HomeExchange.com Reviews

We are members of this site since 2017 and loved our first exchanges. Since the merger we haven't experienced any advantages and feel very disappointed. Many of the members we had met before the merger have left the site and we are considering the same. It all became bigger which simply means more money for the organizers meanwhile the spirit of the "early" days, including trust, is vanishing rapidly.

We, a couple, still Ambassador (though we all seem to have disappeared except for a few giving "advice", we're probably not spreading the right words), don't see progress on 3 real big urgent problems on this website. HE.com tells us they're not urgent enough.

PROBLEM 1: GREEDY, SELF-CENTERED TRAVELLERS
Exchanging is a fantastic way to see the world, we love it, we've seen beautiful places and have met wonderful people but …
EXCHANGE MEANS: TO GIVE AND RECEIVE SOMETHING OF THE SAME KIND IN RETURN. HOWEVER, MOST DON'T WANT TO HOST BUT ONLY WANT TO TRAVEL FOR FREE AND ARE ON A BARGAIN HUNT FOR AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. THEREFORE THEY SOON START ASKING IF FAMILY/FRIENDS CAN COME ALONG, BRING THEIR KIDS BUT DON'T WANT TO HOST OTHER CHILDREN, OR START HARASSING ALL JUST 2 TRAVELLERS.
Most (in our case 85 out of each 100 requests) think it's normal and respectful to try to double, triple or outnumber other Members.
There are no good straight forward Etiquette Guidelines.
There are far too many sharks in this pool because there are no rules.

BE AWARE ... THERE ARE MANY MEMBERS WHO:
- … seek non simultaneous but offer their own property on bad dates wanting both: a good vacation + rent out. They're only interested in good weather stays, you get the rain/hurricane season so they can accept paying guests, or they ask Guest Points for unattractive dates.
⚘ Check your travel dates on the World Wide Web.
- ... offer hospitality stays, one room in their house, tiny airbnb units, one room flats, garden houses or no window basements (that's ok) but want calculated GP or total homes in return (that's not ok).
⚘ Read Profiles totally and carefully. Top to bottom!
- … have no plans to prepare their home for guests, clean or treat your property with respect. After all they're on holiday ;):)
⚘ Make a "Welcome to our Home" guide and mention things that are important to you. Don't assume anything. Talk about all before the exchange takes place. Be polite but honest. Follow your intuition.
- ... expect other Members to prepare their whole house because they seek 1/2/3 nights with Guest Points and mistake this website for FreeAirBnb.com
- … want a free vacation home, costing them little money by using the pay-per-night Essential plan. They get 1300 GP for free when they join the website (500 first year, 100 verification, 350 profile completed, 350 home page completed) and leave when the points are used.

Single travellers, a couple, 2 adults, divorcees, empty nesters - Members with more beds than travellers - for them this website is not attractive at all!
Two people don't PAY Membership for a full house all year long.
If they don't mind that than they sign up on Airbnb to EARN money.
SINCE MAY 2016(!!!) WE COMPLAIN TO HE.COM TO CHANGE CERTAIN THINGS FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL MEMBERS, BUT NOTHING HAPPENS. THEY DO ACCEPT PAYMENT EACH YEAR FROM EVERYONE THOUGH!
- You will receive an endless stream of greedy, self-centered requests if you’ve got something nice to offer.
- Bedcounters will try something like "now we know each other, is it ok if we bring …" around the 3rd email.
⚘ Ask in every first email how many travellers they're going to be if you don't want to end up with surprise guests. A lot of Members present themselves as 2 but have no plans to travel as 2. Say no, they've got only one interest: your beds.
- Vague mentioned "sometimes/maybe/occasionally travellers" on a profile page? Forget it - they ALWAYS have to come along!
- If you're new or unexperienced than you always end up with the short end of the stick with any exchange. Sharks love fresh bait.
Once we had a shark saying she would have to reconsider if she couldn't bring friends, right after we booked flights (we canceled immediately and exchanged with someone else in that area).
- Get used to Members who are insulted if you write back they can't bring 4 kids under 12 yrs and should stop writing to 2 adults but start looking for similar Listings.

