HomeExchange (HE) is transitioning all the Love Home Swap members into the HE network by the end of July. This follows their purchase of Love Home Swap (LHS) about five months ago.
I’m sure there will be some integration pains. To start, LHS accounts were all frozen on July 13, causing issues for people who were trying to set up exchanges. Unfortunately, LHS members can do nothing on the website until the integration is complete.
From my perspective this integration is a good thing. I have a membership on Love Home Swap and some points I have earned on that network from hosting guests. But I no longer use that network actively. I’ve had a lot of issues with the pricing model and sneaky hidden fees on Love Home Swap. These issues will be eliminated with this transition.
LHS swap points are converting to HomeExchange points on a 1:1 basis. I think this makes sense as the value of the points should be roughly equivalent on the two networks. Although, in my experience, many homes on Love Home Swap are listed at a higher points value.
For Love Home Swap members who don’t have an existing HomeExchange account, it will be important to review your home profile as soon as the transition is complete. HE is having some issues mapping the information across the platforms and this is leading to incorrect points valuations for these newly integrated homes.
I’m hoping that HomeExchange has spent some time thinking through the issues they encountered during the integration of GuesttoGuest and HomeExchange five years ago. Those lessons could help make this integration run more smoothly.
Personally, I’m much more of a peoplelikeus.world
fan . I feel sorry for the LHS folks who are caught in the middle. We will see how many ultimately jump ship for a more authentic straightforward exchange platform like PLU
In my opinion LHS points are less valuable as you needed more per night so those of us moving from LHS are getting a good deal if hopefully not causing inflationary increases in HE points but as their model is more rigid on points fixing it should be ok
That’s a good point if your home was more highly valued on LHS than HE: this would result in extra points in your HE account when the transition is done.