Making a Great Home Exchange Profile
The 5 most important things in your profile
You've decided to take the leap!
You're ready to cross that chasm!
Home exchanging, here I come! .... but you're not getting the enquiries you thought you may get?
Let's review your home profile and make sure that it's working for you. These 5 tips are the most common things that Kathy and I suggest to people to ensure their profile is in tip-top shape.
1. Photos
What's the first thing that you look at when you go to someone's profile?
The photos, right?
Photos tell us so much about a home and how it will be prepared for guests. If the home is untidy in photos, it'll probably be untidy for guests (or, at least, that's what people will think).
Add a photo for every room in your home. Add your best one in first place as this is the one that appears in search results.
Make sure they are large enough. We can scale them down but we can't scale them up as they'll be blurry.
Most importantly, present your home as your guests will find it. And, close the lid of that toilet! 😂
We often recommend Alan Harwell's blog post about photography for your profile. Great suggestions, and well worth a read.
2. Member Profile Photo
People Like Us is about people as much as it is about homes.
When you exchange with someone, they'll also be checking you out and thinking about you staying in their place.
A happy, smiling, welcoming photo makes a really big difference to the number of enquiries you'll receive.
Also, check your own listing out to make sure that you fit in the frame. Member profile photos are either square or round so portrait photos (bigger vertical than horizontal) may get chopped off.
You can change your profile photo on your Member Profile. The setting is about halfway down.
3. Descriptions
After the photos, people want detail!
Walk through your home and describe it.
Use adjectives. Let your inner real-estate agent out! 😂
Let people know what you love about your home. Again, we're about people (it's in our name!!) so personality is good!
Perhaps even more important than your home ... your local area. Why do you love it? What will people find when they stay? If you have a favourite little coffee shop, restaurant or park nearby, let us know!
4. Your Calendar
Last year, I made some massive changes to the way we present our availability.
I'm very proud of them. They're working really well.
But ... only if you're actually using it.
My blog post is too long 😳 but, here's the thing ... the calendar lets you specify exactly when you're available and looking for an exchange (and what type of exchange too).
Why does that matter?
Because you'll appear in more search results.
If you've specified availability on your calendar, we know you're much more likely to be actually available than using the old way of saying when you're not available.
Trust me .. update your calendar. And, keep it up-to-date when you're looking for an exchange too. 🙂
5. Desired Destinations
If the calendar says when you want to go, Desired Destinations tell the world where you want to go.
The option is on the Exchanging menu.
Desired Destinations work with reverse search, that is, searching for people who want to go to your region.
You can be general or specific. If you're happy to go anywhere in a country, you can specify just that country. If you're targeting a particular region or town, you can say that too.
It's important to understand reverse search so that you know how your DD's will work.
When you go to do a reverse search, you can either be exact or inexact.
If you specified Los Angeles for your reverse search, an exact search will show people who've specified exactly LA, but an inexact search would also find people who said they wanted to go anywhere in California.
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A final suggestion ... look at the profiles that attract you and think about what you love about them.
The best ideas always come from our members, so look through an attractive profile and copy those ideas.
Better, reach out to that member and tell them that you loved their profile! You may make a new friend! ❤️
Thanks for reading. If you want help or someone to take a look and make suggestions, open a Support Conversation and we'll be only too happy to help.
Happy Exchanging!
People Like Us is the world's most trusted home exchange community. We believe in sharing, trust, generosity, respect, communication, equality, cooperation, honesty, hospitality, friendship, flexibility and adventure. We take pride in our homes and we care about the environment in which we live: our village, city, country and our planet. We care about the ethos of home exchange and we do it because we love the experience and the friendships that it generates.
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