It’s now back-to-school period here in Europe and after their summer vacations, our team is also rejuvenated and back hard at work!

Psst! In case you missed it, our team worked on new features/improvements which you can find here.

Here are some of the bigger projects that we are working on to release soon:

1. A filter that will allow you to look for exchanges specifying the age groups of those travelling with you.

As some of you might remember, last year, we took to our FB groups to ask if such a feature would be useful for you and the results from the polls told us to go ahead with this feature so our teams have been working on it in the last months!

With this filter, you will be able to specify, when you’re making a search, the number of adult, child and baby travellers. The search results will then give you homes with beds that will correspond to the number of adults, children and babies in your travelling group.

“We were receiving some feedback from members that they have difficulties finding suitable exchanges because they would search for an exchange for two adults and two children but would find in the search results homes that have, for example, a double bed, a child’s bed and a baby cot. The reason why such a listing came up in the search results was because the system counts the baby cot as being able to accommodate one (it didn’t take into account the size of that “one”) which led to some “time-wasting” when looking for an exchange. So we developed this filter to help with that!”
- Nathalie, Product team

So for example, before, a listing that has a double bed and a baby cot will appear in the search results for someone who is looking for a home that can accommodate three adults. Which can be problematic. With this new filter, this listing will appear in the search results for someone who is looking for accommodation for maximum 2 adults and with or without one baby.

2. Restricting members who don’t have their homes more than 80% completed

This is a test that we are working on!

We decided to run a test on part of our community, the test will prevent members who do not have a home completed to >80% to access and view the photos of other member’s homes. So, if they access a listing and click left or right to view more photos, or wish to view bigger photos, they will see a pop-up explaining that they need to complete their home to >80% if they wish to view photos. This is really to encourage members to complete their listings and understand that they too need to have a home online and qualified if they wish to engage with the community.

“We really wanted to implement a test like this to see if it would encourage members to complete their listings and qualify. We know from our data that one of the first thing members check when they access a listing is the photos, so we thought this would be the best place to add this type of information and motivate them to add their own photos and complete the details about their home. In addition, we know how frustrating it can be for members who are looking for an exchange and come across listings that are empty with no photos and no description, so hopefully this action will improve the quality of the listings on our site.”
- Kate, Product team

Just wanted to repeat this again: it’s just a test!

3. Some improvements on the apps

Many of you shared that it was difficult to see on the app when your listing or profile is not 100% complete so our team is working on improving the ‘Me’ section so that you’ll be able to easily identify if there is information missing from your profile or listing. This is an improvement that’s already been done on the Android app and will be coming on the iOS app soon.

“We are constantly striving to improve the app, taking into account your feedback so as to create a unique user experience that complements the one you get on the web.”
- Mathieu, Android developer

We’re also making improvements so that the calendar is more visible so that it’s easier for you to update your availability on the map.

And on the search function of the apps, we’re working on making it easier for you to find your exchanges with the location suggestions offered when you make a search.

We’re also progressing on allowing you to create personalised wishlists and we’ll be able to give you more details in the next update! (We know this is something that many of you have been waiting for for a while now!)

And that’s it for the “bigger” projects we’re working on. In the meantime, the team is also dedicating some time and effort into trying to understand the changing travel needs and demands to be able to adapt to them so that you can better organise your exchanges and vacations :-)

That’s all from us today! We’re always open and happy to hear your suggestions about how we can improve the platform so don’t hesitate to send them to our member support team at contact@homeexchange.com. And join our Facebook groups so you can hear it first when we make updates on our platform and to share your opinions and experiences with the rest of the community!