Last week, in the midst of dinner preparation time, a door-to-door salesman knocked at our front door. He was the second one within two days. This hadn’t happened in years and it reminded me of long forgotten times as a child, when traveling salesmen were a common sight in residential areas where I grew up in Switzerland. In the course of our 30-second conversation, he put his attention to two things mainly: He tried to get a glance at the inside of our home and gave the heirloom coral beaded necklace I wore an appraising look. I was perplexed. We live in one of the wealthiest areas of Germany, the country is in the middle of a deep recession, there are school holidays in Bavaria and all of a sudden traveling salesmen start to show up at doors again. Not during the day, but in the evening, when people who are not on vacation are more likely to be at home and therefore unoccupied residences are more noticeable. 
Maybe I overreacted and the traveling salesman was honestly trying to sell household products, but the thought of having home exchangers in our house while we will be on vacation the coming weeks made me feel much more comfortable.

Your home exchange guests make great house sitters and they can take care of your animal(s) and plants, too. What a fantastic deal!