SURVEY – HomeExchange & You – We (still) need your help 🙌🏼

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Upcoming update of Preferred Destinations :partying_face:

Hello community, we need your feedback again! Whether you’re an experienced home exchanger or brand new to the community, your opinion matters.

We want to improve the “Preferred Destinations” / Saved Searches feature in order to:

  • Simplify it and fix existing bugs

  • Make it more visible and more widely used to help you organize exchanges

  • Allow you to manage it more easily

Preferred Destinations – What’s that?

In short, Preferred Destinations is a feature that lets you:

  • Receive an email alert each time a home matching that destination (and your possible dates) becomes available

  • Make it easier to find a reciprocal exchange: members located in your chosen Preferred Destination can see, through the reverse search, that you are interested in visiting their home

:backhand_index_pointing_right: To learn all about Preferred Destinations: https://forum.homeexchange.com/t/preferred-destinations-a-simple-way-to-facilitate-your-exchange-search/10466

:megaphone: Survey: Today we need your opinion on the name of this feature: “Preferred Destinations.”

At first glance, this name seems clear. However, on the platform, it’s used in different places with slightly different labels, for example:

  • When you run a search and want to save it from the results page, you’ll see the button “Save this destination” (which then adds that destination to your Preferred Destinations)

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We’d like to find a single name for this feature: one that works in all the places where it appears and also truly reflects what it represents. After all, it’s not only about “destinations,” but sometimes also about dates. In short, it is about your travel wishes and plans.

We already have a few ideas, but we’d love to hear from you, our expert members. Please share YOUR suggestions with us!

Answer these two questions

  1. Are you familiar with the “Preferred Destinations” / “Save this Destination” feature, and if so, do you use it?
  • Yes, I know it and use it
  • Yes, I know it, but rarely or never use it
  • No, I didn’t know about it
0 voters
  1. In your opinion, what would be the best name for this feature?

A reminder: the name should:

  • Be clear and easy to understand

  • Work across all places on the platform, replacing current labels (e.g., “Save this Destination,” “Preferred Destinations”)

  • Clearly represent what it covers: preferred destinations, possibly with dates, or simply travel plans

Here are some suggestions. You can vote for your favourite or add a new idea:

  • Preferred Destinations
  • Travel Plans
  • Future Trips
  • Saved Destinations
  • Saved Searches
  • Other suggestions (please specify in the comments)
0 voters

The Content and Product teams thank you in advance for putting your brains to work in the middle of August :sun::folded_hands:t4:

1 Like
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I was quite allright with preferred destinations and in my humble opinion, the mentioned alternatives are no improvement. Travel plans comes near, but wanting to go somewhere is something else than actually planning on going there, I think. What came to mind was: “Where we’d like to go”, but that’s quite a mouth full …
I didn’t know the “save this destination” button …

2 Likes
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Thanks so much for your thoughts on this. I agree it’s certainly a tricky one. I suppose the issue is that it’s more than just a list of favourite or preferred destinations - because of the ability to also add preferred dates too. So for example say you are thinking of going to New York for Christmas, you could put this into your Preferred Destinations list - then if a home in New York becomes available for those dates you get an email notification. Which I think is SO much more than just a list of places you’d quite like to go to one day…

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4

That’s a really good point, and I think you’ve explained it well. Having the ability to add not only destinations but also preferred dates really elevates the usefulness of the feature. It’s more proactive than just keeping a “wish list” because it actually connects members with opportunities in real time. The email notifications make it much easier to catch a potential match without having to constantly search the site. For people who have limited flexibility or are aiming for specific times like Christmas or summer breaks, this could save a lot of effort and make planning much more efficient.

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5

I think it most important to make people aware this feature includes the ability to add preferred dates. I don’t think a name change is really needed for that.

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6

I think this is great! If this functionality went down the route of ‘saved searches’, would you be able to add dates and also preferences e.g. number of bedrooms, plus whether you are looking for reciprocal or GPs or either? So that then when you get notifications that a new place is available, you would know that it fits your filters of the saved search? This would be super helpful! And for the reverse search function, would this mean that you would know that your place fits the other person’s filters, as well as just location?

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What you are describing already exists - it is called ‘Preferred Locations’. When you do a search you can then click on ‘Save this destination’ on the top right and it will save the search. You will then be notified when something suitable comes up.

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Thanks, but I don’t think it allows the dates to be used in the reverse search - or any of the filters. Is that right? Thank you!

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The “reverse search” is a different function to the “preferred destinations”. Yes you can ‘save’ the dates and any filters when using the Preferred destinations list:

https://help.homeexchange.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000730557-What-is-reverse-search-and-how-do-I-use-it

https://help.homeexchange.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000623717-What-are-My-Preferred-Destinations-and-how-do-I-use-them