PROBLEM 2: FINDING EXCHANGES, SEARCH AREA
- With every Listing you can see the number of beds immediately but you can not see how many travellers come with a Listing or use filters to search for a number of travellers.
- You're Listing isn't visible untill someone zooms several times to a very specific area or wants to look at page 110.
After 8 months (!) there are no good/important filter options.
- We see tiny villages show before we do (we're on a good location) and are surrounded by Ghost Listings that are not removed and show as "new members". Some have last visited their page 4 years ago.
If we type our place 40 Listings show though there are less than 10 active Members. That's only our very, very, very tiny spot on the websites world map!
A new problem: they've changed the font style! The silliest small villages are IN CAPITALS now. You can hardly read the map.
About the CALENDAR.
That's getting a bit better.
There are green (any exchange) orange (simultaneous) and blue (hosting for GP) options now. Still missing a colour to black out dates for your own personal reasons, nothing to do with exchanging.

PROBLEM 3: THE GUEST POINT SYSTEM
This system is only designed for families and groups.
IT WOULD BE HONEST AND FAIR TO ALL MEMBERS IF GUEST POINTS WOULD NOT WORK PER LISTING PER NIGHT BUT PER PERSON PER NIGHT. WHY >>>
- Yes, families would have to spend more points but they would also be able to earn more points if they stop aiming for 2 travellers.
- Groups usually offer just one property while half of the party comes along for a free vacation. If they would need more points than they would have to consider to offer more than one property.
Only the sun comes up for free.
- Members with more beds than travellers would be tempted with every request. Now they are just treated like free hotel owners. That would mean more travel options for families and groups.
- Single / 2 travellers would have to spend a fair points if they want to travel. Also, for the hight points they have to give now, they get offered a hospitality stay or one room.
(if 2 people want one room than they book a hotel!)
If you want to host only 2 mature travellers than it's normal you earn less points.

A POSSIBLE PROBLEM 4
Can you actually travel with your Guest Points?
We read a lot of messages saying you can't.
We'll get back to you on that topic.

HomeExchange is a unique opportunity to visit different regions, discover other towns or villages still preserved from mass tourism. You live like a local in the life of people and the land.You discover the arts of living and other cultures, from the inside. Through the exchange, you reside in a comfortable or cozy apartment or house. The exchange of housing during the holidays can even give you new ideas for decorating or landscaping !

I want to warn everybody who is a member of HomeExchange.com I recently had an incident with a home exchange where the other party totaled my car and reaped havoc in my home. Home exchange did nothing to help me and now I have no car and a wrecked home. Please do not use this website as they will not help you in the least. They will ignore your calls and not help at all. This company should be investigated by the fbi and police. Very scam oriented
Please be warned and contact me if you have had a similar experience so we can launch a lawsuit

When we signed up for HomeExchange a year ago we were happy with the experience. Since then, their customer service has detoriated. They used to have a live chat that no longer works and their phone support has been out of service for almost a week now. Currently, the only way to contact them is via email and they take forever to respond. I’m very disappointed and thinking of switching to another home exchange service.

We, a couple, still Ambassador (though we all seem to have disappeared except for a few giving "advice", we're probably not spreading the right words), don't see change on 3 real big urgent problems on this website. HE.com tells us they're not urgent enough.

PROBLEM 1: GREEDY, SELF-CENTERED TRAVELLERS
Exchanging is a fantastic way to see the world, we love it, we've seen beautiful places and have met wonderful people but …
EXCHANGE MEANS: TO GIVE AND RECEIVE SOMETHING OF THE SAME KIND IN RETURN. HOWEVER, MOST DON'T WANT ANYONE IN THEIR OWN HOME BUT WANT FREE VACATION HOMES AND ARE ON A BARGAIN HUNT FOR AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.
THEY TRY TO BRING FAMILY AND FRIENDS, BRING THEIR KIDS BUT DON'T WANT TO HOST OTHER CHILDREN, OR HARASS JUST 2 TRAVELLERS.
Most (in our case 85 out of each 100 requests) think it's normal and respectful to try to double, triple or outnumber other Members.
There are no good straight forward Etiquette Guidelines.
There are far too many sharks in this pool because there are no rules.

