As promised, today we continue with a brief introduction to the different sections of our website: Home, Search, Community and FAQ. Let’s get started with the first two and leave the Community and FAQ for tomorrow.

HOME

In the centre of the Home section we show you the top three countries with the most registered houses available for home exchange and the cities with most registered houses within those three countries. There are some popular travel destinations there: Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome. Every country name or city name links directly to the list of houses available for home exchange in that country or city, so it could be very useful if you have your mind set on any of the destinations shown in that list.

The right side panel is dedicated to showing the discussions in the Community forum that received comments recently and the latest homes added to HomeForHome.

SEARCH

The very useful Search section has two main areas, a left panel where you can choose your search options and a central area where the search results are displayed.

You can specify:

- Travel dates.
- Destination: Country, Region, Town/City. You should always allow a few seconds before selecting the sub-levels because only after you choose the country from the first drop-down menu, the region drop-down menu will load the proper options, allowing you to make your selection, and only after you select the region, the same will happen with the town drop-down menu. You can also select the country and then leave the region and city in blank to search for home exchange offers in any particular country, for example France.
- Type of house. There are three options in the drop-down menu: Flat, House, Rural-house, and a few checkboxes you can mark.
- Services.
- Activities.
- Other. This section will let you select the number of bedrooms, double beds, single beds and bathrooms.

You don’t have to specify your selection for every search option before you hit the “Search” button, but you may want to include all the things you can’t do without. For example, under Services: Internet or Washing machine, or under Activities: Beach!

After you get your search results, you can use the feature “Put in order of” to sort them by area, number of rooms, services, facilities, evaluation (these are opinions given by users that already made a home exchange to this house) and the date the house was first registered for home exchange.

By clicking on the home title you will access the property’s complete description. If you find an offer that you like, you will be able contact the owner directly using the “Contact” button available in every profile or home listed. There is also a button to “Request exchange” in each home description.