House exchange site has Pepperell roots

By Nancy Shohet West, Globe Correspondent  |  November 27, 2008

Ursula Godwin Niesmann, who was raised in Switzerland and now lives in Germany, first visited New England in the mid-1980s. And to this day, a big house in Pepperell whose residents welcomed her here best represents what she loves about this country.

So when she started an online house exchange business in January 2007, she named it after that address. Would-be travelers from all over the globe can now go to www.jewettstreet.com to find a home in which to spend their vacation. The site, which has about 1,100 listings, was recently awarded the title of "Exchange Queen's Treasure of the Month" by KnowYourTrade.com, a website dedicated to the industry of home exchange.

Niesmann said recently that the faltering global economy has not had the impact on her business that she expected. With a dramatic drop in disposable income, many people might be opting out of vacations and travel, but "what has been interesting to watch on my site is that people are not ready to give up on traveling," she said. "Travelers who might not have considered this before are now discovering that home exchange is an alternative that helps them save money instead of spending."

Niesmann is also seeing home-exchangers stay closer to home. "Why not?" she said. "That keeps travel costs down even further and there is so much to discover in your own backyard. This happens all over the world."

Niesmann, who is Swiss, was a flight attendant when she met her first husband, Joseph Godwin of Pepperell. She fell in love "not just with him," she recounted recently, but with New England; with his intellectual, art-collecting parents, Charles and Margaret Godwin; and with the community of artists and intellectuals in which they circulated.

Eventually, the couple moved into the studio house at the family's Pepperell estate, a small guest house that contained a studio for Joseph, who is a designer of ceramics. The estate also included her in-laws' home and Godwin Gallery, specializing in 19th- and early 20th-century American paintings.

"It was a very interesting place to be because there were always a lot of friends around who were interested in art, either as artists or collectors," Niesmann recalled. "The Godwin family also had a very strong interest in American history, and through their great knowledge I developed a strong sense of what America is."

Niesmann and Joseph Godwin eventually divorced and she married a German national, Patrik Niesmann. But she still saw her former in-laws as her "extended American family" and had a yearning to return to New England with her second husband and two young children.

She did not want to stay in a hotel, having had her share of those anonymous accommodations as a business traveler. So she started looking for house exchanges online.

"We found a couple with a beautiful contemporary home in New Hampshire who were interested in exchanging with us," she said. "Home exchange creates a very different experience from just going to a place to look at the sights. It makes me feel so much more connected with people and places when I travel."

In fact, she said, the more she learned about it, the more tempted she felt to start her own business. Her husband, a software engineer, helped her set it up.

Trying to come up with a name, she discovered that all the obvious choices were already taken. But she had recently learned that the Pepperell home she was so fond of was up for sale, following her former father-in-law's death. "Naming my site after that address seemed like a way to pay homage to the Godwin family and to New England," she said.

People who want to take part in a house exchange through JewettStreet.com begin by registering with the site and paying a yearly membership of $59.95. In its second year, the site's membership includes more than 2,000 people in 65 countries. Would-be travelers can choose from town houses, condominiums, rural cottages, and sprawling estates all over the world.

This is a strong response for a homegrown business whose competitors include older outfits such as US-based ExchangeHomes.com, which has some 1,100 listings; and London's Home Base Holidays, with 1,900 listings. Some companies specialize in just one region, such as Aussie House Swap, and others are theme-based, like Green Theme International Home Exchange, a Florida-based outfit with a goal "to promote home exchange as an environmentally friendly mode of travel."

For June Bowser-Barrett, a professor at Middlesex Community College, a house exchange through JewettStreet.com provided the perfect way for her to pursue her love of travel. After listing her Lowell home as an exchange option, she heard from several families in Ireland who were interested in visiting Massachusetts. She has also been contacted by a family in Germany about exchanging with her next summer.

Niesmann said she has observed that many travelers are looking for a change of lifestyle more than a change of culture. "People in metropolitan areas want to go to the country. New Yorkers want to go to Cape Cod or the Berkshires. People in San Francisco head to the countryside in British Columbia," she said. "But there are also people traveling internationally between big cities. We have New Yorkers visiting Paris or London, and lots of Europeans going to New York City, which is in fact our most popular destination."

Chase Binder of Bow, N.H., traveled with her brother on a house exchange to a small town in the Netherlands last year. The homeowners left detailed information about favorite restaurants, public transportation, and local highlights. They also offered use of their car and bicycles. In return, the Dutch family stayed at her brother's home in Vermont last winter.

When friends ask her about the house swap, Binder concedes that it's not to everyone's taste. "Some people get freaked out by the thought of strangers messing with their stuff or sleeping in their bed. If that's how you see it, then it probably isn't a good plan for you."

But in general, a system of trust and honor prevails. When Bowser-Barrett's family members asked her about the wisdom of allowing strangers to stay in her home, she pointed out that there is an implicit bargain struck in every house exchange.

"It's a mutual thing," she said. "I can assume that they wouldn't do anything to my house that they wouldn't want done to their house."

Nancy Shohet West can be reached at nancyswest(at)msn.com. 

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