I have some extra rooms that I have rented in the past, but tire of
having the same bodies about for extended time.  I would like to rent
rooms or small apartments to people, or even trade time "swap" for a
place to stay in other parts of the country or world.  I have a
paticular interest in meeting artists and would accept works of art
for a short stay.  My location is outside Los Angeles.  Are there
organizations or cooperatives that arrange this sort of thing?  How do
you protect yourself from those who may destroy or steal?  Are there a
secure methods or groups that exist to facilitate this kind of thing? 
I am not interested in setting up a commercial Bed and Breakfast
business, but would like to know if there are other more
non-commercial approaches.

---

Clarification of Question by dektol-ga on 09 Dec 2004 12:53 PST

Informative comment!  Thanks for your input.

Hi dektol
 
The search terms you need is : Home exchange

There is quite a few  organizations or clubs which arrange  home swaps:

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Home+exchange&btnG=Google+Search

You may combine these search  terms with part of the  world you are interested in

such as : Home exchange, Italy

Those which are regional are safer, as many of their members are
repeat traveleres, known to the organizer,  but most (all I looked at)
will make you to sign a statement that they are not liable in case of
problem.
With home exchange you get more variety than with the Community sites,
such as Craigs List, which (so far) are unknown outside  of USA.
Most exchange clubs charge a membership fee for listing (to the owner,
not to renters) and quite a few allow mixing of  rentals, particular
of vacation properties, with swaps. (In case of rentals, renter pays,
swaps are basically a barter.) Some swaps are 'simultaneous' some
involve vacation homes and so do not have to be 'simultaneous'.

This mixing with rentals (in this subculture) is generaly considered
underhanded, as you see on this example:

"...We guarantee all our listings are CURRENT memberships (check the
published expiration dates). We DO NOT "pad" our figures by publishing
old, expired listings, nor do we "pad" our database with listings that
are purely rentals. We have a completely separate rental site at
VHURentals.com..."
http://www.exchangehomes.com/
 
  but many tolerate a mix. Some cater to special groups, teachers,
retired people, some are old and large, some you will decide to drop.
Many try to promise more then they can deliver (since membership fee
is generaly not refundable) but you just need to find one, or few
which is solid and honest.

It is fun, if you want meet number of new people, can handle the risk,
and short stays. If you are near Disney or such, you will have number
of interested people for sure.
It works, mostly (but do remember 'we are not liable'  :-) Store
valuable  and irreplaceable items somewhere.

Hedgie

Thanks

Sounds like www.craigslist.org is the site you need.  This is a
community based site that has free listings for people selling,
buying, bartering and all other manner of community interaction.  The
site is divided by locale, and within each locale, the site is further
arranged according to areas of interest.  You would be most likely
served well by the "housing" links for your area, specifically the
areas that advertise short stay arrangements and swaps.  As to
bartering for art pieces, Craig's list also can serve that need; there
is a bartering section there, but you could also list that option
under the ad you place in the housing section. Craig's list is an
excellent site and has a LOT of people using it.

Another thing you might be willing to do is advertise your place with
local colleges -- students often only need a place to stay for the
semester and have a hard time finding such short term arrangements. 
You could specify a desire for a student in art, thus fulfill your
desire to collect while providing a service.

Also a possibility is to approach local art galleries and offer your
place up as a short term stay for visiting/exhibiting artists from out
of town in exchange for artwork.  You might even consider contacting
art communities online to get the word around with the artist
community.

As to protecting yourself against theft or destruction, the most you
can do is interview, get referrals and recommendations, and impose a
security deposit to be returned after a successful (ie: non-damaging,
non-theft) stay.  If you are going to effect a swap, you could have a
friend check on your property during your absence to verify that all's
going well while you are gone or you could have a hired housekeeper
that has keys to the place that can check up on the state of things
and report back to you if something's awry.

Even big-time landlords take their chances on tenants when they rent;
that's what they do, and that's all anybody can do.

Twas an excellent answer, to be sure, but one correction: Craig's list
is well known outside of the US - one visit to their page and you can
see listings for such cities as Paris, Amsterdam, London, Manchester,
Dublin, Melbourne, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Edinburgh, a lot of Canada,
Tokyo, Singapore, and Bangalore. :-)