The importance of having an engaged and committed community

We would like to thank all of you for making HomeExchange what it is today: an engaged and committed community of Members who share values of hospitality and generosity!

As you know, home-exchanging is not only about travelling but also about sharing a way of life and human experiences. It is also about living as a local while feeling at home, and welcoming and meeting people from everywhere around the globe.

Home-exchanging has nothing to do with booking an accommodation - it’s not a commodity. It is an experience that starts with a message to get to know a potential exchange partner, inviting them to your home, or being invited to their home. It is a process based on trust, communication and respect. It can sometimes be challenging to find the perfect fit, but it is definitely worthwhile. As HomeExchangers know, it can offer you the most beautiful holidays.

Some changes are coming to reinforce our community

Since it is a unique way of traveling, we want to ensure that HomeExchange is a community of avid and proud exchangers, which will make your HomeExchange experience the best it can possibly be. We want to emphasize that these are decisions that we have made after much consideration and which, we believe, will contribute to this goal. After a lot of analysis and feedback from our community, we decided to remove the Essential plan (pay-per-night offer). It seemed to be too commercial for a majority of our Members and created some misunderstandings on the use of HomeExchange. This Essential option was also more similar to hotel services and short-term rentals, which is not in line with the HomeExchange experience. Exchanges can still be organised with GuestPoints, the only thing that changes is that you will only be able to finalise your exchanges with the annual subscription.

A community based on trust and sharing

We believe in the importance of an involved and active community, where offers are sent and received with high response rates, and with friendly and respectful communication between Members. Our Members take great care to create and nourish this feeling by updating their profiles and listings with great pictures and information about their homes and building solid relationships with their exchange partners.

An engaged community is also a trustworthy community. All Members should be involved in the fostering of trust and other values ​​that characterize HomeExchange. For us, trust needs to remain the basis of the community, which is why we are promoting and nurturing it on the platform. Have a look at our fundamentals and values!

Your engagement and commitment within the community means the world to us! We want to maintain and encourage it to grow, so that we want to make it clear that HomeExchange is not a commodity and as such it cannot be used solely for short stays. HomeExchangers share the same values and live unforgettable experiences on their holidays. This is also why we are continuously working on facilitating your exchanges, improving the features offered on the website.

We encourage you to keep being an important part of the HomeExchange community. If you would like to continue the conversation with us and with other Members, you can do that through our closed Facebook Groups for HomeExchangers.