Four days is too short. Between life and other responsibilities, a week seems much more reasonable. I recently applied for a bunch of accommodation and the vast majority came back cancelled after four days.
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This was exactly my thought. I think a week is far more reasonable - 4 days is too short.
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Dear HomeExchangers, I think that 4 days are not enough. I personally, need sometimes more than 4 days, as one needs to check if the dates are possible to make an exchange (work, private reasons), check all travel options ( flights, trains, busesā¦), maybe plan another stay before or after and make clear if you can manage the situation with cleaning, keys and so on.
I think it would be better to expand the automated response time at 7 days.
Susanne
6 Likes
I fully support Tilda, and feel the same.
At the same time tere is in HE app no
Option to sort out messages the way it would support your changes and allow to connect me back to these messages TBD. Already now there are answers like give me time, but no one really replies and there is no a feature in the app to tag these or move to separate folder helping to be organized.
Also there the impact will be too many messages which will create a mess in the message bos and hard to find what we want.
Imagine you trying to arrange multiple stays a ones simply said not bad idea bt without additional feature in the app it will not allow to be organized in the best possible way
Thanks
2 Likes
In my opinion 4 days is a bit short. Hosts could be travelling or not connected for few days and request will be missed. I would suggest extending this auto cancellation to 1 week. Goal here being to improve communication but without stressing out hosts 
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You donāt have to finalise. You can just respond with something like , give me X time to see if we can do this
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I agree. It would be handy to have a page where your calendar and message requests for dates could be shown so you know where youāre up to without having to go back and look and look again for each one. Itās very time consuming if planning a trip of several stays.
I donāt know if Iām missing anything, but is there a way to get your calendar up so you can see what youāve arranged etc?
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I see this as a textbook example of product development done wrongly: a solution was implemented based on vocal user suggestions, without the product manager conducting the necessary discovery work.
When I donāt respond to a request, itās typically because I lack the information needed to decideāperhaps Iām considering a longer stay, or my own plans are still uncertain. As someone who often travels for 2ā3 months at a time, my itinerary tends to crystallize based on the requests I receive.
The current process is inefficient: once Iām ready to decide on a certain period, I have to open all the individual messages and manually check whether they match the dates Iām considering. A booking overview feature would make this so much easier, allowing users to quickly see which requests correspond to which dates and respond accordingly.
For those who believe my calendar shouldnāt be open if Iām not sure: I open it for periods when I want to travel, and then decide based on the swap options I receive. Apparently, HE now considers this a āpunishableā way to use the platform, which is discouraging.
Another concern: HE is designed for travelers, yet the expectation seems to be that users will constantly monitor their HE account while on the move. Is that realistic? Who actually benefits from this approach?
With this development HE seems to cater only to highly organized travelers who plan well in advance. It feels as though a particularly vocal subset of HE usersāthose who fit this profileāare imposing their preferred way of using the platform on everyone else, and itās disappointing to see HE accommodate this at the expense of broader usability. This development only seems to confirm that digital nomads and more flexible travelers are better off with other solutions. A pity.
Ultimately, this seems like a missed opportunity to deliver meaningful improvements. As a result, Iāll likely have to automate a āI need to look into thisā response going forward.
2 Likes
That change is excellent, but to be honest does not solve the problem.
It will just bring another problem to the table.
Before, many people wouldnāt reply, or they would reply months after the request was made, but at least, when it passed a week or two, we would know we would need to keep searching or try another destination.
Now, people will need to answer, so we will get many ālet me check, I will get back to youā or " I think it is possible, let me talk to my partner".
In the end, we think that is okay, but the result will be even worse since we believe it will be a positive answer. Is it just to avoid losing āpointsā for not answering during those four days?
After those four days, people would need to have another week or something to approve or cancel, so we can keep searching for other options.
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Having a time limit on replying to a request is a great idea. It would also be good if you could see if someone has read the message.
