What is SabbaticalHomes.com?

SabbaticalHomes.com was founded in 2000 by the spouse of an academic devoted to serving the academic community worldwide. It is the leading internet-based directory for academic home exchanges, home rentals and house sitting opportunities, facilitating sabbatical home matches across the globe.

Our specialized housing service has published over 45,000 requests from homeowners and tenants and continues to grow each day.

SabbaticalHomes.com has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education (US edition). The Guardian (United Kingdom) wrote, "ideal for anyone involved in research trips or exchange projects." Hundreds of academic web sites link to us and refer to us as a valuable and efficient resource. We are thankful to have grown primarily through word of mouth. More than a third of our members come recommended from previous users.

SabbaticalHomes.com is a privately owned company run by a team of multinational individuals. We are located in Manhattan Beach, California.

We offer a worldwide home and tenant listing service for those temporarily offering or searching for accommodations for rent, exchange, or house sitting.

Registered members can save their searches, track email queries they receive, keep a list of the postings they are interested in, and see how many times their own listing is viewed.

Our mission is to serve academics worldwide who temporarily need to offer or search for accommodations for rent, exchange, or house sitting. Non-academics are also welcome to use our service if they prefer to deal with scholars.

There are four categories of academics at SabbaticalHomes.com

Academic Title	Email Verification
1. Academic Faculty or Staff (Universities, Research Institutes, and Museums) 2. Graduate or Post-Graduate Student	Must have a current university, research institute, museum or hospital email address
3. School Teacher (Primary and Secondary)	Must have a current school email address
4. Independent Scholar (working outside traditional academia)	None

If you are not sure which category fits your current status, please contact us.

Why register?

Once you are registered, only information you choose to share will be listed on the website. Sabbaticalhomes.com publishes only the following information about you: your alias, your academic status, how long you have been a member, how many matches you have successfully made through our website, whether you have contributed a donation to our site, as well as any feedback about you and your properties from other members.

At Sabbaticalhomes.com we do not share your email address with anyone. Your email is not listed on your rental posting. You control whether to reply to inquiries, and hence whether you would like to share your email address. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

There is no charge to register. Setup fees apply only when you post a listing.

It is free to search the SabbaticalHomes.com site. There is a nominal set-up fee (see below) for posting a home or home wanted. Listings are good for 14 months and are renewable.

Our philosophy is to keep our fees to a minimum. If a match results from using our site, a success-based contribution is expected to help the service grow and improve. We are able to keep our fees low as a result of these donations. The amount of the contribution is up to the individual, but we recommend US $50-$100.

Service	Setup & renewable fees every 14 months in US $	Recommended success-based contribution	How it works
Post a home offered home to rent home exchange home to sit	$35 academic rate $55 non-academic rate	$50 - $100	Members pay a set-up fee to post an available home. A listing can be a property for exchange, rent or house sitting. Listings can also be posted for requesting a home in one of those categories. If a suitable arrangement results from using SabbaticalHomes, a voluntary contribution is expected to help the service improve.
Post a home wanted house to rent house to sit	$0 academic rate $15 non-academic rate
Search for listings & reply to offers	FREE

Academics  We consider an academic to be a person whose email comes from a university, a college, a research center etc..  Academics not belonging to a main stream academic organization can sign up as non-affiliated academic or should contact us to inquire if they qualify for the academic rate.

Commercial or Institutional Listings If you have more than three units to rent at the same property address, please contact us for pricing. If you are an agent or broker, please contact us for permission prior to posting.

How do I pay for a listing?

SabbaticalHomes.com accepts credit card payments via Paypal or payments by check. Once you have submitted your listing, you will be prompted to choose between a credit card payment or a payment by check. Listings will be available immediately. Most currencies are accepted. International rates may vary.

What if I want to list more than two properties?

SabbaticalHomes.com realizes that some commercial/institutional listings may benefit our users. If you have more than two properties to submit, contact us for additional details.

Can I edit my post once it is posted?

Yes, you can edit your post at any time. In fact, we encourage you to update your listing every couple of months. It is important to keep your availability dates current. You can upload new pictures or modify your description at any time. To edit your listing, log in to your account; click on My Listings, then choose a change option. When you are finished just hit ‘Save Changes’ and you’re all done.

What information can be included in a listing?

1. A detailed description
2. Availability requests dates
3. Photos (10) - home listings only
4. Links (5) to relevant web sites
5. Up to three preferred exchange destinations (home-exchange listings only)
6. Exposure until obsolete (up to 14 months after submission date)
7. Date listing was last updated
8. Option to renew

The purpose of the feedback feature is to share fair and useful information. Our members are welcome to post feedback about other members they have dealt with or properties they have rented. Feedback comments are visible in members’ profiles. To read a member’s feedback, look for the feedback link at the bottom of each page next to the member’s name. To leave feedback, log into your account and follow the feedback link.

Who should send a contribution and why?

Anyone who was successful either finding a tenant or a home through SabbaticalHomes.com should send a contribution regardless if they posted a listing or not. Our goal is to keep our fees low in contrast to commercial housing resources and to stay away from a typical commercial system. For example, you will not see commercial advertising on our site. By keeping our fees low through contributions, the service can continue paying for itself and investing in improvements. We feel that members who benefit should voluntarily support SabbaticalHomes.com. This equitable system depends upon your generosity. In the long run, it benefits you and everyone who uses SabbaticalHomes.com.

Sabbaticalhomes.com is dedicated to serving the academic community and its housing needs. We do not charge high prices like many commercial housing resources. It makes good sense to support sabbaticalhomes.com. We strive to keep our fees low and our prices are much lower than commercial housing resources. There is no commercial advertising on our site.

How do I send my success-based contribution?

Let us know what happened! We love to hear about success stories in our member community. Success-based contributions can be made via Paypal at our Success-Based Contribution link, or by check payable to SabbaticalHomes.com sent to:

SabbaticalHomes.com
P.O. Box 2016
Manhattan Beach, CA
90267 USA

• Jay Conger for his encouragement and support.
• Carolyn Johnston for constant advice especially in communications.
• Steven Endow for numerous hours sharing his technical genius.
• Constantin Philippou, our trusted webmaster and web advisor, for improving our web site.
• Leanne Huebner for invaluable professional tips.
• Scott Carlson for putting SabbaticalHomes.com on the academic world map.
• David and Sue Finegold, Steve Lampert, Dick Johnston, Frederi Viens, Dicky Downing, Ian and Donna Mitroff, Kevin Moon, Mireille Miller, Peta Tancred for their insights and help.
• Hundreds of listers for offering constructive feedback on service and design.
• Thousands of academics worldwide who have made financial contributions to help pay for the cost of launching and developing this much needed service.
• Thousands who help spread the word every day.