BE AWARE ... THERE ARE MANY MEMBERS WHO:
- … seek non simultaneous but offer their own property on bad dates wanting both: a good vacation + rent out. They're only interested in good weather stays, you get the rain/hurricane season so they can accept paying guests, or they ask Guest Points for unattractive dates.
⚘ Check destinations on the WWW.
- ... offer hospitality stays, one room in their house, tiny airbnb units, 1 room flats, garden houses or no window basements (that's ok) but want total calculated GP or entire homes in return (not ok).
⚘ Read Profiles totally and carefully. Top to bottom.
- … have no plans to prepare their home for guests, clean or treat your property with respect. After all they're on holiday ;):)
⚘ Make a "Welcome to our Home" guide. Be polite but honest. Don't assume anything. Talk about all before the exchange takes place. Follow your intuition: don't go ahead if it's all about their wants, needs and likes and you don't get answers to your questions.
- ... expect other Members to prepare their whole house because they seek 1/2/3 nights with Guest Points and mistake this website for FreeAirBnb.com
- … want a free vacation home, costing them little money by using the pay-per-night Essential plan. They get 1300 free Guest Points when they join the website and leave when the points are used.

Since May 2016 (!!!) we complain to HE.com to change certain things for the benefit of ALL Members. Nothing happens.
They do accept payment each year from everyone though!
Single travellers, a couple, 2 adults, divorcees, empty nesters - Members with more beds than travellers - for them this website is not attractive at all!
TWO PEOPLE DON'T PAY MEMBERSHIP FOR A FULL HOUSE ALL YEAR ROUND. IF THEY DON'T MIND THAT THAN THEY SIGN UP ON AIRBNB TO EARN MONEY.
- You will receive an endless stream of greedy, self-centered requests if you’ve got something nice to offer.
- Get used to Members who are insulted if you write back they can't bring 4 kids under 12 yrs and should stop writing to 2 adults but start looking for similar Listings.
- A lot of Members present themselves as 2 people but have really no plans to travel as 2. Bedcounters will try something like "now we know each other, is it ok if we bring …" around the 3rd email.
⚘ Ask in every FIRST email how many travellers they're going to be if you don't want surprise guests. Put sentences like "we don't host surpise guests" on your pages.
⚘ HE.com strongly promotes the "we're all one, big family" idea. Don't care about this pressure. Say no. You don't own a hotel and Members are not on bookfreevacationforeveryone.com
- Vague mentioned "sometimes/maybe/occasionally travellers" on a profile page? Forget it - they ALWAYS have to come along!
It's a "polite" way of saying they want 2 guests in their own home.
- If you're new or unexperienced than you always end up with the short end of the stick with any exchange. Sharks love fresh bait.
Once we had a shark saying she would have to reconsider if she couldn't bring friends right after we told we booked flights (we canceled and exchanged with someone else in that area).

PROBLEM 2: FINDING EXCHANGES, SEARCH AREA
- With every Listing you can see the number of beds immediately but you can not see how many travellers come with a Listing or use filters to search for a number of travellers.
- You're Listing isn't visible untill someone zooms several times to a very specific area or wants to look at page 110.
After 8 months (!) there are no good/important filter options.
- We see tiny villages show before we do (we're on a good location) and are surrounded by Ghost Listings that are not removed and show as "new members". Some have last visited their page 4 years ago.
If we type our place 40 Listings show though there are less than 10 active Members. That's only our very, very, very tiny spot on the websites world map!

PROBLEM 3: THE GUEST POINT SYSTEM
IT WOULD BE HONEST AND FAIR TO ALL MEMBERS IF GUEST POINTS WOULD NOT WORK PER LISTING PER NIGHT BUT PER PERSON PER NIGHT. WHY >>>
- Yes, families would have to spend more points but they would also be able to earn more points. If you want to host only 2 mature travellers than it's normal you earn less points.
- Groups usually offer one property while half of the party, not even Members, comes along for a free vacation. If they would need more points than they would have to consider to offer more than one property. Only the sun comes up for free.
- Members with more beds than travellers would be tempted with every request because they would get points per bed. Now they are treated like hotel owners. Plus, it would give more travel options for families and groups.
- Single / 2 travellers would have to spend fair points if they want to travel. Now they "pay" the same as 6 travellers. Besides that, for the hight points they give they get offered hospitality stays or one room.

Don't hesitate to be a member of HomeExchange.com
The website is authentic and safe and it will allow to discover cities/countries through the exchange of your home; save money through this travel way and be confident of the exchange.
You can trust HomeExchange, I've made more than 30 exchanges and all my experiences were positive, so once you will start to join the community of HomeExchange you will never stop exchanging your home. Moreover it's worldwide: good chance to travel anywhere! 100% recommended

We, a couple, still Ambassador (though we all seem to have disappeared except for a few giving "advice", we're probably not spreading the right words), still don't see change on 3 real big problems on this website. HE.com tells us they're not urgent enough.

