What's new? January edition

We take a look at what the team has been working on since our last update in 2020 and what we’ll continue to work on in the months to come. We have big plans for 2021 and can’t wait to keep sharing them with you every step of the way.

What’s been released?

1. Homes Members Have Consulted, with Suggestions of Similar homes

This was something we first mentioned in our October updates blog article, and it’s finally live for you to enjoy!

We know that we’re all desperately in need of a vacation, so we want to make it easier for you to find the exchange of your dreams and get away when it’s possible for us to travel safely again. To help, we started working on a feature that will suggest similar homes to the listing you’re viewing. This means that the added homes you’ll see are ones that other members who looked at the same listing have also viewed. So the homes presented in this section are likely to share some key features and meet your needs.

You can find more information about it here.

2. Restrictions for Members Whose Homes Aren’t Completed to 80%

You may also remember from our October updates blog article, that we had launched a test on the site to prevent members with listings less than 80% complete from viewing more photos of other members’ listings. We wanted to run a test on part of our community to prevent members who do not have a home completed to at least 80% from accessing and viewing the photos of other members’ homes.

The objective was to encourage more (and new) members to complete their listing profile by attaching photos and having as full a description as possible, so this new feature was implemented: blocking photo access for those members whose profile is complete in less than 80%.

We tested this for a couple of months and saw that the results were great, with many of the members targeted completing their listings, so we decided to roll this out permanently. This means that any member with a listing that is less than 80% complete will only be able to view the principle photo and will not be able to expand it (if they try to view more photos or to expand the principle photo, they will receive a reminder to complete their listing).

We hope this helps make it easier for those of you who are looking for exchanges and coming across many "empty" listings to see fully the great places waiting for you to find exchanges!

3. Optimization of the Mobile View Website

We also optimized the mobile version of the website to make things easier to see and access. In particular, we’ve improved the search function on the mobile version, so you can easily make changes to your search and access and apply filters.

4. Easier View on the iOS app

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 worked on improving the ‘Account’ section, making it easier to identify if there is information missing from your profile or listing. You also have a better view of information regarding your profile and listing.

What's coming up

Sorting Your Search Results

We recognize that you may have different needs when making a search, so we want to give you more flexibility in choosing the order of the results you get when you make a search. We’re always aiming to make it as easy as possible for you to find and finalize your dream exchange, so we’re working to give you the ability to sort your search results by:

• Newest homes first (date of creation)
• Homes with the calendars updated most recently first
• Recommended

We’ve developed the feature, and it’s in the testing phase. We hope to be able to share it with you in February!

And that’s all from us this month! Of course, we’ll keep you updated on what’s been released, and we look forward to sharing more improvements and features with you soon.

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.
Join our Facebook groups so you can find out first when we make updates to our site and to share your opinions and experiences with the rest of the community!