Kevin Hilgers, President of Rotary Fellowship for Home Exchange
Our guest speaker for April 2, 2026 was Kevin Hilgers, Past District Governor, District 5370. Kevin has been a Rotarian since 1997. He is currently a member of the Victoria, BC, Harborside club. Kevin worked for many years as a radio show host in Western Canada. He is also an entrepreneur with rental properties in Victoria. Kevin is currently the president of Rotary Fellowship for Home Exchange, which was the topic of his presentation.
Rotary Fellowships are international groups that share a common passion; a fun way to make friends around the world, explore hobbies or professions, and enhance your Rotary experience. Take a look at Rotary.org/fellowships to see over 100 fellowships (including beer, whiskey. and curling fellowships). The Rotary Fellowship for Home Exchange allows Rotarians interested in home exchange to meet each other, talk about interesting home exchange experiences, and exchange information. The benefits of home exchange include maximizing your travel budget, experiencing community with locals in other areas around the world, contributing to a more sustainable world, and developing friendships using a trusted way to share homes. The Fellowship partners with People Like Us (PLU) to facilitate home exchange. PLU connects members with thousands of like-minded people to exchange homes with and provides the option of filtering to other Rotarians. Its website allows you to search for homes by destination and filter for specific types of home, number of bedrooms, and suitability for children and pets. PLU also helps you list your own home, reach out for exchange partners, learn how to get to know your exchange partner, discovery how to do simultaneous or “non” simultaneous exchanges, and develop best practices for peace of mind and confidence. One of Kevin’s best practices is to set up a Zoom meeting in advance of the visit with people whose homes he will be visiting or with people who will be visiting his home; he always gets to know them before the exchange takes place.
Kevin related a wonderful experience he and his wife had while doing an exchange in a home in the Netherlands. Cycling is big there and the owners had e-bikes and allowed Kevin and his wife to use them. The owner recommended that they bike to his hometown 14 km away. He told Kevin that the Canadian army had liberated his hometown towards the end of World War 2 and that Canadian soldiers stayed in that home for a time. It was a moving experience for both Kevin and owner. As Kevin said, this is the type of experience you can’t have on the 18th floor of a hotel in downtown San Diego.
Many thanks to Kevin for the excellent presentation. We hope you have many great exchanging experiences!
