Hello everyone!
One question that often comes up in our community is: Should GuestPoints (GPs) be used for reciprocal exchanges?
Which is totally a fair question! Let’s say my home is worth 200 GPs per night, and yours is worth 150 GPs. If we decide to do a reciprocal exchange, there’s a difference of 50 GPs per night. What should we do?
At HomeExchange, members have the flexibility to decide:
- You can finalize the exchange by transferring the GP difference to your exchange partner.
- Or, you can both agree that the “value” of the homes isn’t what matters—it’s about the opportunity to enjoy each other’s homes. In this case, you can set the GP difference to zero before finalizing the exchange. (This is what most members choose to do.) If you’re unsure how to do this, check out our guide: How do GuestPoints work for reciprocal exchanges?
Pro Tip: You can save time by enabling the “For a reciprocal exchange, I want my home to be set at 0 GP” option under your calendar.
If you prefer not to use GuestPoints for any reciprocal exchanges, you can activate this setting ahead of time. Once enabled, all your reciprocal exchanges will automatically default to 0 GPs. To find this option, go to My Account > My Home and look under your calendar.
We hope this explanation has been helpful! Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have.
New (May 2025): Reciprocal exchanges without GuestPoints by default
Since May 2025, following numerous requests from HomeExchangers, all newly registered members of HomeExchange, as well as all members whose listing is less than 80% complete, now have their home set by default to 0 GuestPoints for reciprocal exchanges.
This means that by default, these new members indicate that they do not use GuestPoints for reciprocal exchanges. Of course, they can change this setting as they wish.
As for all other members of the platform, we are still studying the best approach: should we, for everyone, set the default to 0 GuestPoints for reciprocal exchanges (again, while allowing each member to change this setting as they see fit), or not? What should be done if both exchange partners have different settings? These are questions we are still considering.
We’ll keep you updated, of course, but in the meantime, we recommend checking your settings now on your calendar 