FAQs
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for the reply to your question. If, however, it is not answered on this page please go to the Contact Me page..
Answering all questions
If you prefer you can go to the contact page to ask your question. You can email me or ring me on 0845 260 5776 or leave your telephone number.
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Contacting Members
Everytime I try to contact a member, I am brought to a page urging me to join. What’s going on?- How do I contact a member?
- How will a member respond to me?
- I've written a number of messages to other members and I haven't heard back yet. Why?
- Why doesn’t Intervac list members' e-mail addresses on your web site?
Contacting members
Either you haven’t paid or you haven't logged in.
As a visitor you have full privileges except for the ability to contact Intervac members. To start arranging an exchange you need to join, Please click on JOIN INTERVAC, enter your email, pick a membership package and the system will take you on from there.
If you've already joined, then you must login before browsing the listings. To do this, please go to the login page and enter your username (or email) and password.
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Sending messages
Login and go to the Search page where you can search for members by name, ID or on the maps. When ytou have found a member click on "Send Message" on the left side of the member listing page. In your message box create and send your message.
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Answers to messages
When you have sent a message it will be posted in the other member's message box and, simultaneously, an email will be sent with the full text of your message and all your details. The other member can reply by email or by sending a message.
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Answers to messages
In your message box you will find that all your sent messages that have been read or answered will be marked accordingly. Unanswered original messages cannot be deleted and the system sends a reminder if messages are not answered after five days. If messages are not answered if often means that the member's email is not working properly so by all means get in touch with us if you would like this followed up.
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Security
Security is very important to us and we do not think it safe to display our members' email addresses except to other members that actually want to contact them. Also, by not listing each member's email address, we prevent unscrupulous people from harvesting all the addresses and adding them to a spam list.
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General Home Exchange Questions
- Do I have to swap cars?
- How do I ensure my car insurance covers my home exchange partners?
- Does my homeowner’s policy cover damage to my house while on exchange?
- How can I be sure that the exchange will be “equal?
- How do I maximise my chance of getting a home exchange?
- How far in advance do most people start planning a home exchange?
- If I want to swap for only a few days or for more than two months, is that possible?
- If I want to travel in the next few days or weeks, is it too late to arrange an exchange?
- Is it safe to leave my home to people I don’t know?
- What about the possibility of cancellation?
- What kind of people exchange homes?
- I don’t live in a tourist area? Will anyone exchange with me?
Car swaps
No. Not everyone swaps cars. Particularly in London, for example, many people prefer to use public transport. In the country, however, a car is obviously essential and, if you do not swap yo need to hire.
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Car insurance
Most insurers these days cover only named drivers. Moreover many insurers, and particularly the interrnet only insurers make it difficult or expensive to put temporary drivers on a policy. In this area it is probably best to use a broker.
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Home insurance policies
As a general rule however insurers do not cover anyone but the insured for accidental damage. We have had very few incidents of damage to people’s houses, however, in the past fifty years.
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Fair exchanges
Instead of thinking of an exchange as ‘equal’ think of it as ‘fair’. If the location of the 2 homes and size of accommodations are similar than you might consider it ‘fair’. Many exchangers with large homes are happy to exchange for an adequate flat in the right location. People have different priorities on holiday. And there is less housekeeping to do!!
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Advertising your home
Make certain that you home is well advertised and use your full allowance of photos to describe it, your neighborhood and its facilities. After that the more flexible you are the better your chances are in obtaining a home exchange. To increase your chances consider more countries and see if you can lengthen your travel time.
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Advance negotiations
Twelve months is usually the furthest in advance that people begin to plan an exchange.
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Periods of exchange
Yes. Home exchangers swap for as short a period of time as a weekend and as long a period of time as more than one year. Once you become a member, you can sort the listings by long-term exchanges, weekend exchanges and more.
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Last minute exchanges
No. Click on the Last Minute Listings link at the top of this page and see for yourself that there are many people looking for exchanges in the next couple weeks. It’s never too late to organize an exchange as long as you flexible about destination and time.
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Is it safe?
This is the most often asked question! To be honest there are no absolute guarantees. But as you prepare for the exchange you should get to know your exchangers and this creates an unique relationship. Exchangers are generally homeowners like yourself and professional people with standards like yours and being guests in each other’s home creates a bond of trust. By the time your exchange occurs you should feel like you’re going to a friend’s home and your friends are coming to your home. In the more than fifty years that Intervac has been facilitating contact between exchangers, there have been no reports of theft and rare reports of damage. Occasionally, housekeeping standards differ, but members tend to take even greater care of their exchange home than of their own!
