Review:

Home Xchange Vacation started in 2006. The membership cost is listed as $29 for 3 months ($116/year). Listings are not removed unless the member cancels subscription with one month notice. There is also a free basic membership that allows members to list their residence, but not initiate trades. Unfortunately basic members are apparently not removed, as our membership is several years old.

Although there are many listings on HomeXchange Vacations, many of them are incomplete with a "details to follow soon" message. Others make no sense like a one bedroom that sleeps seven! It seems as if people join for free and do not follow through on completing the membership process. Therefore it is difficult to ascertain the true number of valid listings.

The search options are rather limited. While there is a map based search which works well, it is only state specific as is the pull-down menu. Finding a specific city is difficult with no write-in option. There is a travel date search option and a calendar to check availability on each listing. The reverse search is only country specific.

There is an opportunity to provide feedback on the exchanger. Some members seem to be confused as to its purpose and use it to contact the listing member which makes the correspondence open. Perhaps an explanation of the feedback form would be useful on the new video tutorial section, which we love! About 55% of their listings come with pictures. Updated 02/09