Holiday Exchange Scheme In N.Z.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31729, 12 July 1968, Page 2

Holiday Exchange Scheme In N.Z.

“The Press” Special Service DUNEDIN, July 11. How would you like to spend your next holiday absolutely free in the New York house where Franklin D. Roosevelt was born.

Or on a 25-acre tropical paradise in Jamaica with two private beaches and swimming pool, and car, dinghy, cook, butler, housemaid, and two gardeners supplied? Or in a beachhouse close by Surfers Paradise, a holiday retreat in one of the world’s best game fishing areas in Northland, New Zealand? The key to such exciting vacations is the new but booming practice of home exchanging, a phenomenon of the last few years that is already spreading to virtually every cranny of the globe.

/n Auckland

In Auckland, the Holiday Exchange Club has been set up to cater for the growing public interest in this kind of new and inexpensive holiday. Two families from different parts of the country—or the world agree to change houses for a specified length of time —a couple of weeks to six months or more. No money changes hands; participants in the agreement simply occupy each other’s houses temporarily, thus overcoming one of the greatest expenses which prevent so

many families from holidaying away from home—that of accommodation.

Originating in England five years ago the holiday exchange service was the dream of Mrs Jeanne Ryder, of London.

Now her company, Home Interchange Ltd, and the Vacation Exchange Club of New York have between 1500 and 2000 homes on their books. Working in co-operation with these companies is Mr Des Leith, an Auckland author, journalist and publisher, whose Holiday Exchange Club is resnonsible for promoting the scheme in Australia, New Zealand, the. South Sea Islands and Asia.

Many Countries

Thus the holidav exchange scheme is virtually worldwide and areas covered by the directories include America, Canada, Hawaii, Rarotonga, Austria, the Bahamas, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Jamaica, Mexico, Norway, North Africa, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as New Zealand and Australia.

The three companies publish between them directories which list exchange homes for both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere holiday seasons.

Subscribers to the Holiday Exchange Club pay $7 (internal exchanges) or $9 (overseas exchanges) a year and the directories publish full details of their homes, what is included in the ex-

change, and where each family would like to go. Mrs Ryder says that the home exchange service is founded on “mutual goodwill, integrity and trust,” and it seems to be a fact of human nature that if two sets of people are living in each other’s houses each is scrupulously careful of the other's property. In ideal exchanges you may get a dar or boat, the family dog and the children’s toys all thrown in with your holiday home. Subscribers are encouraged to exchange mutual references and guarantees before exchanges are decided on. In exchange you leave behind the fringe benefits of your own home.

Examples

Typical of exchanges in this part of the world were a Brisbane home for one in Toorak, Melbourne, during Melbourne Cup week. A Mossman (Sydney) luxury unit with harbour views and swimming pool was exchanged for a beach home in Tauranga in the heart of the big game fishing area. Devaluation, restricted travel allowances, family airline concessions and the problem of catering for holidays that the whole family can afford are all powerful arguments in favour of home exchanging. And why not?—if you can relax for two weeks in your free holiday home and say proudly: “F.D.R. slept here.”