G'day from Auckland, New Zealand! Quick question from a newbie...

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G’day fellow HomeExchangers,

I’m Paul from Auckland, New Zealand, and I have just joined HomeExchange. My wife and I live on a 13-acre rural block only about 24mins drive south of Auckland Airport (a great location to start or finish your Kiwi holiday from!). We are now empty nesters; our three daughters have now grown up and moved on and out, and my wife and I are looking to doing more travel.

We have a great self-contained 1 bedroom apartment built on the side of our main house that we’d love to share with others, and in exchange, we’re keen to see the world—starting with Italy within the next 12 months or so. We’ve been on AirBnB for 12+ years (as travelers we have built up a large number of credible positive reviews on AirBnB from our hosts that we’re happy to share), but this will be our first time hosting.

So how do newbies start getting traction on the HE site? Can you help answer?:

  1. Should I first focus on encouraging HE members to stay at our apartment to build up our profile?
    (a) Here’s a link to our newly created HE listing if you’re interested: Private Country Escape - King Bed - in Karaka, Auckland, New Zealand
    (b) I’d love to get your feedback and any ideas to improve the listing.
  2. Or should we first start using some of the 1300 guest points we already have to build up a profile on the site? (From what I’ve read, this might be difficult given we have no established profile yet on the site. Hence, I understand that hosts may be more reluctant to host us VS experienced HE members?)

So, I’m not sure what to focus on first. Any tips or ideas for first-timers like us would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul

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The options are not mutually exclusive. You could try both at the same time and see how it goes. :slightly_smiling_face:
What you can also do, is make a topic here about your search, and, if you are on Facebook, on Facebook, too.

And when you’re searching on the site, use the reversed search function in the filters and filter out members who’d like to go to Auckland and/or New Zealand.

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Firstly welcome to HomeExchange and to our Forum :slight_smile: You’re profile is great - lots of great photos and a detailed description. Maybe you could add a few images of the local area too? I would suggest doing both of your options at the same time. Build up some GuestPoints and gain some reviews as a host, and also start your search for some trips for you to enjoy too. The more reviews as a host and guest the easier it will be to find future exchanges.

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Many thanks Trenke. I’ll give the reverse search idea a try - much appreciated. Regards, Paul

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Hi Melissa, thanks for taking the time to reply and review our profile. I appreciate your input. We’ll definitely add some photos of the local area as per your advice.

Take care, Paul.

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Hi from another Kiwi. Your place looks great but for me I would consider buying a coffee machine as you are out in the country and not walking distances to cafes. It would actually be a deal breaker for me. Hope that helps.

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Thanks Pencarrow2


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Fair point. You sound like a coffee aficionado?:blush: I never contemplated this being a deal-breaker for guests until now.

We do actually have a great cafe for coffee about three minutes’ drive down the road, but we will investigate a coffee machine as well.

Thanks again,

Paul

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Or maybe just a cafetierre would be sufficient - and not sure a big outlay for you if you don’t ever drink coffee yourself.