Your initial contact with a swap family is your first, and possibly only, chance to get them interested in a home exchange with you. When I get an exchange offer, the approach the family has taken in its first message to me speaks volumes. And the shorter their note the more it tells me about their motivations for exchanging and the experience I will probably have when exchanging with them.
SHORT BUT NOT SWEET
A one-line email that says "We are interested in your area so take a look at our listing" is more common than you might think. What this tells me is that I am one of dozens or hundreds of people the swapper has contacted. They do not have the time or interest to write a pleasant, courteous note. They want a simple business transaction. Hospitality and cultural exchange are clearly not the main reason this kind of person does home exchange.
NOT A MATCH
Sometimes a swap offer sounds good initially. When I go to the family's swap site I find that the home is completely inappropriate for my family. The exchanger either did not read my listing or thinks we can tolerate discomfort in the service of giving them the exchange they desire. I now make it clear in the first sentence of my exchange offer that our family of five needs at least two bedrooms and is not considering a trip to Australia at this time. Yet we get several offers each week from Australians or people with studio and 1-bedroom apartments.
The reason I know that folks like this are considering only their own needs is that when I write back to say "our listing states we need at least two bedrooms" the home-owners often reply "we have a sofabed in the living room that you could use." No thank you.
TOO MUCH INFORMATION
On the flip side of the too-short swap message is the overly-detailed approach. It makes sense to say "we need to be in your area around September 22 as we are attending a wedding nearby." That makes it clear that my proposal for an exchange in November probably won't work. But I don't need to hear, as I have, that the family needs an exchange home because someone's ex-wife is staying at the kids' grandparents' house so that lodging option isn't available.
HONESTLY DECEPTIVE
Sometimes excessive honesty reveals an attempt to deceive. This generally takes the following form: "We initially wanted to do home exchange because we realized we could save a lot of money on hotels and use it to do more shopping. But then we found out it's also a more interesting way to travel."
New Yorkers are probably subjected to this un-enticing approach more than people in smaller towns with more reasonable hotel costs. Despite the lip service provided to home exchange's cultural aspects, what's clear here is they just want to save money on hotel costs. That means they are going to treat my home as a hotel room, and a free one at that. No thanks.
WRITE TO ME
The purpose of an initial home exchange offer note is to get me interested in your home exchange offer. I don't need to hear about why you want or need to try home exchange. Instead, tell me why I want or need to swap homes with you. More on this to come.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
No comments:
Post a Comment