Home-Exchange Phenomenon

Postmodern society has facilitated the expansion of alternative, non-institutionalized travel trends, which oppose mainstream tourism by providing consumers with a broader range of opportunities for self-actualization. One of such trends is home-exchange, an exciting, ‘hot’ way of travel. Yet, home-exchange is neither a new nor a small trend, with a tremendously little awareness about its existence among the ordinary citizens. Representatives of the general public could have got the first glimpse of the phenomenon by watching an entertaining television program on families that were filmed during the swaps. Those who ignorantly estimate home-exchange as a very new trend can be surprisingly astonished to find that there exists a huge community of practitioners of this way of traveling. In fact, many of the exchangers had years and years of home-swapping experience.

Home-exchange provides modern tourists the extraordinary opportunity to avoid the solicitude of tourism’s ‘surrogate parents’: travel agents, carriers, and hotel managers, and to organize an individually customized tour for their family. A home-exchange vacation is partly cultural immersion, partly creature comfort, and wholly a relief from overspending. An attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area, Elaine Lee, who belongs to a home-exchange program, says: “I save lots of money and I have a kitchen, which helps me save even more. I find that staying in a

home, rather than a hotel, really allows me to savor the lifestyle and culture that I'm visiting"

(as cited in O’Neill, 2004, p. 93). Thus, home-exchangers have the chance to experience their destination with the insight of somebody who lives there.

According to Consumer Reports Travel Letter (2001) home-exchange started as a thrifty

holiday idea mainly for teachers and professors and then quickly spread to retirees who have the time and urge to travel. Now, working couples, families, and singles are taking notice too, as they realize there is a greater opportunity to travel if they do not have to pay for accommodation. Two parties exchange homes, short or long term, for nothing more than a modest membership fee. Home-exchange companies facilitate the arrangements by offering listings of potential swaps on web sites and in printed directories. People, who are interested in trying home-exchange, can find an exchange partner by either posting an ad or answering someone else’s. If one has access to the Internet, the only required thing is to type ‘home-exchange’ into a search engine to see how many operators are serving the demand worldwide.

Online listings and e-mail provide consumers with quick and convenient communication with potential exchange partners. Websites give access to up-to-date listings, photos of exchange properties, and fast two way communications. Dozens of home-exchange companies do business on the web, and they differ in their membership costs as well as in the number and variety of listings they offer. According to O’Neill (2004) it is possible to find homes from palazzi in Italy to beachfront bungalows in the U.S. through exchange clubs, which have Web listings and directories clients can browse for annual fees that range from $30 to $125 USD. More than 30,000 people belong to these clubs. Roughly half are families with children still at home, a third are retirees, and the rest are younger couples and singles.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-16