I suggest that it should be possible to donate GP’s to other members of Home Exchange who are in need for extra GP’s for their exchanges.
I completely disagree!,Having points to exchange shows that a member has received guests at his home. Not having point shows that a member hasn’ invited guests. I exchange with members who have exchanged themselves.
No for me too. Otherwise some members would never host and will rely on some second homes from their parents etc to earn gp
I have found GP impossible to spend.
Last October I wanted to use them to get a place ANYWHERE in the NYC five boroughs. Thats a population of 6 million people. Myself and my wife. 1 room needed with either a double or twin beds. 2, 3 or 4 nights. I was super flexible.
Wrote to 20 people offerd them any number they wanted. Nobody was interested. Ended up paying $800 for a hotel for 4 nights in midtown manhatten
New York is the most requested city on earth. It’s just 2,000 members while there are 10x times more in Paris for example. They receive 10 requests per day and can choose who they want easily or do only reciprocal exchanges. It often needs hundreds of requests to find an exchange in New York. Try easy destination like France or Spain and you will find faster in theory cause it covers 60% of all HE members
Then HOME EXCHANGE need to spend some money on marketing pointing out to New Yorkers that they can exchange their tiny little apartments for a Swiss Ski Chalet or London Mews House in Knightsbridge and change the supply and demand ratio. It’s not rocket science.
My wife and I had our 25th Wedding anniversary in Niagara Falls and needed to stay in New York for 4 nights. The solution is not to try to spend those 4 days in France or Spain or Iceland. It is to make it clear to New Yorkers that they can get a fabulous swap for their tiny little apartment BECAUSE of the high demand for it. Supply increases demand reduces.
Hello Greg,
Happy anniversary ![]()
I do agree with doing marketing to some wanted places in the world as Asia where there are a few listings compared to US or Europe.
However NYC is a tricky one as some buildings or tenants have strict rules.
For example : A friend of mine was forbidden to receive his girlfriend (now his wife) in his studio placed in Manhattan.
He obviously had no right to sublet or lend. A concierge was here to report.
Moreover if you live in NYC now , it means that you earn quite a high salary and to pay a hotel elsewhere is peanuts for a new yorker.
This is why it is recommanded to send requests to listings which are in the suburb with public transport to visit Manhattan.
Hello Susan ,
Maybe the idea of andersmichaeljensen could be improved by limiting the donation to a single time and only to people who are sponsored.
So the member (sponsor) would give only to serious prospect (sponsored).
I was thinking to members who want to give to their family.
New York is a complicated destination not only because of the limited offer, but also because Americans, in general, have few vacation days throughout the year, nothing comparable to Europeans. And many of them prefer to travel within their own country or to the Caribbean rather than take transatlantic flights. On the other hand, the way HE values apartments gives them few points, since they tend to be small in size, even though they cost a fortune. So they many times prefer reciprocal home swaps.
I can’t complain, because we’ve already been to New York three times through home exchanges in the last decade.
But each time it was long-term exchanges (almost the entire month on all three occasions). On one of them, we stayed in Hoboken, New Jersey, which is very well connected to Manhattan via the Path train. In the other two, we stayed near Central Park.
In all three cases, they were reciprocal exchanges. I think they don’t need using GP: they simply choose the ones they like best from the thousands of requests they receive.
One of the families mentioned the same thing as @Nathalie1: there are many housing communities that prohibit it, specially short stays.
So it’s not impossible to get it, as long as you have flexibility in dates and the duration of your stay. That being said, I also think that HE should work harder to develop communication and marketing strategies to increase the number of homes across America and Asia, especially now that they’ve raised the subscription price much more than inflation!
When I said New York I meant the five boroughs. Staying on Manhattan island is a pipedream, I would expect, unless you’re offering a £5m home in Monaco or London.
Greg_Maidstone Hello,
I was visiting our friends (the ones who could not sleep together in Manhattan) this summer.
Now they live in a house in a nice borough near the beach and 30 minutes by train from central station.
And the first thing they said is that nobody would be interested in exchanging at New Rochelle.
Prejudices are hard to fight.
They get a lot of requests. I always suggest people try CT and NJ on the transit lines. Brooklyn and queens are also more likely then manhattan. In the end that isn’t bad for a hotel in midtown.
I am on the fence on donating guest points but would say transfering less than x points to another member (rather than the purchase of points) would probably be fine. The other case is if the solidarity exchange were to accept gifts of points to increase the value of these emergency exchanges should someone need an exchange in an emergency. I am not sure how many solidarity exchanges really happen when the host gets 500 per exchange for an exchange up to 1 month. However sometimes people say they have lots of extra points.