Jun 12, 2008
A website called Seniors Home Exchange serves a different set of travel needs
When I first heard about Seniors Home Exchange (www.seniorshomeexchange.com), I was frankly puzzled. What could such a site accomplish that wasn't better done by larger and longer-established home exchange websites for persons of any age?
The language and organization of Seniors Home Exchange made the explanation obvious -- but one that doesn't normally occur to most of us. Since many (if not most) seniors over the age of 50 are retired, they are able to take longer vacations than younger persons tethered to a job and restricted to short, two-week vacations. They are able to get away for one month, six weeks, two months, even three months at a time. And the home exchanges featured in Seniors Home Exchange are therefore mainly those longer intervals so suited to the life of a person in retirement. The exchange is often for several weeks and considerably longer than usual. Moreover, many seniors over 50 go on several trips a year and need to make a more constant use of the service than a younger person would.
This explained the fairly stiff $79 charge for a three-year membership (currently reduced to $59 for such a three-year period, through a special sale). Apparently, so many people have been willing to pay that charge to keep the site going, that it has now been in existence since 2001 and currently lists over 30,000 home exchange opportunities. It not only offers home or apartment exchanges (you stay in theirs' while they stay in yours'), but also hospitality offers whereby you stay as a free-of-charge guest in the home of a member while they remain in residence.
I have now received multiple recommendations for Seniors Home Exchange from readers of this blog, and its bona fides seems more than established. If you're over 50, or know someone who is, you might want to take a look.
Write and read comments about this post.
The language and organization of Seniors Home Exchange made the explanation obvious -- but one that doesn't normally occur to most of us. Since many (if not most) seniors over the age of 50 are retired, they are able to take longer vacations than younger persons tethered to a job and restricted to short, two-week vacations. They are able to get away for one month, six weeks, two months, even three months at a time. And the home exchanges featured in Seniors Home Exchange are therefore mainly those longer intervals so suited to the life of a person in retirement. The exchange is often for several weeks and considerably longer than usual. Moreover, many seniors over 50 go on several trips a year and need to make a more constant use of the service than a younger person would.
This explained the fairly stiff $79 charge for a three-year membership (currently reduced to $59 for such a three-year period, through a special sale). Apparently, so many people have been willing to pay that charge to keep the site going, that it has now been in existence since 2001 and currently lists over 30,000 home exchange opportunities. It not only offers home or apartment exchanges (you stay in theirs' while they stay in yours'), but also hospitality offers whereby you stay as a free-of-charge guest in the home of a member while they remain in residence.
I have now received multiple recommendations for Seniors Home Exchange from readers of this blog, and its bona fides seems more than established. If you're over 50, or know someone who is, you might want to take a look.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, retired, websites
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