PROBLEM 1: GREEDY, SELF-CENTERED TRAVELLERS
Exchanging is a fantastic way to see the world, we love it, we've seen beautiful places and have met wonderful people but … exchange means: to give and receive something of the same kind in return.
HOWEVER, MOST DON'T WANT GUESTS IN THEIR OWN HOME BUT WANT FREE VACATION HOMES FOR AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. THEY'RE ON A BARGAIN HUNT FOR ALL THEIR FAMILY & FRIENDS, BRING KIDS BUT DON'T WANT TO HOST OTHER CHILDREN, OR START HARASSING ALL JUST 2 TRAVELLERS.
There are no good straight forward Etiquette Guidelines.
There are far too many sharks in this pool because there are no rules.

BE AWARE ... THERE ARE MANY MEMBERS WHO:
- … seek nonsimultaneous but offer their own property on bad dates wanting both: a good vacation + rent out. They're only interested in good weather stays, you get the rain/hurricane season so they can accept paying guests, or they ask Guest Points for unattractive dates.
⚘ Check destinations on the WWW.
- ... offer hospitality stays, one room in their house, tiny airbnb units, 1 room flats, garden houses or no window basements but want total calculated Guest Points or entire homes in return.
⚘ Read Profiles totally and carefully. Top to bottom!
- … have no plans to prepare their home for guests, clean or treat your property with respect. After all they're on holiday ;):)
⚘ Make a "Welcome to our Home" guide. Be polite but honest. Don't assume anything. Talk about all before the exchange takes place. Don't go ahead if it's only about all their wants, needs and likes.
- ... expect other Members to prepare their whole house because they seek 1/2/3 nights with Guest Points and mistake this website for FreeAirBnb.com
- … want a free vacation home, costing them little money by using the pay-per-night Essential plan. They get 1300 free Guest Points when they join the website and leave when the points are used.

SINCE MAY 2016 (!!!) we ask HE.com to change certain things for the benefit of all Members. Nothing happens.
They do accept payment each year from everyone though!
SINGLE TRAVELLERS, A COUPLE, 2 ADULTS, DIVORCEES, EMPTY NESTERS - MEMBERS WITH MORE BEDS THAN TRAVELLERS ...
FOR THEM THIS WEBSITE IS NOT ATTRACTIVE AT ALL!
ONE OR TWO PEOPLE DON'T PAY MEMBERSHIP TO BECOME A FREE FAMILY AND GROUP HOTEL ALL YEAR ROUND.
IF THEY DON'T MIND A FULL HOUSE THAN THEY SIGN UP ON AIRBNB TO EARN MONEY.
- Many only look at your bednumber and think it's normal and respectful to try to double, triple or outnumber other Members in travellers. You will receive an endless stream of greedy, self-centered requests (85 out of each 100 requests we get) if you offer something nice and are less travellers.
- A lot of Members present themselves as 2 but have really no plans to be 2 people. Vague mentioned "sometimes/maybe/occasionally travellers" on a profile page? Forget it - they ALWAYS have to come along! It's a "polite" way of saying they seek 2 guests but would like all available beds that come with a Listing for themselves.
- Bedcounters will try something like "now we know each other, is it ok if we bring …" around the 3rd email.
⚘ Ask in every FIRST email how many travellers they're going to be if you don't want a full house. Put sentences like "we don't host surprise guests" on your pages. HE.com strongly promotes the "we're all one, big family" idea. Don't care about this pressure. Say no.
This is not bookfreeholidaysforeveryone.com!!! It never ends!
- Get used to Members who are insulted if you write back they can't bring 4 kids under 12 yrs and should stop writing to 2 adults but start looking for similar Listings.
- If you're new or unexperienced than you always end up with the short end of the stick with any exchange. Sharks love fresh bait.
Once we had a shark saying she would have to reconsider if she couldn't bring friends right after we told we booked flights (we canceled and exchanged with someone else in that area).