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Cancellations
This rarely happens. But you should be prepared in case of illness or an emergency. Ask your exchange partner to prepare a contingency plan. Tell your exchange partner what you plan to provide in case you cancel – stay at a friends or mother-in-laws! Or in a motel.
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About home exchangers
Families, single people and couples all use Intervac and members are from all age groups. The majority are in the middle-to-upper income bracket. Lawyers, doctors, artists, estate agents, business executives, doctors, educators, clergy, engineers, journalists are all among the occupations represented.
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Ordinary Homes
You never know where people will want to visit. Many people use their home exchange as a base from which to explore a wide region. Other times, they may have relatives or a specific event to attend. No matter, where you live, as long as you plan ahead and are flexible about destination and time frame, you have a great chance for achieving your dream vacation.
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Home Exchange Tips and Tricks
- How do I start looking for an exchange?
- 1. Total number of adults and children staying in home (include expected visitors).
- 2. Use of car and its maintenance.
- 3. Where are keys to be located? It is recommended that they be left with friends or neighbors who can also welcome your exchange guests. Two sets of keys are recommended.
- 4. Who is responsible for utility bill? Unless there are unusual circumstances such as extreme cold weather versus tropical climate, each home owner is usually responsible for the utility bill of his own home.
- 5. What linen will be provided "in house" and who is responsible for laundering?
- 6. Arrange for record keeping of long-distance telephone calls and settlement of cost. Usually a note pad next to telephone and a check or cash left at time of departure is the simplest method.
- 7. Agree that if repairs are necessary that cost above, say $50.00, a telephone call to the home owner is necessary to insure payment by owners; otherwise cost is borne by exchange guests.
- 8. Care of pets.
- 9. In the event of cancellation, agree on a back-up plan. VERY IMPORTANT! Don't be afraid to talk about this while in the planning stages of your exchange.
- 10. Any parts of the home to be off-limits or equipment not to be used (e.g., computer).
- 11. Empty refrigerator, except for staples.
- What items should I agree upon with my home exchange partner?
- 1. Replace food staples and leave linens, as arranged.
- 2. Clean home and leave everything in the same order in which you found it. Remember some people have standards different from yours-when you use their home you should meet their standards or better.
- 3. Leave cash for long-distance telephone calls and any other agreed upon items.
- 4. Leave note on any problems, incidents or telephone calls that the owners would be interested in knowing about.
- 5. Leave a thank you note and perhaps a small gift as a token of appreciation for a wonderful time and all the money you saved by exchanging homes.
- 6. If you depart early for any reason make sure that your exchange partners and their neighbors are notified.
- 7. Return keys to designated location.
- 8. Make sure that everything that is supposed to be turned off is turned off and everything that is supposed to be turned on is turned on.
- How should I leave my home exchange partner's home when we leave?
- Where can I find some copies of home exchange agreement forms?
Looking for your exchange
As soon as you become visible you will find you start getting offers. You can sit back and wait for people to contact you, if you like, or you can search the listings, find ones you like and send out messages proposing an exchange or requesting additional information. When you send a message the system puts you in direct email contact.
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Negotiating an exchange
Items to be agreed upon by both parties
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Clearing up your exchange home
Preparing your Partner's home before Departure
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Exchange agreements
We now provide an online agreement form which you can use to use both to register your agreement and to agree the main items with your partner. Note you badge now depends on the number of exchanges you register using this form.
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Intervac Questions
- Does Intervac accept rental properties?
- What if I want to list my second home?
- 1. Does the agency have a large number of worldwide listings?
- 2. Are they well spread or concentrated in the USA?
- 3. Can you be sure that the listings shown are all active?
- 4. Are all the homes listed available for exchange. Do they include rental only properties?
- 1. What experience does the Agency have.
- 2. Does the Agency provide personal service? Most are internet only providers. Do they provide personal telephone assistance, follow up with problems and help with "lost" emails.
- 3. What are the online facilities. Are they easy to use? Do they charge for photos. Do they provide facilities like messaging, last minute listings, reverse search, match alert and favourite folders?
- 4. Does the Agency provide a mailing address and telephone contact or just email contact?
