HOME EXCHANGE TOUGH LOVE

First my incoming home exchange partners had booked a room at a homeless shelter "hotel".  Then they balked at canceling their reservation, claiming they would not be able to get a refund.  Putting myself in their shoes, I might be suspicious if folks whose home I was about to use told me just a week before I was set to arrive that my hotel choice was unacceptable.  But this couple didn't have to take my word for it that the "hotel" was illegally renting rooms meant to keep homeless people off the street.  The truth about the illegal hotel was all over the internet.  In fact, of 500 hotels in Manhattan that were listed on the website they used, this "hotel" was ranked in the bottom 10%.  That should have been a clue for the Europeans.  But it seems price was more important to them than any other factor in choosing a room.


This was not making me eager to swap with them.  If I had to spend one night at a hotel before starting my swap and locals informed me that it was really a homeless shelter with a few extra rooms for tourists I would thank them and take my bedbug-free luggage to a different hotel, not quibble about having to cancel the reservation.


It was time for some tough love with my European swap couple.  They could confirm the hotel room I had booked for them at a discount or they could find another place to stay.  Their judgement was not making me feel confident about letting them use my home.


Here's what I told them:

If you want to cancel the use of my apartment I understand completely.  If you want to use my apartment or cancel using it (either way) I need to know by tomorrow at 5pm New York time.  If I do not hear from you by that time I will take it to mean that you want to cancel the use of my apartment.  I need to know by that time so I can cancel the hotel I booked for you down the street from my home.

If you do want to use my apartment you also need to give the new hotel your credit card number by tomorrow at 5pm.  If you want to use my apartment you must stay in the hotel I booked or another real hotel in the area, not the homeless shelter uptown.

I looked at the site you used to book the homeless shelter room.  When you call customer service a recording says you can get a full refund by going in to your itinerary and clicking "refund".  If you can't do that you can email them in advance to let them know they are advertising an illegal "hotel".  New York City has very strict laws about what is and is not a hotel so they will have to give you a refund.

Below is the refund info from the website you used.  I need to know what your plans are as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Nicole

I don't know if the exchangers didn't believe me about the fact that their hotel choice was a homeless shelter, if they didn't want to pay a few bucks more to stay at a real hotel, if they truly believed they could not get a refund, despite the stated policy of the booking site they used, or if they just didn't want to be bothered to switch reservations.  I also did not care.


Cancelling a scheduled home exchange is a very bad thing to do.  Home exchange is based on trust and the ultimate betrayal of trust is cancelling a swap for any reason.  In fact, I kept my commitment to complete a non-simultaneous exchange the week after my mother passed away.  Despite my grief I found another place to stay and welcomed my swap partners instead of canceling the exchange.


In this case, I was not about to get bedbugs just because these European swappers were cheap or lazy.  It was my way or the highway for the Europeans.  Would they choose to hitch hike or would they call the hotel with their credit card?  My vacation plans -- and theirs -- hung in the balance.


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