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An Airbnb for backyard pools? With this app, you can rent them by the hour.
An Airbnb for backyard pools? With this app, you can rent them by the hour.
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Summer rentals: Where to rent pools, boats, tennis courts
Spice up your summer by renting out amazing pools and boats with these websites.
Years ago, startups called Uber and Airbnb changed the way Americans thought about taxicabs and hotels.
An app named Swimply is attempting another paradigm shift. This time, the subject is swimming pools.
Swimply allows users to rent backyard pools by the hour. Launched in 2019, the company now hosts 15,000 private pools in more than 150 cities, according to Bunim Laskin, its 28-year-old CEO. He says business has doubled in the past year.
Renting a neighbor's swimming pool is 'a brand-new behavior that's objectively healthy for people in every conceivable way,' Laskin said. 'It's the one app that lets you put your phone away and spend time with the people you love.'
Renting a backyard pool: How does that work?
And if you own a backyard pool, you might be wondering how, exactly, an app like Swimply would work.
How might it feel to have a carload of strangers show up and jump into your pool? What would the neighbors think? Who supplies the towels?
Just like Uber and Airbnb before it, Swimply has inspired bureaucratic puzzlement in some local governments.
Remember the days when Uber threatened the nation's taxicab fleet, and when cities mobilized to ban Airbnb rentals? Similar skirmishes have erupted over Swimply.
In Rockland County, New York, officials are investigating whether private pool rentals violate public health codes. Regulators in Minnesota and North Carolina are treating Swimply rentals as 'public pools,' with all that the term implies about licensing and regulation. Affluent D.C. suburbs have struggled with Swimply.
Laskin said the regulatory challenges have affected 'less than 0.2%' of pool hosts.
'Pools are very dangerous things'
Questions swirl, too, about potential liability. Swimming pools are, after all, filled with water. People can drown in water. Many homeowners go to great lengths to keep strangers out of their backyard pools, rather than lure them in.
'Pools are very dangerous things,' said Matthew Alegi, a real estate lawyer outside Washington, D.C. 'There's no lifeguard sitting at these Swimply pools.'
Of course, the idea of renting a backyard pool is nothing new. Many vacation rentals come with pools. Home-sharing and vacation rental sites Airbnb and Vrbo offer liability insurance. Some insurers offer short-term rental coverage.
With Swimply, however, you're only renting the pool. In the home insurance world, that's a less familiar scenario.
'The issue is that these homeowners are not doing the research to make sure their policy is going to cover it if something goes wrong,' said Khalil Farah, a personal injury attorney in Jacksonville, Florida.
Laskin, Swimply's CEO, said the app offers every pool-rental host $1 million in liability coverage, a provision patterned on Airbnb. All pool guests sign waivers.
Farah worries, though, that Swimply's insurance policy has 'a ton of exclusions.' If pool renters drink alcohol or violate the rental agreement, he said, Swimply will deny coverage.
Farah said pool hosts would be wise to contact their home insurer, explain the situation and ask for a policy addendum that covers the liabilities inherent in renting out a backyard pool.
'You need to make sure the insurance agent knows what you're using it for,' he said.
More: Rising cost of homeowners insurance is scaring away millions of Americans
As for families thinking of renting someone else's pool, Alegi said they, too, should know the potential risks, especially if they rent outside their own community.
'You don't know the people,' he said. 'You don't know the location. You don't know how many ring cameras there are.'
Pool hosts must set ground rules with neighbors
Swimply has taken a cautious approach to pool rentals, Laskin said, fully aware that not everyone on the block will welcome random strangers in swimsuits.
Pool hosts are required to reach out to neighbors to establish ground rules about parking cars, pool hours and other items of etiquette.
'And we give neighbors a way to report when it doesn't work out,' Laskin said.
All new pool listings "go through a 24-hour verification process by our trust and safety team" to ensure they are safe and secure, Laskin said, followed by an ongoing "review and reporting system." Any pool rental with a one-star review is removed from the app.
Laskin said he dreamed up Swimply in 2018. He was the oldest of 12 children in a Lakewood, New Jersey, household. A neighbor had installed a swimming pool.
Eying the pool, Laskin offered to help the neighbor with her expenses if she allowed the Laskin kids to use it. The neighbor reluctantly agreed. Within two weeks, she had five families renting her pool, each paying some of the costs.
Inspired, Laskin set about building a business.
'I went on Google Earth, found 80 swimming pools, knocked on everyone's doors, got four people to agree, and just plastered my phone number around town,' he said.
From four pools to 15,000
Laskin started out with four Lakewood pools for rent. By summer's end, 20 more pool owners had signed on. By the summer of 2019, the list of hosts had grown to 40.
Laskin dropped out of school, raised $1 million and launched Swimply. The app grew from five cities in 2019 to 35 in 2020. Business boomed in the pandemic, as families searched for uncrowded pools. Swimply is based in Venice, California, not far from its competition: the ocean.
Between 2024 and 2025, Laskin said, the number of Swimply hosts doubled from 7,000 to 15,000. He thinks inflation helped.
'People are looking for additional sources of revenue more than ever, and people are looking to stay local,' he said.
Swimply is inordinately popular with stay-at-home moms, a population always looking for healthy outdoor activities. Roughly 70% of Swimply guests are families, Laskin said. Others are lone adults looking to swim laps. A few are larger groups seeking pool parties. Nearly all guests rent pools in their own communities.
Pool hosts are allowed to exclude large groups, children or pets. You can also invite pets. The pet-friendly pool has surged in popularity, Laskin said.
Hourly fees can top $300, for palatial pools with ocean views. Nine out of 10 rentals happen in summer, but some owners turn a big business in winter with indoor pools, hot tubs and other warm options.
Some hosts toss in extra services. Laskin and his wife have rented pool packages that came with chef-prepared dinners, magic shows and pickleball lessons.
'The goal was for your backyard pool to make you a couple hundred bucks, maybe a thousand bucks in summer,' Laskin said. 'And now we have folks earning $100,000 a year. The goal was to have it pay for your pool. Now it's paying for people's mortgages.'
