Saving $3,500 Exchanging In Santa Barbara

  

The Reason For Our Santa Barbara Exchange

AN EXCHANGE INQUIRY

                   "Hello,

                    I am wondering if you might be interested in an exchange for

                   our 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bathroom ocean view condo in Costa Rica

                   including membership in the new spectacular Reserva Conchal

                   Beach Club. There is also a golf course on the property and lots 

                   of wonderful side excursions to be made. We would like to stay

                   in Santa Barbara from June 9 - 16, 2009 when our daughter

                   graduates from UCSB. Please let me know your thoughts.

                   Thank you.

                   Shelley"

                "Dear Shelley,

                 This sounds like an interesting exchange offer, which we would

                 like to know a little more about. If we were to do this exchange

                 we would be interested in going to Costa Rica the second week

                 of June.

                 Sincerely,

                 Nina"

Our youngest child, Gillian, was set to graduate from the University of California at Santa Barbara in June, 2009. After spending four years visiting her there over long weekends in hotel rooms we thought it would be fun to spend an entire week in the gorgeous Pacific Coast town of Santa Barbara, and incorporate a graduation party at the house as well. Nina and her family were excited to travel to Costa Rica over her children’s summer vacation and we were able to agree to another exchange. This was Nina and her family’s primary home, but they had a second home about an hour away where they would be staying while we were in their home, as this was not to be a simultaneous exchange. After speaking with her on the phone in January we finalized the arrangements and I began planing a graduation party in Santa Barbara.

THE VALUE OF AN EXCHANGE

$1,500 For Three Nights Here,
Or A Three Bedroom Ocean View Home For 7 Nights Free

It is hard to put a value on a wonderful vacation experience, but I thought it would be of interest to show what an economic benefit it is to do a home exchange verses the cost of renting a home or a hotel room. All of our exchanges have saved us much money, but this exchange in Santa Barbara was by far the biggest steal. Santa Barbara hotel rooms during any time of the year are very expensive, with an average room costing somewhere between $175 to $250 a night, with many going for much more. During UCSB graduation week the prices sky rocket. The hotel we had used over the four years we visited Gillian which usually charged $175 a night, was asking $500 a night with a three night minimum and no cancelation policy, and we would need at least two rooms. Yikes!  A three bedroom vacation rental home was going for $3,500 for that week. Yet the home in Santa Barbara for which we were exchanging was costing us nothing other than the cleaning costs in Costa Rica which we would pay when Nina and her family left, and the yearly cost of belonging to Homeexchange.com.

Let's break down our costs and savings over the first year and a half  belonging to Homeexchange.com.

 2008 -  A week in Kiawah Island, South Carolina in a golf resort community     $1,900 value
             A week in San Diego, CA. in a luxury high rise condominium                $1,900 value

  2099 - A week in Santa Barbara home                                                                $3,500 value
              Total Value of Homes                                                                            $7,300 value

Costs:
Two years of membership at Homeexchange.com                                                 $220
Service of maids for three cleanings in Costa Rica                                                 $ 75
Total Costs:                                                                                                           $295

We saved $7,005 in just one and a half years by joining Homeexchange.com and got to live like a local, not a tourist in some amazing homes.  Just wait until you see how much more we saved with the the next 12 exchanges we made in the following year and a half!  Even if you don't have a second home, primary homes in various locations are always in demand too.  Why are you not vacationing this way right now?
             

The Two Grads After Four Years of Playing Waterpolo

BACK TO SANTA BARBARA AND PLANNING A PARTY

Gillian, who had played waterpolo at UCSB for four years had one other senior on the team who she had become very good friends with, and the girls decided that they would like to share their graduation party. Throughout their senior season the girls and we mothers pooled our thoughts and ideas about the party and I hoped that when we finally arrived at our exchange home in Santa Barbara in June that it would all work out. I told Nina that we were planning on hosting a graduation party, and asked if this would be acceptable to her. She was very generous in not only allowing us to host the party in her home, but also in offering me the use of her boxes of extra wine glasses, and other party supplies and equipment. I didn’t tell here that the girls wanted to get a keg of beer and that we would probably not be using too many of her wine glasses!

