Digsville.com web site promotes home exchange

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Home and hospitality exchange — or travel whereby two homeowners anywhere in the world swap homes or hospitality for an agreed amount of time — is one of the world’s fastest growing forms of vacation travel. And to make it easier for home and hospitality exchangers to find one another, digsville.com, a subscription-based online home exchange and hospitality service, helps first-time exchangers and old pros alike find the digs of their dreams.

In 1998, Helen Bergstein, founder and president of digsville.com, was invited to become a participating company in the Technology Ventures Incubator at Stevens Institute of Technology. Cultivated and primed by the incubator, the home and hospitality exchange web site launched Jan. 1 of this year and has acquired more than 700 new members on six continents. Registration is free and in the near future, listing a home on the site will require a fee of $35 annually. This fee will be implemented after the database of home listings has reached a significant number; for now it is still free to list a home.

Bergstein grew up in the 1960s when this form of travel was first popularized among academia. Educators of the time recognized the tremendous benefits of traveling the world in a unique way. With a thirst for culture and summers free, they learned (and taught their children) the history of the world, first hand. Since that time, the concept of home and hospitality exchange has gained global acceptance within many professions and grows at an annual rate of 20 percent, reaching more than 2 million people worldwide by the year 2010.

Bergstein and her family continue to travel and exchange homes with families all over the world. More recently though, she has opted for swapping homes more close to home.

"We’ve exchanged our apartment in Hoboken for a seaside cottage in Avon-By-The-Sea," Bergstein says. "We’ve gone skiing in upstate New York, and, come July, we’re heading for the Montreal JazzFest while the family from Canada will be staying in Hoboken."

Bergstein’s exposure to the benefits of home and hospitality exchange, as well as her graphic arts and advertising expertise, have brought about a web site that unites academia and other travel-hungry surfers for home and hospitality exchange.

Comparing digsville.com to other sites offering similar services on the Web, in April, the Sunday Times of London said of the site, "Digsville.com is also heavily America-oriented, but it’s a more attractive site, with a retro-hippy feel and a good attitude."

Featuring such items as listings, message boards, a virtual lounge and a place to write about hometowns, digsville.com is a user-friendly atmosphere awaiting travelers from all walks of life who are ready to swap a home or a lifestyle and share a dream.

"We at digsville.com believe that everyone lives somewhere of interest to someone else," Bergstein says. "Whether it’s a minor league baseball field or a major landmark, someone is interested in living where you live and seeing what you see."

Bergstein also says first-time swappers often exchange their secondary homes as well as their primary homes.

Digsville.com and totalwoman.com recently signed a strategic alliance, with an anticipated 20 million page-view-per-month activity. Visit the web site at digsville.com,  or contact Helen Bergstein at helen@digsville.com or at (201) 795-5002.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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