Dates Available - these are the dates that a member wants to arrange an exchange and are shown as ranges of dates, e.g. Mar 08 - June 08 would indicate that the member wants an exchange some time during this period (the length of exchange is shown separately). A listing may show more than one range of dates as members can often consider exchanges at different times during the year. When a member can be flexible on dates, Dates Available will show as 'Open to Offers'. What to look out for: Dates Available, when shown as a range of dates, should always include the year. If only months are shown, there's no way of knowing if the member wants an exchange this year, next year - or had wanted an exchange last year or the year before. Join or Registration Date - this is the date a member joined or renewed and is important as it clearly shows how long the listing has already been in circulation. Expiry Date - this is the date the listing will expire and, if not renewed on or before this date, should no longer be displayed. This is a very important date as, viewed in conjunction with the Join date, you can see at a glance how long any listing will be in circulation. What to look out for: no listings with expired dates or very out of date exchange date requests should be shown. Members are generally most active in looking for exchanges during the first few weeks of their membership and very long membership periods can mean that many older listings in circulation are no longer available. It is for this reason that the longest Home Base Holidays membership period is two years. Members who want to arrange further exchanges renew their listings on or before the expiry date. Note: join and expiry dates are details that you should be able to see in all listings before joining. Without this basic information, you have no means of telling how up-to-date listings are, and, if this is the case, total numbers shown are next to useless as an indication of how likely you are to arrange an exchange. Listing Updated: Home Base Holidays members can update their listings whenever needed. The last date a listing was updated is not included in our listings for the simple reason that this is not nearly as important as Join and Expiry dates. What to look out for: don't confuse Listing Updated with the Join/Registration date. Listing Updated merely means that the member (or site owner) has changed the listing in some way on this date, and this 'updated' date could be many months after the member had joined. New Listings - these are the listings of members who have joined or renewed recently. What to look out for: listings, described as new, should not be a mixture of new and older listings that have recently been updated unless this is clearly indicated. The separate New Listings on Home Base Holidays are members who have joined or renewed in the last 31 days and are listed in order of joining, with the newest listings shown first in search results. Last Minute Offers/Hot List: members who are looking for exchanges soon, usually within the next three months.It's no wonder that potential home exchangers can sometimes be a little confused when browsing home exchange offers. There can be so many types of dates to keep straight - and it doesn't help that the format for showing dates (day, month, year) varies in different countries. I hope this helps describe various dates you will see in home exchange listings:
Hi Patricia
Hey, it's great to see when a post I've published gets a good response - and so quickly! Thanks for your encouraging and insightful comments. Sometimes I do wonder if it's a waste of time trying to get across the importance of being able to tell how 'fresh' home exchange listings are. People (including, sad to say, most journalists) seem to focus almost exclusively on the numbers of listings claimed by home exchange sites, which is such a shame, as this certainly does a disservice to home exchange clubs that appear to be much smaller but may, in many cases, provide the best opportunities for exchanges.
I don't know your background of course but, as you are clearly a v. perceptive person and have obviously done careful research on home exchange, it would be great if you decided to share your insights for the benefit of other potential home exchangers.
Cheers!
Lois
Posted by: Lois | November 23, 2007 at 10:58 AM
Thank goodness someone has finally clearly described the various dates you see in home exchange listings. Thank you! It is really very confusing if you look at some of the home exchange sites that claim to have many listings but, when you look closely, they have some very long membership periods (I've even seen some that offer lifetime membership. Come on - isn't that just a way to keep some very old listings on their websites to make it look better?) And thanks especially for clearing up the difference between the date that someone joined and when they might have tweaked their listing a little to have it added to a hotlist. Those of us who get confused by all the sites offering home exchange (I avoid the free ones myself after trying one and finding it a complete waste of time) really could do with some guidance so we can avoid the sites that are devious in not providing the information on how long their listings are kept on their sites upfront. Has anyone thought of doing this? If not, maybe I'll do it myself!
Posted by: PatriciaW | November 23, 2007 at 10:25 AM