Meeting our home exchange partners is usually a treat. After months of emailing and getting to know the family we can put faces to their names. Our Florida swap partners were not making a good impression, however.
While we tried to orient the female half of the couple, her husband was buried in his hand-held email device. I tried to point out the location of the hallway trash chute and cat care supplies, but she cut me off "I got your home exchange instructions. I'm sure it's all in there."
We didn't have much time to spend with these charming people anyway. Their flight had come in 90 minutes late, delaying our own departure. I was just trying to show them the basic things other swappers had found confusing in the past, like our electrical fuse panel hidden behind a family portrait.
My tour was stopped short by the Mrs. when she got a call on her cell phone moments after entering our home. When she got off the phone she all but dismissed us "Is there anything else? My Aunt's family is coming up in a few minutes."
What? Who said your Aunt's family was welcome to come up? We had made it extremely clear that all guests were to be approved in advance. These swappers had asked if one adult couple -- in-laws of theirs -- could stay for a few days. Those were the only members of their party requested, or allowed. And now the first of who knew how many other guests were arriving within just a few minutes of our turning over the keys.
This was not looking good. For the first time I considered telling a swap family to leave. I did not feel comfortable having them in my home due to their rude manner and disrespect for the house rules they had agreed to in advance.
These were clearly not good home exchangers. They seemed to be treating our home like a hotel -- and us as the staff.
But we had a flight to catch. Filled with trepidation we headed down to the cab. As we left I turned to my family and said "hope the apartment is there when we get back".
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