The very first line of our home exchange listing mentions our two cats. We just got tired of writing back and forth to potential swap partners only to have them finally read our exchange details and discover they cannot swap due to cat allergies. It is always strange to me that someone can propose a swap without reading the actual listing, but far too many people just send out as many emails as possible and don't even bother with the details.
Just to make sure the swappers could not possibly have missed the information, we mention the cats in the first or second email we send. Even with the cat warning where it cannot be missed, we still get people who tell us they didn't realize we had cats.
A subset of swap offer we receive are from people who did read the listing. They know we have cats. But while one of the members of their family is allergic, they are still so interested in our much-larger-than-average Manhattan apartment that they propose strange compromises which they hope will allow them to work around the cats.
One woman wrote to say she could exchange with us as long as the cats stayed "out of doors". Well, we live in a high-rise Manhattan apartment building. This is obvious from our listing photos. And our cats are simply not tall enough to push the elevator button to get upstairs or downstairs.
In fact, only a few thousands of the millions of people who live in Manhattan have their own private, ground-floor garden area where a cat might live "out of doors". I am not sure how tourists picture Manhattan living, but cats that are "out of doors" here among the busy streets and sidewalks have an extremely short life-span.
You have to be comfortable in the exchange home. Sneezing or breaking out in hives won't contribute to that. If you have serious pet allergies and the swappers mention pets in their listing info, move on. It's just not going to work.
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