Hi all! We are in the middle of a reciprocal exchange, but need to extend the stay by a few days, just on our end. The extra days will be 813 GPs, but we need to buy the points. HomeExchange is charging $1758 USD for this. Is this normal?? I wrote HE about it and their recommendation is to host more people in our home. That’s not an option at this point. Anyone dealt with something similar? We’re considering moving to a hotel instead, but we’d prefer to stay here! Thanks!
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you need to include your listing number - who knows maybe someone will help you by finalizing a guest point exchange. I might
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Hi Alessandra!
I don’t know how much needing to buy 813 GuestPoints costs but yes, GuestPoints can be expensive to purchase if you’re needing a huge bulk of it. The idea of home exchanging is to also host people in your home as well which will allow you to accumulate GuestPoints which you can use to travel with.
If you’re absolutely unable to host at this point, you could also receive some GuestPoints by referring your friends and family (more information on that here).
If you’re already on a reciprocal exchange maybe you could speak to your hosts. I’ve hosted guests for 10 days but I’d only stayed at theirs for 5. That’s the spirit of HE, I can’t imagine many members asking for points for a few extra days.
Points are expensive to discourage members from using them. it’s an exchange site, you exchange the points that you’ve been gifted by hosting people in your home. If you don’t have enough points and you can’t welcome guests to your home you’re a bit in the position that you’d be if you wanted to eat in a nice restaurant but had no money (happens to me often 
)
Communicate with your hosts about your wish to stay longer. Maybe you could offer them a second stay in your home at a different time, mow their lawn, or promise to do another guest point exchange with them at a later date when you have acquired points from exchanging.
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Thank you! I appreciate looking at it this way. I suppose we’ll try speaking with them about it. They’re currently in our primary home and only need a 2 week stay. However, we’re in their secondary home and need 3 weeks. Maybe we can work something out!
Thank you! We were able to do a reciprocal exchange for 2 weeks of the trip and had some points for a few of the extra days. It’s these last 3 that have created a problem! I’m going to see if I can refer some more people.
I just had a group leaving today who had their flight cancelled because of the hudge IT glitch at the airport.
They called me to know if the could stay longer and i said yes for free.
As far as we are concerned, we exchanged with many wonderful and generous people whom welcomed us above expectations.
It is a little bit sad your host can’t help you.
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That seems quite excessive for 813 GP POINTS… good advice from group members below​:+1:
… ps. Is that 4 extra days? The 813 GP POINTS ??? 
I would reach out to your hosts immediately. I would be surprised if they won’t accommodate you if their house is free on those dates. If not- I would look for a hotel. It might be a good experience to see a new area. Maybe a short trip to a destination nearby?
Of maybe an other HE home close by that will accept a non- simultaneous reciprocal or asks for less points.
Buying points must be for something exceptional or maybe you are just short of points to complete the exchange. GPs are expensive because the purchase is far from the HE concept.
Unfortunately, buying points has now monetized HomeExchange and this makes it more like rental platforms. It also changes how Home Owner Associations now view HE as just another short-term rental.
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Maybe your host could agree to get the missing points later on (I’m not sure if it’s ok to ask for this, but at least I would not want my guests to buy expensive points from HE).
Hi, it happens to me and I had to give my host -50% points discount that means I have reduce points on my house…
Hi everyone, I am Pat.
I am very certain there has been an increase in the cost of guest points.
In February of this year my extra guest points cost like 25 cents each. Now they are closer to $1.50-2.00 each!
The price increase, which seems high, was confirmed by a support person at HE.
I totally understand the policy of “exchange” vs “pay a really inexpensive price for a place to stay”
It was also recommended that I garner more guest points by doing all of things that I usually do:
contact people who love my tiny apartment in Istanbul
refer friends to Istanbul to earn GP
contact people who are only interested in reciprocal exchanges - offering non-simultaneous exchanges
I never thought about doing the forum before support recommended it (I didn’t even know there WAS a forum)
It was also suggested that I ask the host to lower their guest point amount, so that I could afford it.
I am waiting on some guests to host in Istanbul for the month that I will be away. Although waiting to finalize an exchange can be challenging, I live in Istanbul, a popular place. So I always have guests, but not when I need the points immediately.
The new price per guest point structure is a bit prohibitive and difficult to understand.
That said, this remains the best community for travel, meeting people, offering my home and travel advice to folks who travel to Istanbul.
refer friends to HOME EXCHANGE (not Istanbul) to earn GP
You can edit your original post.
was there a problem with my original post (I am new to the forum)?
No, not really a problem, you just wrote “… refer friends to Istanbul to earn GP” and then you replied to yourself to correct “…refer friends to HOME EXCHANGE to earn GP”.
Instead you could just have edited it in your first post.