Our first port of call or home exchange is secured. We've signed our agreement with the German family near the Baltic Sea.It includes the car rental. They have a nice SUV like us and a little motorboat complete with boathouse. You could have parties there. I'm sure they do.
For us, our exchange party only consists of my husband and me and possibly my adult children, if they then choose to visit there. Might be a tad boring in the sticks for them. I remember a short trip with my parents to a similar area in the Germany countryside, if beautiful with lakes and heather etc. And I found it unnervingly boring. The number of visitors to each house needs to be specified for insurance reasons. You don't want your exchangers to throw big parties there...
Finer points have to be discussed, e.g. when everybody arrives at the other place and where then the keys are handed over.On our last exchange, the french family arrived ate at night in pelting Florida rain and triggered off our security alarm not being able to put the code in instantly. That resulted in the cops turning up and citation for us.
So this has to carefully recorded  so that everybody knows what to do...even in a downpour in the middle of the night.
While planning our trip further on to the West of France we found the logistics of getting there form Eastern Germany quite daunting.Then fate or rather my husband's employer took the decision out of our hands and changed his work schedule, meaning he has to return to the States earlier than we had planned with that nice French family. They were so "deceived". Speaking French, I knew they meant" disappointed" which resulted in a few laughters. No hard feelings, hopefully we can make this desirable trip next year.