Private KC area pools, no hassles: New app lets you rent by the hour from strangers

Deb Frey’s Prairie Village backyard pool was the unofficial hangout spot for her children and friends for decades.

When her kids grew up and moved out, and her grandchildren moved to Florida, the pool lay barren — the only action coming from her occasional summertime dip.

But now, strangers are using it instead.

After a recommendation from a friend, in early July she started renting her pool through Swimply – a new rental site that does for private pools what Airbnb does for homes.

“I’m always doing second jobs,” Frey said. “I thought, ‘well … why not?’”

Frey is one of thousands of Swimply hosts across the country renting their pools by the hour to those looking for a private swimming experience, a place to host a party, or simply a place to escape the sweltering summer heat.

“We’re democratizing luxury, something that was impossible to access for many people,” Swimply CEO and co-founder Bunim Laskin recently told The Washington Post.

After paying a neighbor to rent her pool in 2018, Laskin, 25, quickly realized the business opportunity. Taking off in cities like Los Angeles, the private pool rental lifestyle has made its way to the Midwest.

There are now dozens of eager Swimply hosts in the Kansas City area.

‘Everybody just has a ball’

The short pathway to Frey’s pool is lined with fully stocked shelves holding extra swimsuits, kitchen supplies, life jackets, goggles and an array of pool toys.

“I knew what everybody liked to do for 30 years in my pool,” she said. “So that’s why I bought the water guns, the balls, … the volleyball net.”

The pool sits amid umbrella tables and chairs, grills and a fun ocean-themed mural.

Since listing her pool in early July at $55 an hour, Frey has made over $2,500 — enough to cover her initial purchases of pool equipment for prospective guests.

“I’m in between jobs again, and so for me to go spend a couple thousand on stuff that I had no idea if (it) was even going to pan out, that was nerve-wracking,” Frey said. “Then it just started — booking, booking, booking.”

Frey has already had repeat guests, including an area church group.

“Most of them have been families,” she said. “We’ve had up to 20 (people at a time), I’d say the average is probably 10, but we’ve had lots of groups that were even moms with two of their kids that just wanted to take a quick hour swim.”

On a recent Saturday, Frey had a special guest rent her pool — another Swimply host.

Kelly Strother moved from the Kansas City area to Virginia two and a half years ago. Living on an acre of land, she and her husband decided to rent their 44-foot-long pool through Swimply last summer.

“We bought a house with a pool and I guess the pool supply company sold our information, so I started getting all these emails and ads to rent my pool out,” Strother said. “After my first trip to buy supplies for the pool, I was like, ‘oh, I don’t like paying this’ and we only swam like once a week, so I signed up.”

The next day, she had a booking.

“It was like $250 for two hours,” for a large party, she said. “We’ve maxed out at like $10,000 to $15,000 a month.”

Strother’s hourly rental rate is $30 per five people. She and her husband also have “glamping” (glamorous camping) sites on their property, which they list through the Swimply app and Airbnb.

“It’s only for four people, so they can pay $250 for two people and $250 for couples and then swim all night, after hours,” she said.

Their property has additional features like an outdoor movie theater, popcorn machine, cotton candy machine and grills that are available for an extra fee.

On this Saturday, while relaxing at Frey’s pool with her family, Strother had around 70 guests holding a party in her pool back home. Her husband was home at the time.

Though it is not required, many Swimply hosts, including Frey and Strother, usually stay on the property while guests are swimming.

“Everybody just has a ball,” Frey said. “It’s just been fun.”

The investment

Mike Pruneau lost his IT job with Dell during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A few months later, he landed another job at ABCloudZ, a company headquartered in Ukraine. He was working remotely from his Prairie Village home.

“Their headquarters, where 80% of their employees were, took a direct hit,” Pruneau said. “They shut down all U.S. operations in February.”

While looking for employment, he started renting his backyard pool through Swimply.

“I didn’t start until June 1,” he said. “In the month of July, I’ve earned about $4,000.”

Pruneau rents his pool for $70 per hour, with an additional $10 per person after 10 guests. He offers towels, access to his grill, an outdoor heater and an outdoor fireplace.

“It takes about an hour and a half to get ready,” for bookings, Pruneau said. “You need an hour between bookings to clean up and straighten up.” But, you can clean up in 30 minutes if you need to, Pruneau added.

The effort has put a bit of a hold on Pruneau’s job search.

“I’m trying to look for employment, but when there’s parties going on it’s really hard,” he said.

The option to rent a pool for a few hours, rather than going to a public pool, is enticing for families.

“It’s hard to take little kids somewhere and enjoy it,” a recent guest at Pruneau’s pool said. “The neighborhood pool is fun, but you can’t do everything you can with other people there. It’s more fun to have the privacy.”

Offsetting pool expenses

Tony Melchionne joined Swimply in May.

“We have grandkids, but they’re not in it every day and so it’s expensive to build and operate a pool,” Melchionne said. “We thought … maybe it’ll help offset some of our expenses.”

It did, and then some.

“Right now with the current bookings that we have, (we’ve made) probably $12,000,” Melchionne said.

His Olathe pool is listed for $75 per hour for up to 10 people, with an additional $10 per person after that.

The Melchionnes built their pool in 2018. The initial investment was steep — well over $100,000 for the pool itself and additional costs for the outdoor restroom, pavilion, kitchen and amenities.

“Why I think our pool gets a lot of attention is that we do have that privacy, and we do have that private restroom,” Melchionne said, a rarity for Swimply pools.

Instead of offering an outdoor restroom, Pruneau and Frey made small modifications to door locks, so people can easily have access to the restroom, including a shower, while maintaining privacy in the rest of their home.

Liability

Swimply extends hosts a $1 million liability insurance policy and $10,000 in property-damage protection, The Post reported.

Some hosts go above and beyond that for property safety and the safety of their guests.

Pruneau has a “$2 million umbrella override for any accidents,” he said.

Additionally, he has 24/7 live camera feeds in the backyard.

“I do that for liability purposes,” Pruneau said. “I think it’s critical for Swimply pool owners to have cameras.”

Others, like Frey, have medical equipment on site.

“At some point you have to trust and you have to know you have insurance,” Frey said. “But, if something happens … here’s your backboard … first aid kit, CPR masks, and everything else you’ll need.”

For more information on how to list, or rent, an area pool visit swimply.com.