World Wide Home exchange

[Princewig]

I am doing a search on this topic.
In the past I have invited cruisers to dock at my Florida home and stay for a week or so, as well at my California homes I have done the same thing.
I enjoy showing off my home towns, spending time with people from other cultures; as well I have had some amazing times with locals on some of my travels.
I think this would be a great idea for world wide cruisers, some sort of web site or topic here on the board for fellow cruisers to offer open homes or something along these lines. I am not sure how to put this idea into words so someone step in and help me out
I am sure there would need to be clear terms..
Drop your thoughts in.. hit post

[ssullivan]

Yes, this would be excellent! Something like the couch surfing sites they now have where you can stay for free anywhere in the world, so long as you offer up your couch too.

A nice site might include homes with docks (as you suggested) as well as dock/mooring swaps in general. Of course, this mostly assumes private docks and moorings, since marinas frown upon lending out your dock.

I've often wondered if someone would like to trade a week or two on my boat (not leaving the dock) for a week or two in their house in the mountains - especially if those mountains are the Alps.

[dana-tenacity]

We are shore bound for the next few years after 10 yrs as cruisers, have a house within two mins walk of the beach and an assortment of toy boats. I have wondered about the possibility of trading for a boating holiday of some kind.

[Pblais]

My neighbors belong to a home exchange. They swapped homes with a couple from England. The home they got was not the same couple that got their home. They swapped for a month and it all worked fine. The couple that traded did not get boat use though, just the car and the house. They received a similar deal in England. hey expect to do it again with another couple that wants to come here and live in Hawaii. The better part is they want to come in the winter to vist a son stationed in the Navy near here.

This was an organization that I think was mostly teachers. You basically paid a one time fee to join the network then they put the information online and handled getting people in contact with one another plus had a set of guidelines for setting up an agreement between the people. They don't do screening or anything like that. You generally have to trust the people that are coming will be nice.

I think it does take some higher level organization to assit in putting the information together and aiding in getting the parties to a point where they can communicate with each other. You would need a list of places you may want to go and of course you can't be home and trade your house away either.

[Princewig]

Just a quick update on this. I have a wonderful couple heading in for a stay at my dock. I have done a web search and found a few web sites that offer this kind of service but would like to stay within the cruising folk. This way I can offer my excess dockage, power and water, use of my bikes, pool etc. Leaving my home to myself and the dogs. The neighbors are gonna love this