UCSB In Foreground With Santa Barbara Airport Behind It
Santa Ynez Airport Just Behind The Hills

HELLO BEAUTIFUL SANTA BARBARA

Graduation week finally arrived and Mark and I flew our Beechcraft Travel Air down to the Santa Ynez Airport, which is about 20 minutes away from Santa Barbara, just over the hills. Over the years we came to realize that for long term stays it is much less expensive to park a plane there then at the Santa Barbara Airport, which though more convenient, being located just across the highway from the UCSB campus, charged more for their daily tie down fee, as well as charging more for fuel then the Santa Ynez Airport. June in Santa Barbara is known for it’s cold mornings and early afternoon fog, but when we arrived that day it was gloriously sunny, and much to everyone’s delight remained that way the entire week we were there. What a great gift to the graduates!

The Living Room and Kitchen of The Party Home

We arrived at our three bedroom home located in the area of Santa Barbara known as the Riviera, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, and we were once again pleasantly surprised, though when we first drove up to the suburban track home I was not too impressed when comparing it to our previous exchanges in the high rise San Diego condo and the golf resort home on Kiawah Island. Upon entering our new home though we found a beautifully well kept, sunny home with a hot tub, barbecue, and lawn area looking out over the ocean, perfect for entertaining. This was going to work out just fine!  

                                                           A Hot Tub With A View                                                                                                                                                                                         

Butterfly Beach In Santa Barbara

Charming State Street With Lots Of Wonderful Restaurants!

In between getting ready for the party, other graduation events, a couple walks on the beach, and of course eating lots and lots of delicious food (one of our favorite activities in SB), we were even able to get in a round of golf at the local municipal golf course, Santa Barbara Golf Club, where Gillian joined us for nine holes before rushing off to something else more exciting then playing golf with her parents. This course is a great one for beginner golfers like me, as well as for the more advanced players, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to play!

LET THE PARTY BEGIN!

My other daughter Whitney and her boyfriend drove up from Los Angeles two days before graduation, as did my son Van a day later, which made for a special couple of days.  Van is an excellent cook so I put him to work along with Whitney and Scott preparing for the big party. Poor Whitney had broken her foot a couple of weeks earlier so she was wearing a boot cast and couldn’t stand long, so we put her to work sitting at the counter chopping and dicing up onions, garlic, and tomatoes for the salsa, and guacamole, and Van was hard at work cooking hundreds of tiny meatballs. Mark and Scott, the non-cooks, were sent to the market to pick up miscellaneous items we needed and ended up calling home several times, as not only do they not know how to cook, it seems they really didn’t know how to shop either! So much fun preparing for the party all together in our Santa Barbara home. Couldn’t do this in a hotel room!

Graduate and Family

Friends Enjoying The Evening

Graduation day was beautiful, and after the ceremony we headed back to the house to get ready for the party. The graduates and all of their friends and family had a great time, the food was plentiful, the beer was flowing, and conversation and good friends were in abundance. By 9:00 the kids had left for other parties, keg in hand, leaving us to clean up, which I worried more about then anything else, as I wanted to be sure that our temporary home was left in the same condition as when we had arrived. Nina had turned out to be an excessively organized housekeeper, with lists of directions left throughout the house for me, and I just hoped that I could remember to put everything back in their correct places, cleaned and organized the way she liked. I think I was successful, and by 11:00 I was in bed, exhausted, but very happy to have been able to provide Gillian a special graduation party in a lovely home.

A Beautiful Spot For A Party!

FINAL GOODBYE TO OUR FAVORITE TOWN

It had been a wonderful four years for Gillian, as well as for us in Santa Barbara, and by being able to spend our last week there in our “own” home, having my family all together and getting to know Santa Barbara even more in depth made for a great week, and actually made me want to come back some time in the future and look for our own home to buy. That is one of the problems of successful exchanges, I always want to stay! On Sunday we helped Gillian pack up a U-haul truck full of four years of memories and furniture and she and I drove it back to Sacramento while Mark flew the plane back home by himself. It was a sad good bye to a city loved by all, but Gillian was on to new adventures and we were looking forward to some more exciting exchanges (and saving lots more money)!

UCSB - Not A Bad Place To Spend Four Years!

Next Exchange - A Historic Carmel Cottage