After about a week I wrote to the folks who had offered us a villa in Italy. I had responded within ten minutes that their exact dates were available. I never heard back. I re-sent my email with a brief note saying they must not have received the first email. That finally got a response.
WHAT'S WRONG?
It turns out that the exchangers had a very specific reason for not responding after their original request: we have two cats. They do not have allergies, but one spouse was "not raised with pets in the home" and was "scared" to be around cats. That's valid. Except for the fact that we note in the very first sentence (and in several other places) of our listing that we have cats. Not scary cats, by the way. They are declawed and very gentle (one hides when home exchangers are in our apartment and they generally never see her).
PRE-SELECT TO AVOID HAVING TO DISAPPEAR
It would have been very easy for these exchangers to avoid a sticky situation: all they had to do was briefly glance at our listing and they would have known that our home was not suitable for them. Blitzing hundreds of people with swap requests then realizing you cannot swap with most of them is not a great idea. I will never even consider an exchange with these flaky, weird people again, even if I eventually find myself fresh out of cats.
RESPONDING to HIDDEN PROBLEMS
What if your concern about the potential swap partners wasn't immediately evident? The best protection is to get the photos and details you need to make a decision about the exchange before committing. We'll discuss that approach in detail another day.
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