✅ Did you know? A green calendar doesn't mean an automatic yes!

Hello everyone!

Today I just wanted to give you a quick reminder about the calendar, especially for newbies who don’t have much experience with HomeExchange and home exchanging yet.

When you’re new to home exchange, you sometimes tend to think that staying with a home exchange is like looking for a rental: you look at the dates in the person’s calendar, they’re available, so you assume that your request will be accepted automatically.

But that’s not actually how it works on HomeExchange!
Each HomeExchange member remains free to decide whether or not they would like to host another member.

Why?
When renting, you pay for a service. With HomeExchange, we rely on the hospitality of another member, who shares their home for free financially (and trusts us to take care of it).

A member who refuses our exchange proposal when their calendar is available may do so for a variety of reasons, some of them could be pragmatic (his or her dates are not available after all, he or she is already finalizing an exchange with another member, etc.).

But as home exchange is based above all on human experiences, a member who refuses your exchange request may also do so for more subjective reasons: he or she may find your message too brief, too direct, not enough of this, or too much of that so that they don’t get the right feeling. It may also happen that, again for subjective reasons, they don’t feel comfortable with your profile (perhaps they don’t find it complete enough, or are suspicious of the lack of comments on your profile, etc.). It happens, and it’s perfectly human (we all have certain criteria for welcoming members into our homes - and it’s our right).

So that’s why it’s usually necessary to contact several members before getting the famous “yes” to our exchange proposals. Because each member has their own criteria, their own feelings, their own needs. So let’s respect that, and avoid taking rejections personally 😊 Let’s put our sensitivities aside, rejections are part of the home exchange game.

That said, here’s some advice when sending exchange requests and completing your profile: avoid telegraphic messages, try to personalize your messages, introduce yourself, and why you’d like to stay at that member’s home. It’s all this that makes the “yes” you’re looking for, and the stay itself, so magical - because it all started with a simple message to a person you didn’t know at the outset.

Our team is here for you!
If you’re just starting out, or if you’re having trouble finding an exchange, don’t forget that HomeExchange is here to help you: you can contact our super ambassadors on the online chat, or get in touch with our member support team. And, of course, ask all the questions you want in this (wonderful) group!

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Yes it’s very true. We have only hosted three times totaling nine days but have yet to find a Home exchange for when we are traveling. I just found the forums so I will be doing some reading here then maybe we will post about our next trip and see if it works better than contacting someone out of the blue. I hope to figure out how to exchange as the concept has always been very interesting to me. :crossed_fingers:

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Oh no I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble using your points !

Some tricks that I like to use are to use the filter “GuestPoint exchange” to find people specifically looking to host for GuestPoints and to filter for secondary homes as there’s a higher chance that it’ll be available :wink:

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Thank you for the tips! I will definitely try

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It might be the area you are trying to go??? I tried everything but a singing telegram and could get NO one to say yes to us in Amsterdam, even in the off season. I’ve had great success in the US. Tried Toronto area in January. 4 tries, 1 lovely no with brief explanation, 3 rounds of crickets for the others. I will keep trying and I hope you will too.

Be prepared to be flexible cast a wide net when requesting exchanges.

Hi, I’m newbie on HE, I’ve hosted one couple at the moment what wasn’t a great experience as they smoked inside my place. And I also had stayed at ppls home twice now. What I can see is that some hosts are using HE to advertise their place on Airbnb. I’m going on holiday to Rio in October, and I’ve messaged so many hosts that have their calendar open for the dates I need and accept PE. Some have replied with a No (but their calendar and dates are still open) some didn’t say anything yet. But, some has the link of their listing on Airbnb - would it be a way to say “hey, if you really like my place, you can book it through the Airbnb website” what’s your thoughts on it please?

That’s forbidden and you need to report it to the staff please

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I understand but I also don’t feel comfortable doing that. I think the platform should have an external link sensitivity so it’d not happen. When I joined HE, I want to say in the description that I’m an experienced host and also guest as I running two Airbnbs for over 8 years, so ppl would be a bit more comfortable accepting my HE request, and I scared to be blocked just for write the word “airbnb”, because I thought the algorithm would recognise the word. :face_with_diagonal_mouth:
So if it’s a forbidden action, it’s also about the platform to change it and block external links.

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It’s not automatic but the staff won’t know if you don’t report it, there’s no scan of listings

I am very sorry to hear that you have not had a great first experience with Home Exchange. Your guests should not have smoked inside your home. Have you spoken with member support about this? Also it is not allowed to promote rentals on the platform. If you see this please can you report it by clicking on the ‘report and abuse’ link. You can of course mention on your listing that you are an experienced host with Airbnb, there is no problem with this, but you cannot put the link.