" I agree - and I think some home exchange clubs vastly over inflate their numbers by allowing rental listings and then including them in the total listings figures.
She goes on to share a story I just hate hearing. She had the misfortune to encounter vanishing home exchangers.:
"I have a question though. We have two properties listed for home exchange: our main home and a second home. Our second home is a big house (sleeps 12) in a desirable tourist location. We agreed a non simultaneous home exchange with our second home back in May. The exchangers were to use the house starting from Saturday 4th Aug for ten days (peak season) and we would use their second home at a later date. (We are actually on a simultaneous home exchange as I write, but with our main home). All seemed well until two weeks before the exchange date when communication ceased. We have tried emailing (several times) calling the contact number they gave (unobtainable) but no response. We are pretty annoyed as this is a peak season period and the house could have been rented out instead."
Burning a swap partner like this is unforgivable. It's the kind of thing that can turn someone off to home exchange entirely. And it is so unnecessary. If you have to cancel a swap don't compound the inconvenience by failing to mention it to your swap partner! Salli is contemplating her next step:
"We wondered whether to report them to the owners of the home exchange club to which they belong - is this apropriate [sic]? We have only lost out financially (approximately $2000+ from lost rentals). Someone else, swapping their primary home, may have lost out on the cost of flights, their holiday or worse."
It is essential to let exchange clubs know about problems like this. They might not do anything about your complaint, but they cannot ignore it if several members point out bad behavior by the same swapper.
We need another way. We need to be able to pick the right swap partner. If there is a problem we deserve recourse. I have some ideas about this which I will share later on.
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