Who We Are

I am Suzie Magnus, the founder of both West London Rentals and International Vacation Home Exchange.

After 18 years in the real estate and property development business, I decided in 1997 to expand into the field of short-term vacation and corporate rentals of luxury apartments in the Kew, Richmond area of London. West London Rentals caters for guests from all around the world.

My emphasis has always been on providing a high level of service combined with a personal touch for both guests and the clients whose properties I manage. I have had great feedback on my West London Rentals site.

A while back, I began to use my own apartments for home exchanging, as travelling is our family passion. We have had some great exchanges around the world but I found that none of the home - exchange web sites and clubs offer all of the things that I thought useful for real flexibility and convenience.

I felt I could offer a better service and, using my experience gained in my short-term rentals and my work, extensive travelling as well as my own personal home exchange experiences I decided to set up International Vacation Home Exchange. I put a team together, we spent some time researching the market and in 2003 International Vacation Home Exchange came into being. We have gone from strength to strength and in a short space of time we have accumulated a lot of amazing properties from around the world.

Our aim has always been to give the best possible service, as we never forget that without our members, International Vacation Home Exchange would not exist!

It has been very interesting exchanging stories and experiences with other like-minded individuals and families.

The one thing we all have in common is a love for travelling.

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Our Aims

Our aim is to offer a personal service to all members, to get involved in all aspects of the "exchange" before and after. Most importantly our system means that you never have to arrange a simultaneous exchange with another member, which gives you much greater flexibility with your holiday plans. 

A Few Things We Do Differently:

Non-simultaneous exchange: The timing of your holiday is not guided by anyone else's schedule. You may want a one-week stay while another member may want a two-week stay at your property. International Vacation Home Exchange makes this possible.

Comparable property: Your property can be exchanged with any type or size of property using our credits system and no one loses out. You do not have to exchange on a like for like basis giving you greater flexibility and more interesting choices. This means you can exchange your 5 bedroom Caribbean paradise for a smaller 2- bedroom luxury apartment in London without losing out.

Location: You can stay anywhere in the world with our online home exchange system. You are not limited with an exchange to a place you do not want to go to or have visited already.

Different seasons: As a global exchange site the properties are listed from all over the world. The seasons vary greatly in different parts of the world, particularly in the northern and southern hemispheres. Vacation times are also different. American school holidays are in June/July while English ones are in July/August. 

Expectations: As you do not need to exchange properties on a like for like basis this helps to remove the obvious comparison's that may be made between homes.

We are aware our fees are different to the conventional home exchange listing sites but then so are our services. We want to offer something different, combining Internet technology with a more personal service.

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Our committment to our members:

1. We are spending and will continue to spend a lot of time looking for the right sort of properties, in well-travelled or exotic areas and that are of a high quality. We are not looking for thousands of listings to places people do not want to travel to. International Vacation Home Exchange will not suit everyone. We are looking for quality and quantity but not volume.
2. We will keep a database of our members and their credit accounts.
3. We will keep the web site up to date with as much information as possible to minimize wasting your time with properties that aren't suitable for you.
4. We will respond to e-mail's or phone enquiries most of the time in less than 48 hours, and would like members to do the same where possible, or if they prefer, we are happy to make phone enquiries.
5. If we do not have a member in the location you would like to visit, let us know and we will put every effort into finding a suitable property owner who would like to become a member.
6. We will do our best to make sure the information given to us by members is as accurate as possible, we will take 2 references, preferably from a guest who has stayed at the property exchange or rental, and who we will contact.
7. We will send send reminders to leave feedback after a trade to both host and guest after an exchange, and will keep records of these; they will be available to other members.
8. Although we cannot take responsibility of things going wrong, we will take any complaints very seriously and investigate as thoroughly as possible. Any members that have given false or misleading information about their property could end up loosing credits. And in the worst case, loose their membership.
9. All members agree to be responsible for any damages that they might incur during their stay in a property, and any member failing to honour this commitment in a manner satisfactory to all concerned loses his or her membership. Members will need to agree to our Terms and Conditions , which covers all of the requirements above.
10. We will expect every property to have a comprehensive "guide" to their property as well as instruction books for appliances and emergency contact numbers.
11. If the property is not a rental property, we will need some proof of the rental value, either from a rental agency or we will try to find a web site address with a comparable property in the same area.
12. We will expect honesty, as misleading information will come out in the feedback form.

I hope the above has answered most of your questions, if you have any that we haven't covered please e-mail us or fill in our online form.

To apply for Membership go to our Join page .

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What our members say

I really liked the idea of collecting points towards an exchange as it gave excellent flexibilty for when and where to go. My first trade happened very quickly and everything went very well. I loved the fact that there was a friendly feeling about all the communications and felt comfortable in trading with a professional, well run organisation. I am now looking forward to this years exchanges.
Pat M. Turkey. Property 0147 , Property 0151

Our family has been happily exchanging our home in California for over five years now. We've been to London, Japan, Provence, Paris, the Caribbean, New York and to San Francisco several times. Each time we visit a new place we are again amazed at what a fabulous thing home exchanging is. It has made it possible for our family to have a lovely and comfortable home wherever we go. And our holidays are so inexpensive! The only difficulty with home exchanging (on the traditional home exchange websites) is that it is sometimes hard to coordinate the dates and often hard to find two parties that are looking to go to each others location. That's where the beauty of IVHE takes over. Getting credit for having a family stay in our house and then using that to go wherever we want is the most innovative improvement on home exchanging since it was invented! Now the possibilities are endless. Thanks IVHE! 
Julie B. California, USA. Property 0121

We could not have been more pleased with the personalized service of IVHE. Our needs were very specific in terms of timing and location for our visit to Manhattan. Not only did we land in a super location but we met the owners and enjoyed our interchange with them. Thank you for your care and attention to detail. 
Judith and Bud G. California, USA. Property 0217

I can highly recommend your exchange system. Your responses to requests and questions regarding exchanging were dealt with kindly and promptly.

You were very clear on sending directions and code to enter the wonderful apartment that had been arranged for us. We were thrilled with the exchange apartment, We were made to feel so welcome, with even beautiful fresh flowers arranged for us on our arrival. The pictures and description were exactly as they were portrayed on your site.

We welcome accepting exchanges at any time, and look forward to using your exchange site again in 2008.
Jill H. Melbourne, Australia. Property 0368

Within the past year I joined IVHE and had my first trade experience. I was apprehensive of using a home trade service in the past and I wasn't sure if this type of service would work out for me. Not long ago, I had my first trade in my home in Honolulu. I was incredibly impressed with the details that went into the trade agreement contract between myself and the other party. I enjoyed working with Hannah, she was easy to communicate with and helped with any questions that I had. The trade went smoothly and now I have credits to use for a future vacation! Thank you for providing this service!
Sandy S. California, USA. Property 0301

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