Can you recommend a website with a view to swapping my apartment in Spain for an apartment or villa in Florida next year? Kathi McClarence, via e-mail

Times Online family travel expert Chloe Bryan-Brown responds: Home exchange is an established way of keeping the cost of a family holiday down and there are several agencies that can help you. HomeLink is the best known and biggest with more than 13,000 home swappers signed up in 72 countries.

That's a lot of properties but the website is, nevertheless, straightforward with useful features such as a search facility for short notice swaps. There is an annual fee from £115 for listing your property on the website and in one edition of the HomeLink directory.

Cheaper options include Homebase Holidays, which is currently offering annual membership from £21 (£8 less than usual). Its website is also easy to use with last minute offers and a page for readers to post home exhange stories. Or try Green Theme International Home Exchange Travel. It costs from £25 to join for one year with listings for more than 30 properties available for exchange in Florida when I last looked.

You don't say in your e-mail whether your apartment in Spain is where you live or a second home. If it is the latter and available for year-round, non-simultaneous swaps, try International Vacation Home Exchange, which offers holiday accomodation exchanges using a points or credits system. It sounds rather complicated but, in a nutshell, your property is awarded credits based on its weekly rental value.

Credits are built up every time someone stays in your property which you can then use to stay in other members' holiday homes. There is no joining fee. Instead you pay the agency a fraction of the weekly rental value of the property you stay in. The agency is aimed at the top end of the market with sumptuous sounding properties in glamorous locations.

Including cars in the swap can keep the costs of your holiday down even further. But you must talk to your car insurers first. It is also recommended that you notify your home insurers. Most are happy that your house will be occupied while you are away, but will not pay for damage caused by exchange partners.

Got a question about family travel? Email our trio of experts at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk - Chloe Bryan-Brown takes care of questions for the 0-6 year olds, Emma Mahony handles the 7-12 age group and Jane Owen the teenage and single parent groups.

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