PROBLEM 2: FINDING EXCHANGES, SEARCH AREA
- With every Listing you can see the number of beds immediately but you can not see how many travellers come with a Listing or use filters to search for a number of travellers.
- You're Listing isn't visible untill someone zooms several times to a very specific area or wants to look at page 110.
After 9 months (!) there are no good/important filter options.
- We see tiny villages show before we do (we're on a good location) and are surrounded by Ghost Listings that are not removed and show as "new members". Some have last visited their page 4 years ago.
If we type our place 40 Listings show though there are less than 10 active Members. That's only our very, very, very tiny spot on the websites world map!
The CALENDAR is improved in September and there are the options green (exchange or GP), orange (sim. exchange) and blue (GP) now. We miss 2 options: to black out your own dates for whatever reason and to spend, instead of receive, Guest Points.

PROBLEM 3: THE GUEST POINT SYSTEM
IT WOULD BE HONEST AND FAIR TO ALL MEMBERS IF GUEST POINTS WOULD NOT WORK PER LISTING PER NIGHT BUT PER PERSON PER NIGHT. WHY >>>
- Yes, families would have to spend more points but they would also be able to earn more points because they've got more beds.
If you want to host only 2 mature travellers than it's normal you earn less points. Harassing all 1 or 2 travellers would stop.
- Groups usually offer one property while half of the party, not even Members, comes along for a free vacation. If they would need more points than they would have to consider to offer more than one property. Only the sun comes up for free.
- Members with more beds than travellers would be TEMPTED with every request because they would get points per person.
That would also give more travel options for families and groups.
- Single / 2 travellers would have to spend fair points if they want to travel. Now they "pay" the same as 6 people. Besides that, for the high points they give they get offered hospitality stays or 1 room in the house, even if they offer big houses themselves.

Hello home exchangers, potential and actual, Bernie and myself had been happy GuestToGuest members for a number of years, both as hosts (in Cambodia) and as guests. We liked the flexibility of being able to exchange homes directly or through points. We liked the community feel of the whole experience and all our exchanges were successful. We consistently exchanged our home below the rate recommended by GuestToGuest, as we felt this was the right thing to do for "our" community. Those were the days when we would have granted GuestToGuest five stars, or even six if available!

We became concerned when a compulsory insurance scheme was introduced in a most untransparent and sudden way, over the past year. The way it was "pushed through the letterbox" and advertised had many of the trappings of crass commercialism. And gone were the days of truly free exchanges. Some hosting opportunities were lost because unsuspecting members could no longer afford the daily or yearly insurance expense. And we found ourselves, as guests, having to make special insurance arrangements in the middle of a six-week series of GuestToGuest stays in Costa Rica.

Then, to make things worse, came the sudden change to HomeExchange. No notice here either. And quite confusing. Communities are based on trust and communication. These, we felt, had been seriously eroded. The whole thing had acquired an airbnb feel, we thought. Possibly too commercial, too big for its own good.

This was recently confirmed when we arranged a stay, as guests, in France, for a very special occasion. The exchange, which had been booked months in advance for a total of three couples visiting all the way from Korea, Singapore and Cambodia, was cancelled at short notice by the hosts due to an adverse event in the family. These things happen. As no alternative HomeExchange accommodation could be found, we had to make do with a costly and not-so-cosy airbnb apartment, complete with disrespectful commercially-minded hosts, instead of the lovely woodland house we were looking forward to, and a welcome by the lovely hosts we had had excellent communications with over the months.

At least, we tought, the cost and inconvenience of this mishap would be partially offset by the HomeExchange insurance that had caused us so much concern. The payout in such approved cases amounts to 100 euros per night. We were wrong. Today, one month after the cancellation, we have yet to see one Euro, and communication from the HomeExchange team in charge has been at best haphazard, at worst negligent. So not only have we lost our wonderful HomeExchange stay, but we are still 500 Euros out of pocket, not to mention the insurance premium.

We now have doubts as to the worthiness of the insurance scheme, as well as to HomeExchange's willingness and/or ability to support its members in tricky situations. We find all this very sad and are considering not renewing our HomeExchnage membership.

We believe that house and pet sitting arrangements, such as those offered by Nomador or Trusted House Sitters (even though membership fees have to be paid), are now providing the trust factor we are looking for and we see as being eroded within the HomeExchange set up.

I will post updates here as the issue evolves, and may also change the overall rating either way depending on the outcome. As a first step, we have now lodged a formal complaint with HomeExchange. To be continued...

We were members of Guest to Guest for several years before the merger and were very happy with the set up.