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I agree with what several people have said that 4 days is too fast. A week I think would be reasonable. I sometimes get dozens of requests in the space of just a few days and itās hard to stay on top of them until I can set aside time to reply in bulk.
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I receive notifications for auto declines for no reason. Please donāt send mobile notifications for auto declines, makes no sense.
What 4 days, you got to be kidding. W
You go on a 24 day cruise without email service and you reject everything. 4 days is way to short. I get requests a year in advance. So i jyst start sending notes ill think about it
I like to go thru the request and give them serious condideration. Now you are just giving someone hope when i would have had no intention of swapping with them.
Stupid idea. Needs to be longer than 4 days. We do have a life.
Just my thoughts.
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Agree with every point made by Siet. Home exchange has been a wonderful part of our lives for 20 years (on this platform). But itās just part of my life, not the whole thing. I get lots of requests. It takes time to figure out what my response will be. Sometimes itās an easy no, but usually I consider it carefully. Who can do that in four days on top of work, family etc?
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This is a TERRIBLE idea. How on earth are we supposed to be able to respond in any meaningful way in FOUR DAYS? My home is not a hotel. If I get a request - āhey, how about we exchange next summer - you can come to our place in [some tiny town Iāve never heard of].ā Fantastic - first I have to look at their house and profile. Then I need to figure out where the tiny town actually is. Then I might have to discuss with my family whether or not we might want to go to this tiny town. And if the timing works. All in 4 days? Oh, and I have a job too. So I canāt sit around thinking about travel plans all day long, as much as Iād like to.
Itās frustrating not to get an answer - I get that. But an auto-decline is not an answer. It tells you nothing about whether the person is interested or not. All it tells you is that they werenāt able to consider your request yet.
If you want people to respond faster, consider making some other changes that make it easier for hosts to make decisions without having to drill down all the way into the site to see whatās being proposed.
Iāve been exchanging on this site since 2006. Itās gone downhill since 2018 when it became so much more commercial.
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Sorry to be the nay-sayer here, but I find this frustrating and difficult. I also donāt appreciate that it was rolled out and THEN announced. Getting messages about canceled requests because someone else didnāt replay came out of nowhere.
More importantly, as a host, I sometimes have other things going on in my lifeā¦ and while I try to be responsive quickly, it sometimes takes me a minute. Iāve hosted over 70 exchangesā¦ have loved it. But this system feels less about connecting people and more about jumping through hoops for a corporation more and more. Not the spirit of the what I thought I signed up forā¦ and what Iāve referred a dozen new hosts to.
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This is a wonderful improvement! Thanks team
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This is my concern, too. I travel internationally and sometimes donāt have internet connectivity, so having this automatic cancellation isnāt a good idea.
Can you create an āopt outā optionāor, like the Post Office, have an āon holdā option for those that are traveling but want to review/respond to requests when theyāre home? If I can somehow generate an āout of countryā auto reply and program it for my away dates
, Iād be thrilled!!!
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First of all, itās good that you proactively share the forum link to hear what we, end users, think about this new rollout.
My first reaction was not positive, and I can only echo what others here said before: I have a life outside HE. While I think I have never responded four days later, I do not get bothered if I donāt receive a reply, I simply take it as a no. It actually makes me rely on the response rate I see currently. Why would I expect a fast response if Iām sending for example a request to a profile that has a RR of 5%?! I simply donāt send it to them. End of the issue!!
Implementing this seems to only take into account a KPI that would be ātime to first responseā , but it says anything about the VALUE of the first response, much more important. Now weāre going to get āthank youā replies as if that would move the needleā¦
I understand the good intention of activating dormant users or pushing for more successful bookings. I think this is a way to make calendars more restrictive: I will increase my inactive dates to avoid requests.
Btw, Vinted has a holiday mode: you can switch off while you are on vacation.
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The āout of countryā is a good idea but I donāt want anyone to know that I am out of the country. How about an auto reply of something like ānot available to reply at this timeā?
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