Kansas City Here I Come, Anyone? The Limitations of Searching Exchange Offers by Your Own Location

A few days ago I answered an enquirer's question which is one that crops up fairly regularly from potential home exchangers who don't happen to live in one of the popular large cities requested for home exchanges:

'We live in Kansas City and have a beautiful new townhouse. Can I do a search to see if anyone lists "Kansas City" as a desired destination? It seems like everyone only wants to go to places like New York, London or Paris.' - Mike

It's logical to want to save time by limiting search results to only those exchange offers from members who are most likely to be interested in your location. And, indeed, this is the reason one of the Detailed Search options on Home Base Holidays is exactly that: 'Find members looking for an exchange in your city, county/state, or country.' However, this type of search - a reverse search - is somewhat limited. It can certainly be useful for members who do live in cities such as those Mike mentioned, but the majority of members are not nearly so specific on destinations of interest.

If you browse the listings generally by country, many will indicate 'open to offers' or a country or wide area of a country - or even anywhere on a continent - as a preferred destination (rather than a particular town or city). Although there are times when finding an exchange in a very specfic location is important (e.g. when needing to be near friends or family), the most successful home exchangers keep their destination options as open as possible. By being flexible, they don't discourage contact from members with interesting exchange offers in areas they might never have thought of.

Home exchangers tend to be adventurous people who like to discover new places off the beaten tourist track and, for this reason, those who live in such areas, whether rural or a small city, should certainly find interest in their exchange offers provided they make an effort to sell the attractions of their neighbourhood as a home exchange destination. Most areas, no matter how isolated, are served by local tourist offices with useful websites (for quick access to further information, a link to such a site can be included in your home exchange listing). Kansas City is no exception. See VisitKC.com for detailed information on Kansas City attractions. The photo above, from VisitKC.com, is of the JC Nichols Fountain.

Ever since I got Mike's message I've had Fats Domino singing 'I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come' looping in my brain - which shows how old I am I guess!