I'm less enthusiastic since the merger. We were annoyed at the way the Optimal Membership was introduced last year, it seemed to be rushed in, it felt very "sprung upon us" and we feel that we were miss sold it at the time.
We were lead to believe that if we didn't use it in the first year that it would roll over, we were really pleased at that, we thought it sounded very decent and that loyalty was being rewarded.

Now we find there are strings and conditions attached that weren't pointed out at the time, if they had been we would certainly have delayed joining until we were going to use the benefits provided by the membership.

(Also make sure its not set to auto renew on your profile page.)

We may at some point in the future see if we can organise a trip to use our remaining points. But in the meantime I don't think we will be recommending Home Exchange to friends which is a shame as we were always suggesting to people that they tried it.

I signed up a year before the merger. At first I was confused by the new website but I have gotten used to it and love the additional guest point option vs. balloon which was much less flexible.I have 4 exchanges arranged now, 2 reciprocal and 2 with GP.

We, a couple, Ambassador (though they all seem to have disappeared except for a few, we're probably not spreading the right words), still don't see progress on 3 real big urgent problems on this website.

PROBLEM 1: GREEDY, TOTALLY SELF-CENTERED TRAVELLERS
Exchanging is a fantastic way to see the world, we love it, we've seen beautiful places and have met wonderful people but ... many people refuse to understand that it comes with guests staying in their own homes.Exchange means: to give and receive something of the same kind in return but too many Members think they're so special that they can be an exception to this basic rule.
MOST TRY TO BRING ALL THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS, EXPECT THAT MEMBERS WILL HOST THEIR KIDS BUT DON'T WANT TO HOST OTHER CHILDREN, HARASS ALL ONLY 2 TRAVELLERS OR ARE BED COUNTERS WHO WILL TRY TO ADD MORE PEOPLE COMING ALONG LATER.
The sad part is that they all think that it's normal and respectful to double, triple or outnumber other Members.
There are still no good straight forward Etiquette Guidelines.
There are far too many sharks in this pool because there are no rules.

Be aware ...
Exchanging is a fun and allready pretty cheap way of travelling, but there are many Members who ...
- … seek non simultaneous but offer their own property on bad dates wanting both: a good vacation + rent out. They're only interested in good weather stays, you get the rain/hurricane season so they can accept paying guests, or they ask Guest Points for unattractive dates.
⚘ Check your travel dates on the World Wide Web.
- ... offer hospitality stays, one room in their house, tiny airbnb units, one room flats, garden houses or no window basements (that's ok) but want total home value GP or big homes in return (not ok).
⚘ Read Home- and Members Profiles carefully.
- ... expect other Members to prepare their whole house because they seek 1/2/3 nights with Guest Points and mistake this website for FreeAirBnb.com
- … have no plans to prepare their home for guests, clean or treat your property with respect. After all they're on holiday.
⚘ Make a "Welcome to our Home" guide and mention things that are important to you. Don't assume anything. Talk about all before the exchange takes place. Be polite but honest.
- … want a free vacation home, costing them little money by using the pay-per-night Essential plan. They get 1300 GP for free when they join the website (500 first year, 100 verification, 350 profile completed, 350 home page completed) and leave when the points are used.

Single travellers, a couple, 2 adults, divorcees, empty nesters - Members with more beds than travellers - for them this website is not attractive at all!
Two people don't PAY Membership for a full house all of the time.
If they don't mind that than they sign up on Airbnb to EARN money!
- You will receive an endless stream of greedy, self-centered requests if you’ve got something nice to offer.
- If you're new or unexperienced than you always end up with the short end of the stick with any exchange. Sharks love fresh bait.
- Get used to Members who are insulted if you write back they can't bring 4 kids under 12 yrs and should stop writing to 2 adults but start looking for similar Listings.

PROBLEM 2: FINDING EXCHANGES, SEARCH AREA
- With every Listing you can see the number of beds immediately but you can not see how many travellers come with a Listing or use filters to search for a number of travellers.
- You're Listing isn't visible untill someone zooms several times to a very specific area or wants to look at page 110.
After 8 months (!) there are no good/important filter options.
- We see tiny villages show before we do (we're on a good location) and are surrounded by Ghost Listings that are not removed and show as "new members". Some have last visited their page 4 years ago.
If we type our place 40 Listings show though there are less than 10 active Members. That's only our very, very, very tiny spot on the websites world map!
A new problem: they've changed the font style! The silliest small villages are IN CAPITALS now. You can hardly read the map.

