Over the winter, in addition to listing my Creekside Condo on Airbnb, I tried out this new home swapping app called Kindred. I came across an ad for Kindred on Instagram and was intrigued by the idea of home swapping, having never done it before. After further research, I learned that Kindred provides a way for home owners who maybe don’t fall under zoning for nightly rentals to either swap homes traditionally or gain credits to then use for future stays around the world at other Kindred members homes.
The platform is easy to use and the customer service is fantastic. They offer a concierge service that you can text with any questions and they get back to you right away. When listing your house or condo on Kindred, you have to apply and attend an orientation before you are accepted into the community. I believe that they only accept homes that meet their requirements and guidelines, but once you are a Kindred member, the homes available for potential stays are beautiful and the portal platform is very easy to use! Once you finish orientation and your home is listed, they hire a professional photographer for you (free of charge), send you toiletries, towels and bed sheets for guests and hire a cleaner for you. They make listing your place as easy and stress free as possible.
You can also review the detailed profiles of people requesting to stay at your home and they often send an introduction video. I found people using the app to be very friendly and respectful. This is likely because they are also home owners themselves. I found it to be really helpful to be able to get recommendations and suggestions from the people staying at your home and the hosts you connect with.
Kindred promotes their app an opportunity for injecting some spontaneity in your regular travelling plans. You have two options. One, you can put your house up to swap with another member on the dates you want to travel. The portal will then either match you with a place in your desired area, or you can leave it open to accept swaps with anyone else interested all over the world. Two, if you simply want to list your place, and not swap, you can bank credits and use them at a later date. The only catch is you must use the credits only to stay at a Kindred member’s home. Once you bank credits there are quite a lot of homes to choose from, you just search for the area and dates you want, then you can use your credits.
It is quite a cool idea and after a winter of Airbnb-ing my place (and having strangers be quite rough with it) I am going to stick to just listing it on Kindred for now.
I have posted some photos of my condo that the professional photographer took in this post. For more photos of my condo follow it on Instagram - @creeksidecondo So far I am a big fan :)
