Came across this interesting website today and think it is a really good idea!! Anyone know about the pros and cons of such a venture?

homeexchange.com

We did an exchange a few years ago, but with former neighbours of ours in the street where we'd just sold our house/London base. They came over to Madrid and gave us the keys then next day we flew back to our old place. They stayed in our place with 5 bedroom, pool and part-time interna; we stayed in the mirror image of our old 3 bed Victorian terrace. Facilities-wise they got a good deal and we got a cheap way of visiting other friends for 10 days or so.

Unfortunately, youngest boy decided to flush their telephone down the toilet, so I had the hassle of replacing that and I broke a glass shelf in their fridge when a bottle fell as I was trying to fit everything in. It went rather well despite things like that, but it would be very easy for things to go very wrong or for the deal to be considered very one-sided by one party or the other.

Helpful if you're a 'standard' family without very young (ie, breakage-prone) children - we had 4 children at the time, so it was a bit of a squeeze.

Thanks for your comments. We are just two retired individuals with NO children. Expect you have to agree ground rules between yourselves...

Hmm

We don't need a website for people wanting to exchange homes.

As we signed the contract on our Spanish home, we had people popping out of the woodwork at home and work offering to do a 'holiday swap' - accommodation ranging from a yacht off USA to small apartments in South of France.

We are making a list but it could be some time before we want to go anywhere else!