Somewhere to be between trips

Most of home exchange happens in the gaps. The months between the trip you've just come home from and the one you're quietly turning over. That's when you're looking at homes in a country you can't yet justify, or wondering whether anyone's been to Puglia in October and what they made of it.

Until now there hasn't been much of a place for that conversation. The Feed existed, but it was one room, and only Premium members could get through the door.

That changes today.

Two Feeds, not one

Everyone is the public square. It's open to every member, Premium or not. Say hello, ask a question, get the measure of the people here long before you propose anything. If you've been circling PLU wondering whether it's your sort of place, this is the room where you can stand and listen for a while.

Premium is the Feed you already know. Nothing has moved and nothing has gone: every post, comment, and reaction is exactly where you left it. It stays the private space for sharing your home, swapping travel notes and putting exchanges together.

And a Feed for every Community you've joined

This is the part we're most pleased about.

Each Community now has a Feed of its own: a conversation, with photos, comments and replies, among people who already have something in common with you. The ones who know that the ferry is better than the train, or which week in spring is worth planning around.

You'll find them all down the left-hand side of the Feed: Everyone at the top, Premium beneath it, then every Community you belong to.

Your old Community conversations have come with you. Each one is now a post in that Community's Feed, replies and all.

One place for all of it

There's a Community menu at the top of the site now, sitting next to Feed. It holds the things you do here when you're not travelling: the Feed itself, Discover Communities, Meetups, and Stories and Testimonials from other members.

Meetups has moved across from the Exchanging menu, where it never quite belonged. Meeting other members isn't really part of arranging a trip. It's part of the other thing, the reason to be here in between.

The old My Communities menu has gone, and we think you'll find this a fair swap. The Communities you belong to are listed down the side of the Feed, where the conversation actually is, and your dashboard has a My Feeds card showing which ones have been busy lately.

Sharing in both directions

When you write something in Premium, you can cross post it to Everyone with a tick. Useful when you're offering your home for a stretch of free dates and you'd rather every member saw it, not only the Premium ones. The two copies gather their own replies, and if you edit or delete one, we'll ask what you'd like to do with the other.

As much or as little as you like

Some Communities are busy. Some are a few messages a month. So you can set each one separately: in-app for the ones you want to follow closely, a weekly email digest for the rest. Any Feed can be muted for a day, a week, or indefinitely, and you can change your mind whenever you like.

Every Feed shows the PLU community guidelines, and Communities can add their own. If something isn't right, report it and it goes straight to the people who look after that Community.

Come and say hello

Open the Feed and have a look around. Post something small: where you're thinking of going next, or a photo from the trip you've just had. The Communities that work best are the ones where people turn up.

We'd love to see you there. 🏡