresses and their preferred activities in the region.
TO HAVE TRUE COMFORT AND FEEL AT HOME ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD:
You will find out that the savings you have made are only one of the advantages in residence swapping.
When you swap, you will be able to live to the full the region or the country in which you find yourself. Far from all the tourists, it will be as if you lived there. You will have your own place. You will be advised by your Swap Partner of all the good addresses to have and the pitfalls to avoid. The best little restaurants and the tourist traps. You may even have the surprise to be invited for dinner by your Swap Partner's friends and, as is the case all so often, this Swap Partner may indeed become more than a friend.
In a word, you'll be at home anywhere in the world and more than having just had a trip, you'll have lived a unique experience.
Not to mention the fact that all too often you will have more rooms. You will have all the benefits of a true home and you will be able to live like a local. Your Swap Partners will prepare you a list of their best gay-friendly addresses and their preferred activities in the region.
Those who choose to swap their residences will set the dates together for the Swap. Anything is possible, swapping a studio for a villa, or even lending a room for a given time although still at home, an apartment, a house or farm in the countryside, a caravan... Everything is possible.
You even gain in terms of security as someone is in your home while you are on holidays. The best way to avoid burglaries!
And you will gain in comfort too as you will have à la carte holidays with your own kitchen to prepare your meals.
The only two conditions needed are that you get on well with the Swap Partner that you will find on Backswap and that you have a real respect for their home. And very often you will find that you will want to swap cars too!
LONG LIVE CONVIVIALITY!
Being a host to your Swap Partner while you are still in your place is even more convivial.
You can be host to them in your home and then they can return the invitation. During their trip you can show them around your region, and they can offer you as much later on. With more than 300,000 residences being swapped across the world every year many friendships and quite a few couples are born. You'll find that once you've tasted this way of travelling, you won't want to travel any other way.
But none of this is possible without first establishing a mutual trust with your future Swap Partner.
The whole concept of Backswap is founded on this trusting relationship. Any hesitation that you may feel about entrusting your house to a stranger is only natural. But as you will appreciate thanks to our site, you will not be dealing with strangers. Backswap puts all the necessary tools at your disposition to communicate with your Swap Partner. From the Chat to the MailBox, from the Blog to the Travel Journal, our whole site is designed for communication.
We are more than a swapping site, we are a community built on respect and pleasure.
Very quickly, the questions that you could be asking yourself (and what if they're not as tidy as me? How can I be sure that their residence is as they describe it? And what if they disturb the settings on my sound system?) will no longer be a worry as you communicate more and more. You will learn that with our advice, even though there's no such thing as zero risk, all of these risks will be greatly reduced. The best guarantee that you can have comes with the knowledge that the people with whom you are swapping have the same mind set, similar apprehensions, a huge willingness and a taste for holidays that step out of the ordinary tourist culture.
However, don't try to set up the Swap at the last moment. Setting up a successful and suitable Swap can take time. You can count a good 3 to 6 months before heading off. But preparing one's holiday, isn't that already the beginning of the holiday?
Convinced?
