Can a Home Exchange Ever be Guaranteed - Like a Toaster?

I was answering a Home Base Holidays enquiry today, trying to be as honest as possible about the enquirer's chances of arranging the exchange he wanted. On the positive side, his newly built home sounded lovely and was in a beautiful and well known location in Mexico that would, I'm sure, attract much interest from many people who would love to swap homes with him. However, his own destination request was for a very specific city/area in the US with dates that were inflexible and he 'would expect the exchange home to be as luxurious as my own.' Not a lot of leeway there! I directed this enquirer on how to easily find current exchange offers on the website by limiting his search to his city of interest. I did feel it was only fair to point out, though, that finding a suitable swap could be problematic unless he was interested in other exchange possibilities too.

Another recent enquiry started, 'Before we take up both yours and our time with a membership, give us a realistic assessment concerning our prospects for a swap'. This seemed a reasonable request and, indeed, in this case, as the enquirers not only lived in an attractive area but also were quite open on destinations they would consider (and we have lots of exchange offers in these locations), their chances of arranging an exchange would be very high. However, even in this case, it is impossible to actually 'guarantee' that they would arrange an exchange. As exchange arrangements are made between members directly, much depends both on how flexible they are on destinations/dates and on their own efforts in finding and arranging suitable exchanges.

This whole idea of guarantees is an interesting one. If I bought a new toaster with a one year guarantee, and it didn't work, I would expect it to be repaired or replaced during the guarantee period. If the guarantee was that the one year guarantee period would be extended for a second year free of charge (rather than that I got what I wanted during the first year - a toaster that worked!), the guarantee would be meaningless. In home exchange terms, a free second year circulation for an exchange offer could be useful but, like the broken toaster, would hardly be much of a benefit for someone with set dates during their membership year when they wanted to exchange. In this case, a second year free home exchange listing would be as much use as a broken toaster, i.e. no real guarantee of arranging an exchange at all. For this reason, you won't see the word 'guarantee' on the Home Base Holidays site but we try our best to ensure a good number and balance of up-to-date exchange offers to maximise your chances of arranging a suitable home swap.