Trust & guarantee
Can I trust my home to a stranger?
The question is understandable. After all, you don't know anyone in our community yet, and you naturally think of them as strangers. Before you decide with whom you wish to swap homes you will be exchanging email and maybe even telephone calls to get to know more about one another. We promise you, by the time your exchange takes place you are not trading homes with strangers; you will be staying at the home of friends and they will be guests in your home.
Establish mutual trust!
Most Intervac members are mature (average age 40+), established family-oriented professionals, executives, business-owners or retired people. They are financially successful and respect property. Before committing to an exchange, you should always get to know your counterpart so that you can reach an agreement. This establishes mutual trust. References can be obtained from previous exchangers.
Our Guarantee
You must:
1. have posted your listing, fully completed with photos and descriptive texts, and it must be “open for exchange”.
2. have sent at least fifty exchange requests to other members.
3. notify your national representative of your intent to claim your free extension before the end of your membership.
This guarantee does not apply in the case of cancellation of an exchange agreement (whatever the reason) and/or in the event of force majeure.
Intervac International
Our member reference system
Member reference system
Our member reference system awards badges (Trial, Ready-to-go, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum) are based on the number of confirmed exchanges a family has made. The badge shows on the member’s listing.
Trial
Ready-to-go
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
After a member return home from their vacation they may choose to act as a reference for their exchange partner. These references are listed and may display feedback written by previous exchange partners on each member's listing page. This icon on a listing shows when a member have references. If you have questions about a member, you should feel free to contact their references to ask how the exchange worked out and if they were satisfied. Yes, there is trust involved in swapping homes, but with Intervac, you can also verify.
Words From Our Members
Congratulations! Happy Birthday!
We had many great experiences with Intervac.At the moment we are not able to do exchanges, but in the near future we certainly will do it again.Onward and upward
- George Dikker (Ireland)
A very unusual and nice way to travel
Around 40 years ago I found a letter to the director in the newspaper La Repubblica in which the writer reported the existence of a very unusual and nice way to travel: intervac. I cut out the letter and put it away thinking: ”one day I’ll join this intervac”. After 15 years I found the letter in a book…and I looked for intervac (there was not internet…) finding out it was still alive.
- Paolo Vallarano (Italy)
We always enjoyed the
My wife and were school teachers and we heard about Intervac in the TES. We went along to meet a lady near Derby who had exchanged a number of times. We began in 1973 with a trip to Florida. Over the next ten years we went to the USA, Canada and into Europe a number of times. We once had a piece in the Readers Digest and did a radio 5 interview about exchanging. We always enjoyed the experience and count our Intervac holidays amongst the best we ever had. Good luck for the future.
- Bert Hague (Great Britain)
We really like this style of holiday
We have great memories of the Intervac catalogs where we found our vacation destinations with our children. Our youngest daughter Emilie was 4 years old and she turned 41 in June...We communicated by telephone and post. We went to the USA. First in Manchester-by-sea, Massachusetts. At people who worked for the newspaper "The Globe". This small town is located near Boston, a very beautiful big city. Emilie met Greta on the beach at "Singing Beach". We made friends "The Beans" Then it was Thomaston near Augusta in Maine at a gentleman named Lafayette. We took advantage of his boat and his Jeep Cherokee. Very beautiful region too. We also exchanged with the superb Sardinia . With Switzerland in a chalet. Also Rome, a magnificent city. Then more recently in Annecy, Uzès, Aix en Provence. And we really like this style of holiday which allows travel and living, like at home, in houses where respect and communication go hand in hand with total trust.
- Françoise and Renald Giai-Minietti (France)
Just Returned from our First Intervac Exchange
We have just returned from our first Intervac exchange. We exchanged homes with a couple from Mississauga (Canada)and what a wonderful experience it has been: charming people, generous and welcoming, beautiful home, great car. When we had to extend our stay because of the volcanic ash cloud, they never objected, on the contrary. For our first Intervac experience, we have been more that lucky, we have been positively blessed!!!
