Vacation Home Exchange

Although most Vacation Home Owners seek to offset the cost of vacation home ownership through renting their property, either online or through a vacation rental agent, Vacation Home Exchange is another way to leverage your investment.

There are a number of vacation home exchange networks, including Digsville, Holswap, Homex, HomeExchange, HomeForExchange, SeniorsHomeExchange, TheVacationExchange, Vacation-Home-Exchange and 1stHomeExchange, that allow you to swap your homes with another vacation home owner, so that you can take a vacation without needing to spend money renting a hotel.

Most of these vacation home exchange networks charge a small annual fee, which gives you access to thousands of other vacation home in a variety of desirable locations.

However, before joining up with any of the above networks, it is worth considering the advantages and disadvantages of vacation home exchange from the vantage point of the vacation home owner.

So, what Are the Advantages of Vacation Home Exchange?

1. It is cheaper than renting a hotel, villa or apartment!

2. You can choose from a wide variety of high quality vacation properties, in a wide variety of locations.

3. Vacation Home swapping is more personal that renting a hotel, villa or apartment. Vacation home owners who exchange their homes usually only do so a couple of times per year and they are often much more selective about who they rent to: many people report making friends with those with whom they exchange vacation homes.

4. Vacation homes that are exchanged are typically better cared for than most vacation rentals. Continued participation in vacation home exchange networks is contingent on positive feedback from the person with whom they exchange their vacation home, hence vacation home exchange owners are more likely to ensure that their vacation home is maintained to a high standard.

5. Vacation home owners who exchange their homes are more likely to take good care of your property. Being vacation home owners themselves, they understand the importance of being a good "renter".

6. Vacation home swapping is a good way to use your vacation home during low season, when you might not otherwise we able to rent your vacation home.

But there are some drawbacks:

1. You can't earn rent on your vacation home when you are exchanging it!

2. You may find it difficult to find a suitable property to exchange with. However, most of the vacation home exchange networks are so large now that this is less likely to be a problem. For example, HomeExchange has more than 20,000 listings in more than 100 countries and HomeForExchange.com has over 10,000 listings worldwide.

3. You have to pay for membership of the vacation home exchange network. However, the cost is usually very modest. For example, HomeExchange costs only $99 per year and they will give you your second year free if you don't manage to exchange your vacation home in the first year. HomeForExchange.com cost only Euro 45 per year, plus you get 6 months free as a sign on bonus.

Is the Sub Prime Crisis Good for Vacation Rental Home Owners?

At first glance, it would appear that the sub prime mortgage crisis is bad news for owners for vacation rental homes. Many people may have bought vacation homes, relying on overly optimistic projections on rental income to fund a mortgage that they might otherwise not have been able to afford (and which more prudent mortgage lenders might not have approved). Surely, many of these people will have no option but to sell or foreclose on their vacation home?

But wait, it is not all gloom and doom!

For a start, particularly in popular areas such as Florida, there have been too many vacation home owners chasing too few renters. As a result, rental prices and occupancy rates have dropped for many vacation rental owners, even those who have been renting their homes successfully for a long time. A reduction in the number of renters might not be a bad thing in the long run and might help increase the prices that vacation rental properties can command.

Secondly, for most people, their vacation home is a second home and these vacation home owners tend to be financially secure, with good credit histories and enough resources to qualify for regular mortgages and hence may have avoided the sub prime bullet.

Thirdly, vacation home owners can take advantage of the aggressive cuts in interest rates that are happening to keep the US economy out of recession as a result of the sub prime mess. For those in the vacation rental business for the long term, this is good news.

Craigslist and Vacation Rentals

Craigslist has become quite a phenomenon, with thousands of free classified listings every day across a wide range of areas. The size of the vacation rentals listings is evidence of the fact that many vacation home owners are using Craigslist as a means to find renters. In fact, it is not uncommon to find some of the smaller “vacation rentals by owner” sites advertising on Craiglist themselves, although most of the listings are from individual vacation rentals owners. Judging from the popularity of these ads, I assume that many renters also use Craigslist to find the perfect vacation rental.

Craigslist’s rules on vacation rentals listings mean that you can’t post the same ad more than once at a time. Some vacation rentals owners try to get around this by posting in multiple destinations, with slight changes of wording. However, although you might get away with that for a while, you run the risk of being flagged and possibly banned from the Craigslist site.

However, to make things easier, some vacation rentals sites have added tools to help with building Craigslist ads. For example, VacationRealty has a Craigslist ad builder as does Vacationrentaldirect .

As an alternative to Criagslist, you might also consider Free Vacation Rentals Classifieds .

VRWD and Standards in Vacation Rentals

One of the biggest reasons why holidaymakers don't rent directly from owners is that they don't know exactly what they will be getting. Most "vacation rental by owner" do not do any vetting of vacation rental properties on their books. Because there is no independent way to assess the standards in vacation rental by owner properties, it is very much up to the renter to do the necessary due diligence to ensure that what they are buying will be acceptable to their requirements.

Effectively, there no equivalent to the "star" rating system for hotels or large vacation apartments.

One company, VRWD, is attemping to introduce a Trusted Vacation Rental Seal . Members are allowed to put the trusted logo on their own websites, after completing a review by VRWD. However, it's not clear what is involved in this review process, nor how do VRWD assure and maintain the standards of their members. Presumably, if complaints are received, members can be dropped from the program. However, until the Trusted Vacation Rental Seal is adopted as a standard, it's influence with renters will be limited.

When is comes to standards, vacation rentals have a big disadvantage over hotels or even bed and breakfast properties. Part of the reason for this is that governments and tourist boards are typically a lot more supportive of hotels and B&Bs than they are of vacation rentals by owner properties.

In Ireland, where I live, Board Failte, the Irish tourist board, has an active program for assessing and grading B&B properties and I would not dream of staying in a B&B that was not Bord Failte approved. Until we get to the same stage with vacation rentals, it may continue to be "caveat emptor" for the renter.

The WVR Group, Homeaway, VBRO, Ownersdirect and More

The WVR Group continue to add to it's portfolio of Vacation Rental by Owner sites, with the list of sites now running to at least 14 different sites. One of the latest additions is Ownersdirect , a long established UK based vbro site.

It's hard to keep track of exactly how many vacation rentals properties WVR now has signed up on the various sites, but they are clearly seeking to dominate the industry. WVR has raised a lot of money and is betting that this will pay back as the industry consolidates.

At one point it looked like the vacation rentals by owner industry might be a battle between WVR and VRBO, but when WVR acquired them, it effectively took out their biggest rival. The acquisition of VacationRentals VacationRentals followed and now the WVR is way bigger than any of it's rivals.

For a full list of the WVR Group sites, visit the WVR Group page on Compare Owner Holiday Rentals.