The exchange
How a night becomes credit
Luxury Holiday Homes Exchange is an accounting circle for houses that already exist. Owners do not pay each other for a member stay. They trade the value of nights they were willing to give up.
1. Put a value on the house
Each home has a nightly base in rands, taken from what a comparable holiday rental would fetch. In the demonstration pool that is about R8,500 at Zimbali, R8,000 at Oubaai, R9,000 in Plettenberg Bay, R7,300 in Dullstroom, and R4,200 in Clarens. You can change the base later. Nights already committed keep the value they were given on the day you committed them.
2. Commit the nights you will not use
Credit for a night is base value times that date’s season multiplier. Peak summer is currently 1.5x. Winter is 0.7x. Dates with no special window use the standard multiplier, 1.0x. An administrator can change every one of these.
A committed peak night at Robberg Lookout is R13,500. A standard night at Sandstone Cottage in Clarens is R4,200. The same credit therefore buys more than two Clarens nights for one peak night at Plett. A winter night at Trout & Timber is R5,110, because the highlands use the same winter multiplier unless you change the calendar.
3. Spend credit on someone else’s house
A member stay costs the sum of the host’s committed nights, plus an exchange fee of 5%. On that Plett peak night the fee is R675 in credit. The fee leaves circulation. The host does not earn a second time, because they were credited when they committed the night. Oldest credit is used first. Unused credit expires after 12 months.
In your first 12 months you can book one stay with committed-night credit, worth up to R50,000 cr including the fee. More stays in that first year need credit from nights other members have actually stayed in your home. This protects the pool from a house nobody books. From your second year, normal rules apply.
4. Release what members do not take
If a committed night is still open 45 days before check-in, an outside guest may request it at the same rand value. They do not pay the member exchange fee. The platform keeps 30% and the owner’s share is tracked as a payout. On a R7,300 Dullstroom night that commission is R2,190 and the owner’s tracked share is R5,110. Before the request is accepted, the owner has 24 hours to object. Silence approves it. This preview does not charge a card, so the booking then shows payment pending.
Credit is earned when you commit, even if that night is later rented to an outside guest. The cash payout is recorded separately. Read the tax and estate disclaimers before treating any of this as advice.