PROBLEM 3: THE GUEST POINT SYSTEM
- This system is only designed for families and groups.
- As mentioned, we get requests from Members who want to book our house 2 or 3 nights with points.
- We see Members "playing" to increase their GP. Most ask more and more Guest Points but have no intention to give very much.

A POSSIBLE PROBLEM 4
Can you actually travel with your Guest Points?
We read a lot of messages saying you can't.
We'll get back to you on that topic.

Trying to delete my Account. Totally impossible. Faq guide instructions are not correct

Before the December 2018 merger we were huge fans of Home Exchange and had some wonderful holidays.
Since then it has been a disaster.
Literally one thing after another but the main things have been
A/ The lack of communication:
Not replying to emails or phone calls for help - dozens of them.
B/ Now , since December, we are still not on the map. Put Wales UK in the search and hundreds of properties come up - over half in England. Our property no longer has a little balloon over it to show we are there...so if no-one knows we are there we get no enquiries to exchange. Before we had 5 to 15 a week - now we get none.
Today Home exchange happy person has told me that if I put Chepstow and then Tintern in the search my house comes up - who on earth in other parts of the world has heard of Chepstow and a tiny village called Tintern to specifically look!
We do get people want our home for 2 or 3 nights as they travel round for points - but it is our home and we have nowhere to go if they come here - it takes us 2 days to clean our home top to bottom and leave it immaculate for guests - who wants to do that for 2 or 3 nights "guest points".
Now we can't spend our Guest points - as people are like us and just dont want to become an Air B&B...we want to exchange - stay in other peoples homes so we know we will all look after and respect each others houses.
I would not recommend this site to anyone now - before it was brilliant.

We’ve been exchanging (mainly reciprocal) through HomeExchange.com since 2014. We’ve enjoyed each exchange and have found the site and the level of support has worked well for us. As we live in Australia, the new guest points system is very attractive to us. Not everyone wants to undertake the longhaul flight to get here, or has the vacation time to permit a visit here. We are no longer limited to finding reciprocal exchange partners. Guest points broaden our opportunities for exchanges, which is very exciting. Another feature of the new platform that I like, is the notification you receive when someone saves your home as a favourite. It’s another way to narrow the search for a swap.

Perfect for me

It really depends on what you are looking for. For me making simultaneous home exchanges are hard, because I don´t plan ahead so much, home exchange works perfectly for my needs.

What I do is to look for availability in the city that I want to go, using the filter "looking for guests", those are people that might have an already planned trip and their home is already going to be empty. I often look with no particular set dates, and then look peoples calendar for availability. I write all of those to see if they are really available, calendars are not always up to date. I got 3 exchanges in Mallorca, 2 of them in fabulous apartments, and one in Berlin this way. Then, after my trip is set, I put on my calendar those dates are available and that I am looking for guests, I also click the filter that people can only contact me on my available dates, this is important, if you dont do this, you might get (depending on your location) many many contacts per day.

I´ve tried a few other platforms, but home exchange is the biggest, and I love that it works very well with guestpoints/non simultaneous exchanges. Some of the bad reviews are due to exactly the opposite, as some people prefer simultaneous exchanges.

If you want less people to contact you, make sure you click on the "allow to contact only on my available dates" option.

I dont see the fact that they give a lot of points to people starting out, resulting in some people joining that never intend to really offer their house, because of what I call "point hording". I´ve many people in my exchanges that are point hording. They receive a lot of guests, acumulating points for a future big trip. these people absorb so many points, that they system would be "empty" of points if home exchange didnt not give so many away to people starting. It also makes the platform grow faster, people try this system, love it, then decide maybe they do want to offer their house to continue exchanging. I tried another platform called LoveHomeSwap, they give very few points, and the result, nobody contacts me on that platform for point swaps, because they dont have enough! and so I cannot recover the points on that platform (I spent all of mine on my first exchange), so basically I did one exchange, and now I can´t use the platform anymore until someone comes to me with points on my available dates, which on that platform will never happen, as I get very few contacts.

Anyhow, if non simultaneous is the way to go for you, this is the biggest and the best. They dont have a perfect customer service, but well, many things in life are not perfect.

cheers! and if you havent, try this platform out!

