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Home Exchange Blog
As more and more of the so called “home exchange” web sites bolster their listings by going hybrid, and accept out and out rentals, the few remaining true home exchange sites are losing out badly in the perceived numbers game. On paper, the companies that boast 10,000 and 15,000 listings appear to offer significantly more opportunities for the as yet uncommitted home exchanger, cruising the web sites for the best deal for their money. They simply don’t realize that a huge chunk of those listings are rentals.

As I see it, these potential home exchangers are getting duped. So too are the press who are only interested in numbers.

ExchangeHomes.com (and a few other companies who began back in the ’80s, around the same time as ourselves), have always recognized that a percentage of home exchangers do have second (and sometimes third) homes, and wish to use these properties for home exchange, and then for the remainder of the year utilize them as rentals. To qualify to list them with us, the prerequisite is that they must first list them for home exchange.

ExchangeHomes.com also stipulates that the owners of these properties do not use the website to actively tout them as rentals to fellow members. First and foremost they must be for home exchange.

When the opportunity arises to discuss this ethic with members and visitors, they all wholeheartedly agree with me. They searched on the web for home exchange opportunities, not rentals. As one member so eloquently put it - “I thought the companies touting home exchange want us to believe that home exchange offers something that is far superior to rentals. So why then do they then contradict themselves and list rentals?”

More and more we are turning away people who try to join and list a straight rental. Often they will call us and complain that they cannot remove “home exchange” from the list of options (it’s a default).

It’s such a pity that when a potential member contacts us, one of their first questions is always: how many members do we have. I explain that they should be asking a) How many members do we have in the area they wish to visit, or b) How many HOME EXCHANGE members do we have. But, their skepticism is easy to detect, just below the surface.

I sincerely hope that the clubs who have ethics similar to our own stick by their principals. I also hope that the press will catch on and begin asking for a truthful breakdown of some of the others’ listings.

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