But how do you hook possible swap partners with that first email? Some people do this by featuring a special temptation in their message:
* You're welcome to use our country club!
* Keys to a new car await (be careful here, one swapper told me her minivan was "a luxury car").
* Our home is just a 15-minute walk from [extremely popular attraction] and we have free guest passes for your family to use.
Other exchangers try to elicit sympathy by noting a specific life event or deserving person who wants to visit our city. Examples of offers I have received using this approach include:
* Our grandson just made Eagle Scout so we want to bring him to [your town] as a reward.
* We are attending our niece's chorus recital at Carnegie Hall.
* My daughter has a dream of becoming a model/actor/waitress so we are taking her to meet with agencies.
While I support the work of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, I do not run a subsidiary of that agency from my home. The Make-a-Wish home exchange appeal does not really tempt me, except with the uncharitable urge to remind the family about how few pretty people actually succeed at modeling or acting.
When asking for specific swap dates, a way to make it clear the inflexibility is not the fault of the exchanger is to mention the event that brings you to the hometown of the swappers. This must be handled carefully to avoid sounding like another Make-a-Wish candidate.
Not-so-good, and I wish I were making this up:
"My birthday is June 8th. I really want to go shopping at Major Retailer on my birthday. Home exchange will free up our hotel fund so I can do more birthday shopping."
Much better:
"We would like to visit Yourtown for three to 10 days in mid-May. While we are flexible about the length of our stay, we do need to be in Yourtown on May 14 and 15 to attend a family event."
Today I received an offer that had the scariest, yet least-appealing Make-a-Wish offer yet:
"Would you be interested in our home? We want to visit NYC and have been contacted by a NY family, but they are uncertain about their visit...We should know about the pending exchange soon, so please let me know if you may be interested. We seniors really want to check out NYC one more time."
Where to start? Here is a couple that is apparently so old they are basing their travel decisions on what they can cram in to their few remaining days. Sounds like they might not be able to follow through on a swap.
Sounds like their other potential exchange partners have their own concerns about this couple for good reasons. Wait, their other potential swap partners? Why on earth are they contacting me while waiting to find out if another exchange to my town will work out? Oh, of course, to cover their bases. And if that exchange works out what happens to my vacation at their place? Nothing. If I agree to this exchange this couple gets to decide if they should honor their original offer or allow us to use their home.
This is right up there as the worst approach to getting a swap that I have ever seen. A rational exchanger would find out if their current offer will work out before lining up plan B.
In terms of swap offers that "stand out", this one really took the prize. But it's the booby prize. Make sure your swap offer stands out as gracious and appealing, not insulting and off-putting.
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