Since I joined home exchange.com, the way that I travel has changed dramatically for the better.
I feel I no longer go to places as a tourist but as a member of the different communities I visit. I have been able to visit and get to know places I wouldn’t have been to otherwise.
These stays have enabled me to get to know the places, the cities and most importantly the people in a way I couldn’t have dreamt of. Being at home when you travel and you are away is a very comforting experience and by doing so I have met very interesting people. Some of them have Become real friends for life.
Exchanging homes is not only a way of traveling, it’s not about the money that you save, it’s not a comfortable way of traveling, it’s a way of life!

Awful since the merger.Will complete my planned exchanges then leave when my subscription runs out later in the year as I hardly get any enquiries now .

We have been exchanging houses since 1994, was even before the web existed. With homeexchange.com, we concluded more than 30 exchanges over the years. All were enjoyable and memorable, we even stayed in contact with many exchangers. Now, with the union of guest to guest and home exchange, the new web site gives us more options and tools to conclude exchanges and live like locals anywhere in the world.
feel that the combination of exchange and guest points have a lot of potential and will help us visit more places easily.
that is great!

After launching new Home Exchange site there is more various possibilities, but some things could be better.
It´s really good to know, when a member last time visited site and how long does it take to get a reply. Calendar is also good information source. But for example reverse search don´t work properly. It´s not possible to choose whether to send an inquiry for Guest Points or just reciprocal exchange - you can change it from GP to reciprocal only after sending the inquiry. No information in profile section how many people traveling.

Non-stop SPAM junk emails. The "unsubscribe" button sends you to their website.

BLOCKED them and they still flood my inbox.

Reading all kinds of negative reviews of their new system.

Our home exchange in Saint-Sauveur was cancelled due to medical reasons. We were already in Montréal with another home exchange. I emailed your website, and within 24 hours of receiving my email about our cancelled exchange, Sérgio had arranged a replacement exchange. He was so helpful, and if he is representative of the quality of customer support offered by HomeExchange.com, it is superior.

Thank you so much for saving our vacation!

We were able to arrange one exchange for my family to get together over the holidays. Everything was great. It was perfect all around.
The home I am using for exchanging is a second home, so I have had no trouble accepting guests and have been able to accumulate a good number of guest points. The downside is that on three subsequent trips we have been unable to find a place to stay. We have gone to a city with dozens of houses available. Several of them even had their calendars listed as actively seeking guest points on these days. I would think that this should be almost automatic, but I have been turned down over and over again by people who say they are looking for guest points on the days I want to travel. I am looking now for a trip in a different spot for next summer and same thing. Seems it is easy to get guest points but nobody wants to take them. Is there anything that Homeexchange can do about this? I think maybe so. It is possible that they have given out too many guest points just for joining and completing profiles and such. I was pretty happy to be getting them myself, but possibly they over saturated the market. I am also thinking that maybe there should be some kind of penalty or disincentive for turning down too many exchanges if your calendar says you are seeking guest points. Maybe Homeexchange could require some kind of valid reason for turning these down or take away some of their guest points or something. Maybe to turn down an exchange on dates when the calendar is set at Seeking Guests for Guest Points there should be a list of Reasons they must select. Homexchange could send them some kind of message with some kind of warning about keeping an accurate calendar.
I'm not just complaining that it is hard to find exchanges. I'm not even saying that people should be forced to take exchanges. I'm just saying that there should be some way to ensure that people's calendars are accurate when they say they are seeking guest points but I think this particular issue could be addressed.
(by the way, I know it's not just me that they don't want. I only have one review and got a very good one.)

We have been signed up for a year, have rented one of our short term rentals in Montana to a group coming from Australia for 3 weeks as a non-reciprocal exchange (no way we're getting to Aus with two kiddos), and have earned about 5000 GuestPoints. The problem is, we have approached at least 30 people in the US in various locations to use these GPs, many with open availability on their calendars, and not one has been interested in accepting this made-up currency. This is a WORTHLESS CURRENCY if no one accepts it and we feel pretty misled, also sounds like it's getting further diluted by HomeExchange giving them out. It's a pretty good site and seems like a lot of people make the reciprocal exchanges work but no luck with GPs.

I have had more than a dozen positive experiences with HomeExchange.com since I joined in 2006. Since the buyout of the company last year there have been many changes made that are unpopular among long term members. The company seems to be listening to the objections and the suggestions of members so there have been improvements already and more are promised.