- Jacques and Greet, Belgium
Saved $10,000+ in Hotel and Car Rental Expenses
I am in, can you believe, La Ciotat, France one block from the beach in an imaculate little villa that has everything. The owners are at my home in San Diego it is amazing how great Intervac is. Roberte and Jacques contacted me and the rest is history. Thank you so very much for Intervac. We are saving over ten thousand dollars in hotel bills and car rentals. Fantastique!
- Bill Zimmerman
Happy and Telling Friends about Intervac
We've had four exchanges through Intervac so far and have discussed it with far too many people, increasing the San Francisco pool too much, we fear. Nevertheless, here we are again.
- Carol Livingston
Wonderful Italian Home Exchange
The family in Bologna we did a non-simultaneous exchange with were wonderful. We stayed there for one week and they will stay here this summer.
- Angie Keller
More Activity in Europe than Competitors
Wow! Members for one week. One offer from Finland, two from Sweden, one from Switzerland and two from France. Looks like we're going to central Paris. The other company we joined three weeks ago, no offers! Thank You Intervac!!! Many thanks for our Honeymoon, a dream come true!
- Gordon & Kathy Poulson, United States
Six Swaps in One Year
We have traded six times--and we really like Intervac! The people we have exchanged our homes with have been wonderful & we have kept in touch with each family over te years. Without Intervac we could not travel like to we do every summer for 4 weeks. Long live Intervac!
- Jennifer M. Eisenlau, United States
61 Home Swap Offers in One Year
We once got 61 (yes, sixty-one!) home exchange offers in one season. Fully expect the upcoming season to be another year, which will provide exciting opportunities for fascinating exchanges and the making of new friends in some corner of the world.
- George Rausch
Four House Exchanges in France
You provide a wonderful service, and our Intervac exchanges - the first in Amsterdam, the last four in France have been both exciting and deepening. We are excited about making another exchange this summer.
- Denis Clifford & Naomi Puro, United States
Spain, France, Oregon and Counting
Your deal is so great. We have been to Spain, France and Oregon. All have been with people who are hip to the zip, and respectful and aware of what it takes to trade. I thank you for it. You have made it possible for us to have really great experiences.
- Steve Plesa
Intervac friends from all over the world
My husband and I have already completed more than 35 exchanges, some of them privately, and already 25 with Intervac. We\’re absolutely delighted with this way of travelling and getting to know different countries, peoples and cultures. I think that exchanging houses is not only a way of travelling but also of opening minds, hearts and “homes” to the “other”. That is to say, we share what is our most precious treasure, our refuge in life. This fact helps us without any doubt to reject prejudices and to become more tolerant and universal. When we get back home, we always experience a great sense of gratitude.
- Marisa Garcia, Spain
Second Generation Home Exchanger
This is our first exchange. I'm familiar with the whole concept, however, because as a child my family did three exchanges from Boston to London, Laguna Beach and Newfoundland. Great memories!
- Jennifer Shepherd
I have had great joy with Intervac
I have had great joy with Intervac. But, in my last tourist trip in Praha (Chec Republic, where I'd been in an hotel, I couldn't left by plane because volcon ash, and I got a gret help of our Intervac friends CZ837023 Pavel Cingl and his beautiful wife Simona (and Oliver). Great people, large heart, kind and helpfull, since understand our situation (my niece, 11 years old, and myself)... Thanks Intervac! Thanks nice Intervac members!!
- Maria Georgina Alves, Portugal
Said about Intervac in the press
Home From Home is an engaging account of an Irish family's first home exchange. The writing is clever and the author gives a clear picture of the unusual types of fun available to home exchangers. There's nothing like it!
Intervac France too has had a nice article written in "Le Progrès". Great work and many thanks to our French national organizer, Kristina Caillaud.
Le vacanze estive si avvicinano e c'è un modo di prenotare l'alloggio che sta avendo sempre più successo, anche in Umbria. Siamo stati a Casteldilago.
Scambiarsi casa. Un nuovo modo di gestire le vacanze. Alla base la voglia di assaporare l'autenticità dei posti che si vanno a conoscere e la fiducia verso il prossimo. Succede anche in Umbria. Dario Tomassini è stato a Casteldilago, provincia di Terni, dove ha intervistato alcuni ospiti ed Emanuela Zara, coordinatrice Italia Intervac Home Exchange.”