- 1. Does the Agency have a code of conduct? If so how the rules applied? Are the "bad apples" followed up by individuals?
- 2. Be careful of "free" sites. Would you trust your home to a freeloader? Many sites claim to provide "free membership" when the only privilege is sight of their listings without any right of access.
- 3. Do you trust them?
- What should I look for in a home exchange organization?
Rental properties
Yes, and you can search separately for vacation rentals. While it's not the core offering of our service, we recognize that many people who own a vacation rental may want to also offer that property for exchange so we enable you to do both. We do not however accept rental only properties.
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Listing two homes
You will need to obtain a new membership as we can only list one home per membership. I offer a special discounted rate for a second listing.
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Choosing a Home Exchange Organisation
The watch words are Choice, Service and Security.
Choice
Experience and Service
Security
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Membership Packages
- I don't feel comfortable paying online. How else can I pay?
- Which membership package is for me?
Payments by cheque
It’s very safe to pay online since we process all Visa and Mastercard orders securely with external and secure payment service providers and banks (who generally guarantee credit card transactions) If you prefer, however, you can pay off line and to pay by cheque go to this link.
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Membership packages
The basic membership package is for one year. Our site is easy to use and intuitive so this is a good value package.
I offer the service of designing your listing but, to be honest,it really is very easy to do it yourself as many people have found after they have paid me for this service. I also offer two year and three year packages at some discount. If you're absolutely new to home exchange you can try my Trial Offer.
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Photos & Listing Information
- 1. You must enter details of your home, numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms, its nearesrt city and location, yourself and your family, your home's facilities, your neighbourhood and its local attractions. These details will mean that your homer will appear on other people's searches.
- 2. You should post a main photo. Click on "Upload main photo" find the photo on your computer and follow instructions.
- 3. Click on "Add photos and Text" to do just that. You can add up to twenty photos under four categories, Home, Family, Neighborhood and Lifestyle. You can also post unlimited descriptiove text including links to the internet.
- 4. Click on "Place Google Marker" to get the map pointer accurate. If you click on "Enter the latitude and longitude of my home" you will find (the information icon) a number of tools to determine your coordinates.
- 5. Lastly go to "Destinations Wish List" to list the countries, regfions or cities you want to visit. Remember these will appaer on reverse searches.
- How do I build my listing?
- Can I change my photos when I have posted them?
- How many photos should I post under each category?
Building your listing
Buiding your listing at our site is very easy. When you first log in you will see directions in your home page.
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Changing photos
Yes. To change your main photo just upload another one. To see the photo you have uploaded remember to refresh your browser. Press F5. To delete other photos you will find an orange garbage icon to do the job. Then upload another.
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Your photos allowance
It is a good idea to use your full allowance of twenty photos. We would suggest you post ten to twelve pictures of your home, up to three or four pictures of yourself and your family and allocate the rest to local attractions, things to do and such like.
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Renewing Membership
- How do I renew my membership?
- Can I still obtain a catalogue?
- If I renew before my membership expires, will my new membership period begin when I renew?
Renewals
You can click on this link, Renew and just add your email. The system will take you on from there.
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No Catalogues
We have ceased to publish catalogues.
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Preserving your time allocation
No. It will begin when your old period expires. When you renew for say twelve more months, we add twelve months to your membership package from the time the existing one ends.
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Searching
- How do I search?
- How do I conduct a reverse search? By city or by country?
- How do I get my listing on the hot list?
- How do I search by city?
- How do I search for last minute exchanges?
- If I like a listing, how do I save it for future viewing?
Search facilities
You will find comprehensive search facilities by clicking on "search" in your home page. You can search by country, city or region, by exchange type, by keywords, by facilities, by holiday dates by numbers of people and by a combination of any or all of the above. Remember, however, that the more detailed your search the more you will restrict your options.
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Reverse search
You will find comprehensive search facilities by clicking on "search" in your home page. You can reverse search by country, by city or by region. Remember, however, that some people do not want to be too precise in their destinations, they prefer to be flexible and post countries rather than cities in their Destination Wish List
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The Hotlist
You will find the link to Last Minute Listings (the "Hotlist") in yor home page. At the top there is a button to allow you to add your listing to the Hotlist.
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Search by city
You will find the link in your home page to searches where you can search by city.
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The Hotlist
You will find the link to Last Minute Listings in yor home page.
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Favourites
You can add any listing to your "Favourites" folder.
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