I almost always plan my trips before I start looking for a home exchange. Either I’m going to be somewhere for an event (i.e. visiting family for a holiday) or I’m going to be somewhere for specific dates and I’ve already booked free award flights for the trip. This means I have to find a home exchange that matches my exact dates. And that’s a big challenge. I work pretty hard looking for house swaps because of this self-imposed restriction. As I get better at finding cheap/free flights maybe I’ll switch this up in the future, though there is no way around the exact date of some trips.
Recently I got a request on the Guest to Guest home exchange platform from a couple in Vancouver who wanted to arrange a home swap some time in March, April or May. That’s a lot of flexibility. And their desired months happened to overlap with our two week trip to Japan that doesn’t involve any home exchanges. So I wrote back and offered them our home for those two weeks as a points exchange since we obviously wouldn’t be visiting Vancouver during that time. I got a response immediately:
Amazing news! We’d love to do a points exchange for the two weeks in May! On my phone right now, will send you an exchange offer later today. My goodness we are excited!
Followed by a message about details that started with:
We’re on top of the world since reading your message this morning!
This couple seemed so surprised to easily find a swap that matched their needs. But when you give people three months of flexibility, and offer to do either a simultaneous exchange or a points-based swap, I think your odds are actually pretty good.
In the end this is a win for both of us. I get to replenish my Guest to Guest points bank, and they get a free place to stay for two weeks during their vacation in May. The communication from this couple has been outstanding so far, and I anticipate a very smooth exchange as they are experienced hosts already.
