looking for a home-stay family for the Winter Break (San Diego: rentals, hotels)

[anatooles]

I'm looking for a host family at San Diego or any Californian coastal city for the winter break which will be about 2-3 weeks starting from Dec18 to Jan05..I want to have fun during this break and enjoy away from my coldest state -ND



thanks,,,,

[oddstray]

So ... you're asking for lodging, meals, and possibly tour guides. For free? Good luck with that!

Presuming you have budget issues, have you looked into staying at a hostel? Or couch-surfing? CouchSurfing - Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by oddstray

So ... you're asking for lodging, meals, and possibly tour guides. For free? Good luck with that!

Presuming you have budget issues, have you looked into staying at a hostel? Or couch-surfing? CouchSurfing - Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time

I've never heard of home stays before. I doubt they would be too popular in San Diego but I could be wrong. But I think you're going to have almost an impossible time trying to arrange a home stay or home exchange during the holidays when most people have family/company over.

However, Home exchanges are really popular here in San Diego. Before we moved here, we did several GREAT home exchanges via HomeExchange.com But of course they weren't free stays. We exchanged for equal time in vacation rentals in other cities where we own properties.

I'm not sure if you live in a desirable city or not, but if so you might want to try home exchanges vs. home stays. We stayed in 3 amazing houses in Point Loma, La Jolla and Cardiff by the Sea over the past 3 years.

I have a good female friend that did that coach surfing but it was mostly in Australia and parts of Asia. She said she ran across some really creepy people.

[futbol]

A former co-worker use to do the couch sharing thing. We would swear by it as a good program.

My parents got into the home sharing program. They split their time between Hawaii and Colorado. Last year they stayed in a home in France and loved it.

They loved the trip to France, and had a good guest experience in their Hawaii home. They also had a not so good guest experience where another group of people staying there left a mess.

[earlyretirement]

futbol,

I've done over 35 home exchanges around the world and knock on wood so far have had GREAT experiences.

I think the key is to really be picky with those that you are exchanging with. I typically only exchange with professionals or retired couples. Also, if you do them it's a good idea to make a contract that spells out all the details of the exchange, the dates, if they will leave it clean, etc.

It's all on the honor system but I've found using a contract that clearly spells things out in detail has avoided any problems.

Now that we have 2 kids, hotels aren't a good option as we need a full kitchen and also washing machine/dryer. When we do have to stay in hotels we have to get 2 hotel rooms so it can get expensive staying at higher end hotels.

These home exchanges are a great way to travel and live like a local. We've done an exchange in Paris a few years ago and headed to Europe for the summer and staying in Paris for a month on a home exchange.

This is a great way to travel.

[alexxiz]

Try couchsurfing.org

[futbol]

Thanks earlyretirement, I'll pass along that info to my parents.

They are believers in the program despite the one not-so-good experience.

They hinted that there was a feedback mechanism in which they could relate their experience with particular members of the exchange, good or bad.

Having expectations written out will definitely help.

[earlyretirement]

You're welcome futbol. Absolutely it's NOT for everyone. Personally I could never do this with my primary residence that I own. All the home exchanges we do are in vacation rentals that we don't live in. But most of the exchanges we've done, it's with people that are using their primary residences.

You really must have a lot of trust with whomever you exchange with because people are basically leaving all their possessions and even all their clothes, electronics, etc.

And yes most sites have the capability to leave feedback (good or bad). Tell your parents to keep with it. It's so great. I'm not sure which site they use but we've had GREAT experiences with HomeExchange.com

Also, I forgot to mention it's a good idea to chat with your exchange partner via phone before you agree to let them use your property. A few times the person I talked to via phone just sounded clueless and in those cases I didn't agree to an exchange.

[vahnessuh]

Originally Posted by anatooles

I'm looking for a host family at San Diego or any Californian coastal city for the winter break which will be about 2-3 weeks starting from Dec18 to Jan05..I want to have fun during this break and enjoy away from my coldest state -ND



thanks,,,,

Good luck with that. With the holidays around, no one will want to have to be hassled hosting a stranger when they have all sorts of family staying/coming over their houses. Plus, you don't belong to any program that arranges this home stay experience. No one would want to open up their homes, provide food and lodging and spend time and money touring a complete stranger around.