After you have completed your home swap profile and added pretty photos to your home listing, you have searched more than 450,000 homes to find ones you love and sent a message. It’s time to take the next step: finalizing your home exchange. But why is finalizing your exchange so important?
Go to my accountWhy is finalizing your exchange so important?
After you have completed your home swap profile and added pretty photos to your home listing, you have searched more than 400,000 homes to find ones you love and sent a message. It’s time to take the next step: finalizing your home exchange. But why is finalizing your exchange so important?
In the end, finalizing and confirming your exchange through the HomeExchange platform allows us to better support you. HomeExchange guarantees your exchange from the moment it is finalized. If you take a conversation off-site, through another communication channel, our Member Support team is unable to confirm any details shared. That means we are not able to offer you the full benefit of the HomeExchange guarantees. Additionally, if an exchange is not confirmed, you will be unable to submit a review about your home swap experience.
Learn more about HomeExchange guaranteesHow to finalize your home exchange: 1st steps
With HomeExchange, the way you arrange a house swap is entirely up to you. You can choose to use GuestPoints or not; the most important part is that you get to travel. Ready to start planning your exchanges through the HomeExchange platform? **Here is your step-by-step guide to finalizing your home exchange. **
You have already sent a message to Members who you’re interested in exchanging with (see here for more information) and have proposed potential travel dates and the number of people in your travel party. Go to the Messages tab in the upper right-hand side of the page to find all the conversations you have sent and received. This is where you can reply to inquiries, filter and organize your conversations, and make any modifications to proposed exchanges.
When you click on a conversation, you will find the options to modify the dates and number of guests in a proposed exchange along the right side of the page. This is where you can decide if you want to complete a reciprocal or non-reciprocal exchange.
Go to my accountFinalizing a reciprocal home exchange
To get started, change the exchange type from non-reciprocal to reciprocal, which will allow you and your exchange partner to enter your separate agreed upon dates. If you have decided to opt not to use GuestPoints for this exchange, you can adjust your GuestPoints value within your exchange information by clicking on the edit tool. The decision to choose not to use GuestPoints must be made before finalizing your exchange.
Note: With a reciprocal exchange, the dates do not have to match! You can enter the days that work for each member. If one member doesn’t have confirmed dates, you will have to finalize the exchange in two separate conversations as the system doesn’t recognize undefined dates to finalize an exchange. To learn more about how to start a new conversation with the same person, read our FAQs.
Once the information has been entered, one of the two members clicks “pre-approve” to begin the process of both members finalizing the exchange.
Finalize a reciprocal exchangeFinalize a non-reciprocal house swap with GuestPoints
When you send a message to another Member of HomeExchange, the exchange is, by default, non-reciprocal.
If your host responds accepting the non-reciprocal exchange, you will continue the conversation and discuss the details of the exchange, such as: who is traveling with you, the time and date of your arrival and departure, any other details about the homes, and, maybe, some unique things to do and see in the area!
Pre-approval
Pre-approval is an essential step before finalizing any exchange. In a non-reciprocal exchange, pre-approval means that the host agrees to the proposed dates, number of travelers, the number of GuestPoints they will receive, and all of the other details that make up the trip. To finalize an exchange, it must first be pre-approved.
Once the non-reciprocal exchange has been pre-approved by the host, the guest can finalize it. At this time, the agreed amount of GuestPoints will be delivered to your host.
Finalize a non-reciprocal exchangeNote: As a Member, you can finalise your exchange with no additional costs. If your Membership has expired or you are not yet a Member, you will have to renew or take the Membership to finalise your exchange. Learn more about the membership.
You might also wonder how to change details after you have finalized an exchange, or how tocancel a pre-approval? Our FAQs can help.
If you have any questions, or need additional assistance, please reach out to our Member Support team. Happy home exchanging!
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