What A Fiasco!

Well, we are now just over 24 hours from our plane’s scheduled departure time and what a roller coaster the last 36 hours have been. Nicole and I use homeexchange.com to schedule most of our trips. The service, up until this point, has been absolutely amazing. Nicole communicates with other homeowners who are willing to stay in Tahoe and in turn we stay in their homes. We’ve completed these exchanges, without a hitch in Valencia, Santa Cruz, Oregon, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco (a few times cause of our amazing friend Abbe) and Pacific.

Up until yesterday at 10am we thought New York was going to be added to that list. Nicole had arranged for us to exchange homes with a user who lives in Florida, but has an apartment on the Upper East Side of New York, around 61st and 6th ave. He was fairly short in their communication back and forth but told Nicole we were confirmed a month ago. Well, on Tuesday he called Nicole to tell her that he had made a mistake and double booked and that a couple of his employees were going to be using the apartment. He apologized but pretty much didn’t give a damn that we had plane tickets, broadway tickets, time scheduled out of the office etc. None of which could be cancelled. This left us with everything we needed for our vacation except somewhere to sleep…which is pretty important.

Nicole, and I this time, went into panic mode and started contacting anyone we could on either Home Exchange or VRBO (Vacation Rentals) to find a home. Nicole emailed upwards of 50 exchanges and another 25+ VRBOs to see if anyone had a home available. She tried to get a priceline hotel for under $200/night but was unable and also emailed our friend Abbe from San Francisco, who just moved to New York, to see if she knew anyone in New York that would exchange with us. She even called Home Exchange to see if they could help. The Home Exchange emails and VRBOs turned up very little other than “We are so sorry this happened, what a jack ass, our apartment is booked”. What did turn up? Abbe and the Vice President of Home Exchange.

Amazing People To The Rescue

First, Abbe. What an amazing friend. She offered to let us sleep in her apartment, even on an Aero bed, while she worked all week. She had no problem letting us completely invade her life. She also realized that she would be out of town the week we were there so after a few days we could have the apartment to ourselves. While we may have to watch Coco, her sweet little dog, at least we had an option. Next, a call from the Vice President of Home Exchange. He felt terrible about what had happened and had found one of their employees who had a home in New York available. Their programmer spends half his time in New York and half in California. Luck would have it that hew was leaving on Friday, the same day we were arriving. He hadn’t rented his apartment out so he was overly generous and told us we could use it while he was away.

What an amazing turn of luck. Abbe, Home Exchange, and their employee DJ have gone above and beyond to do their best to get us to New York without an added cost of a hotel room.

Just a few more hours of sleep, work and packing and off we go. Thanks to everyone who stepped up, our trip wouldn’t have happened without you!