There is no way my incoming home exchangers were staying in my home after spending the night of their arrival in a homeless shelter posing as a hotel. But their response when I revealed the true identity of their "hotel" was disconcerting. They were more interested in saving money than avoiding bedbugs.
My first, tactful contact was not effective. My second email laid things on the line: confirm a reservation at a legitimate hotel or do not plan to stay in my home.
The direct approach worked. The swappers emailed me to say they had canceled the homeless shelter reservation without penalty and provided their credit card number to book a decent cheap hotel down the street from my home.
After the swappers' bizarre unwillingness to cancel the illegal hotel, my trust level was low. I called the new hotel and asked if the reservation I made was secured with a credit card. I had made the reservation in the exchanger's name and provided my own credit card. The clerk would not tell me the last four digits of the card, so I could not be sure my card was removed from the reservation. But he did read the name of the current credit card holder listed on the reservation. Since it included the middle name of the swapper -- which I did not know -- I knew he had actually given his info to the hotel.
The exchangers' poor judgment really set off alarm bells for me. It is one thing to book a room without bothering to read the warnings about the hotel that are all over the web. It is another thing to want to go ahead and stay in a homeless shelter for fear of losing a few dollars on a reservation. However, now that the swappers had done what I asked I felt duty-bound to honor my commitment to them. Unless they did something else stupid...
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