Whether you're new to HomeExchange or a seasoned exchanger, creating an appealing and accurate home listing is crucial to attracting potential exchange partners. It's your opportunity to demonstrate your home's unique features and charm.
Showcase your home with stunning photos
Pictures are arguably the most important aspect of your home listing. They allow guests to visualize their stay and imagine the time they could spend in your home.
- Ensure that your best photo is the main image. This is the first photo viewers will see from the search page, so make it count. A well-lit, inviting photo can make a world of difference.
- Make sure you include images of all the bedrooms. This helps potential exchange partners gauge if your home is suitable for their travel party. A clear layout and presentation of sleeping arrangements can often be the deciding factor for families or larger groups.
- Don't shy away from showing every room. A comprehensive visual tour gives future guests a sense of your home, and helps them envision their stay better. For smaller spaces such as a one-bedroom apartment or a studio, capture the space from different angles. This helps potential guests feel immersed in the space and can make your listing stand out.
- If your home has a garden or swimming pool, don’t forget to upload pictures of them. Depending on the type of exchange a member is looking for, these spaces could be a real attraction for guests. When it comes to photos, the more, the merrier. There’s no limit to the amount of pictures you can add to your home listing.
Once you’ve completed your home listing, you can always come back and refresh the photos. If you have refurbished or redecorated, it’s a good idea to update your pictures so that they match the home that your exchange partner will stay in.
You can read our FAQ about tips on uploading photos here.
Add an eye-catching title
These are the first words a potential exchange partner will read. By default, the title will be set to “[Your name’s] home”, which a lot of our members leave unchanged. Updating this title will catch the attention of potential exchange partners when they come across it on the search page.
The title is your home’s headline and can help other members decide if they want to read on. It can contain a mini-description of your home or highlight what type of exchange you are ideally looking for.
Write a captivating description
Your home’s description is comprised of three sections:
"What will your guests love about your home?" - Here you can add an overview of your home, and include any details that might be hard to capture in the photographs. Our members often include insight into why they love their home, how long they’ve lived there for, and information about their home’s layout.
"What will your guests love about your neighborhood?" - Here you can share your home’s proximity to nearby sites of interest and highlight your favorite local spots. What restaurants do you love? Where’s nice to go for a walk? What is an unmissable sight near you?
"Additional information" - Here you can include the nearest train station and airport, to help potential guests plan how they might reach your home. You could also set out any house rules or preferences, such as whether your home is suitable for children of certain ages. Some of our members also include details of the types of exchanges they are interested in too.
Keep your availability calendar up to date
Your calendar is one of the key elements of your home listing. Adding availability will ensure that your home appears higher up in the search results when members specify those precise dates, or opt for a flexible search in the same month.
If you are able to host a reciprocal or non-reciprocal exchange, you can make that known on your calendar. You can read more about the calendar here.