Hi there! I joined HE last summer in the hopes of being able to travel the world with my large family (6 of us) within a budget. Since then, I’ve opened my home in Chicago to four exchangers and received 5 star reviews. I’m now planning a month-long trip to Italy next summer and am getting repeatedly rejected all over the country, despite requesting open green days on the hosts’ calendars. We’re a nice professional couple with four elementary/teen kids, easily searchable on the web for proof.
What am I doing wrong? I’m just starting to feel like I wasted my time and money by allowing folks to stay in my home for free, and am not getting the benefit of the service in return.
Thanks for any feedback you have to boost my chances!
It can be for many reasons that your requests get rejected. Itlay is very popular in the summer.
Many times, calendars in green mean that people theoretically are open for guests for guest points, but prefer mutual swaps. Maybe you are asking for too short a period, maybe your requests aren’t personalised enough, maybe the potential host doesn’t think you’d be a proper fit for them, despite your 5 star reviews, maybe you are too set om specific dates and locations … Have a look if you can change any of these factors.
Guest points aren’t the same as money. If you go to sites where hosts get money for your stay, they will almost always say yes, no questions asked. But with HomeExchange, you are asking someone to stay in their home. Then it becomes more like a dating site.
You may have more luck if you only try secondary homes, for they often have more availabilty than primary homes.
Italy is a very popular destination.
All the world wants to go there.
So they receive a lot of requests and they accept only a few.
Moreover, many italian people rent their home.
You can do a reverse search to see who is interested in coming to the USA.
In doing a search from 1 - 13 july to see who wants to come in Chicago, there are 3 listings and who wants to come to the USA , there are 28 listings.
Other tip :
Sicily is very hot in summer. We stayed in August in Palermo and it was so hot that it was impossible to go out before 6 pm.
The north is cooler.
If you are trying Rome, Florence, Venice or the Sorrento-Amalfi coast by GuestPoints in summer, you need to pray for a miracle! I tried these places in the past for April and didn’t manage. Most second homes are on Airbnb or Booking.com. They expect us to go in January/February!
We had the same issue in October for Italy. We wound up in Piambino and hotels for the rest of the stay. First we were asking too early and then everyone was busy. Our eventual host was a very nice guy and we were in a sea cottage about a block from the beach. It wasn’t our ideal location for traveling but we it worked. Try some outlying areas, the cities are overrated in some respects and the food is excellent everywhere.
I’m definitely finding this to be the case! I just don’t understand why the calendars are open for GP exchange. It’s a waste of time for everyone!
Have you tried searching for homes that are available only for Guest-Points instead of green for “all types of exchanges”?
In my opinion, the chances of finding a host who will accept a Guest-point request is greater when the host has colored their calendar blue for seeking GP-only guests.
I tried a search in Italy for one month in July or August for Guest Points and the result is 52 available homes.
