Hello HomeLink Members,
Welcome to the premier issue of HomeLink Connection.
Karl and I look forward to publishing this newsletter in an effort to keep you informed and to
We will discuss items of interest that have come to our attention through communication with
We ask that you please bear with us as we refine our newsletter and encourage any ideas you may
We will continue to send separate emails to all of our members regarding items that need more
For future reference, we will reference HomeLink Connection as HLC within the contents of the
We hope you enjoy reading our premier issue of HomeLink Connection and look forward to your
Please do not reply to this email directly. Send your comments to: us@homelink-usa.org.
Kindest Regards,
Karl & Katie Costabel HomeLink USA
HomeLink USA News
Just a Reminder…
Exchange Cancellation Fund The Exchange Cancellation Fund we implemented last year has experienced a positive response, so we have decided to continue with the fund for the foreseeable future.
To learn more about the fund or if you are interested in enrollment, click here
Annual listing updates It is a good idea to update your listing annually with certain information. This information includes:
1. Preferred dates and destinations. We have included some more detail about our new feature for adding multiple dates and destinations later in this issue.
Member stories
We often receive emails from members telling us about their wonderful home exchange experiences. We would very much like to hear about yours and include them in HLC. Perhaps you might consider Including a photograph of you when submitting your story.
Please send your stories to us@homelink-usa.org with your authorization to: 1. include it in HLC 2. include the names of the HomeLink members involved.
Homelink USA Survey
We want to hear from you and believe one of the most effective tools to achieve this is through a simple survey. We will be sending you our survey via email very soon. Please take the time to complete this, as we hope to gather valuable information to use in our continued effort at improving The HomeLink Experience.
Website News
Recent Upgrades Last month we sent all of our members an email informing them of the upgrades implemented at our website. We, as HomeLink Organizers worldwide, worked together to include as many of the suggestions received from our members as possible in this upgrade.
As always, we encourage your feedback, and will continue to work toward improving our members’ HomeLink experience worldwide.
Below are some features included in our recent upgrade that our members have been inquiring about the most, as well as some minor upgrades, which may have been overlooked up to now.
Please feel free to contact us by phone or email if you would like some more personal guidance.
Multiple Dates & Destinations (found at the “Edit my listing” link)
* To broaden your search and increase your results, you can select “Show all”.
Languages spoken - for correspondence (found at the “Edit my listing” link)
Response Rate Percentage HomeLink's “Response Rate” system for members is a key feature of our secure internal messaging system, and yet another example of the pioneering innovations that set HomeLink apart from our competitors. Response Rate tracking helps our members to look at other members' listings, and quickly see their degree of responsiveness to messages received.
In case you are curious, the average USA response rate is at 77%. Although this is a bit less than the worldwide average it is quite an impressive increase, so kudos to all of you.
We know that some of you had some very old unanswered offers lurking in your inbox so we have now changed the system to calculate the response rate over the previous 12 months only.
HomeLink International News
Upcoming Events Worldwide
GERMANY "Beer or wine? That sums up the German conundrum. One is at the heart of a pilsner-swilling culture that draws kegloads of visitors annually, is the very reason for one of the world’s great parties (Oktoberfest) and is consumed with pleasure across the land. The other is exported worldwide, is responsible for gorgeous vine-covered valleys and is enjoyed everywhere, often from cute little green-stemmed glasses.
Germany is ideally located in the very heart of Europe, making it not only a simply brilliant place to visit in its own right, but also a perfect base from which to explore neighboring countries. Our German members are great HomeLinkers too, as they are some of the most active home exchangers in our entire global community. They also have a great reputation for friendly hospitality.
NEW ZEALAND Rugby World Cup 2011 Please go to this link at our HomeLink New Zealand website, Rugby World Cup 2011, for everything you need to know about this exciting event, including many HomeLink-New Zealand members in towns hosting World Cup matches.
ENGLAND Summer Olympics 2012 Caroline, one of our HomeLink UK counterparts, is setting up a registry of their HomeLink members’ homes near Olympic 2012 venues. Once they have a significant number of members on this list, they will let us know and we will pass this valuable information on to you.
AUSTRALIA In response to a request from Andrew, one of our HomeLink counterparts in Australia, we are bringing you the latest Tourism Australia advertisement, There’s Nothing Like Australia.
We encourage you to take a look at this and consider Australia for your next HomeLink exchange experience.
If you want to let us know of any upcoming events near you, please contact us at us@homelink-usa.org.
We will include your information in the following issue of of HLC, as well as forward it to our HomeLink Organizers worldwide.
END HOMELINK CONNECTION SUMMER 2010
HOMELINK INTERNATIONAL World's Largest Home Exchange Organization Office Hours: Monday thru Thursday 10AM - 1PM Eastern Time Web site http://www.homelink-usa.com
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