How to Rent Pools in Tampa Bay with the Airbnb of Swimming

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS – The sound of dogs barking signaled we were in the right place. We were staying with someone to use the pool.

The barking also signaled… oh. We were at someone’s house to use the pool. Intimidating ? Refreshing? Humiliation? We were going to find out.

Borrowing from backyard pools is the conceit of Swimply – in my mind, that means half-swimming, half-wimping in terms of jitters. The Airbnb-style online marketplace helps owners rent out their pools by the hour. In these crazy, sunny months, low-stakes floating becomes a particularly attractive business model.

After surfing the app, a photographer and I decided to visit the Tampa home of Laura and Tanner Summers, both aged 32, for a few hours of Investigative Leisure. Did I just invent a new series? Anyway, Laura, sunny and friendly, let us in. It was only at our request (begging, pleading) that she let go of her gorgeous dachshunds, Winston and Wendall, to wriggle a few laps around the pool.

The Summers lucked out with an estate sale and had the funds to repair the pool at their Seminole Heights home. It became their pandemic project. They added a small putting green, a bar, an outdoor TV box, a new terrace. The result was worthy of social media.

They ran into adverts for Swimply on Instagram and joined in May, knowing their pool would be a prime candidate.

“I never grew up with a swimming pool,” Laura said. “I always thought it was the best thing when I could go to a friend’s house with a pool.”

Swimply rents out over 25,000 pools in the United States, Canada and Australia. Costs range from $15 per hour to several hundred. She and Tanner charge $40 an hour for up to five people with an additional $5 per person thereafter. They don’t get rich, they just make money. Swimply keeps 10%, she says, so they walk away with $36 an hour.

The idea was born when Bunim Laskin, then 20 and the eldest of 12 children, noticed that his New Jersey neighbor’s swimming pool was often unused. He asked if his family could take a bath and paid a small fee to compensate for his upkeep. Soon, he said, the whole neighborhood was paying to swim there. He and co-founder Asher Weinberger scanned Google Earth for homes with pools and knocked on doors.

In 2020, Laskin appeared on the show “shark tank” looking for an investment from the notoriously difficult panel of celebrity moguls.

“Is this really for real?” said Marc Cuban. “Who in the world thought that was a good idea?” said Robert Herjavec. “I think the whole idea is really crazy,” Barbara Corcoran said. Laskin left without a deal.

The pandemic, however, has been good for the swimming industry. Now Swimply claims to have 100 new people applying to host every day, with some earning six figures a year. Laura met these mega-users in the private Swimply Facebook group, she said, mostly in parts of the country with less swimming pools.

She showed us around, pointing out foam noodles and a grill. A Seminole Heights mural beamed with above the fence. As I posted instagram pool videos, subscribers chimed in with the same two questions:

1. Uh, are the owners there?
2. Um, what is the bathroom situation?

Swimply leaves both to the hosts. Most offer en-suite, but before you book you can review amenities ranging from Wi-Fi to hot tubs to sound systems. We had access to a home office bathroom with an entrance on the side of the house. It was a relief; I dreaded running into someone’s kitchen wrapped in a towel like a five-year-old having a bathroom emergency at Uncle Lou’s 60th birthday barbecue.

Hosts control party sizes, and summers set their limit at 20. Many pools on Swimply allow parties, a popular selling point because Airbnb has outright banned large gatherings.

In the worst-case scenario category, Swimply provides $1 million liability insurance policies and up to $10,000 in property damage coverage. So far summers have only released a few inflatable floats (thanks, kids). They are always there to make sure nothing goes wrong, but they leave the swimmers alone.

Like so many others, the Summers have moved away from the pandemic. She works in campus recruiting and he works in robotic process automation. They’ve had kids’ birthday parties, mother-daughter swims, a bridal shower, a photo shoot for a liquor company. Laura’s favorite guests brought Chihuahuas that floated on tiny rafts, which, frankly, looks like winning the lottery at the pool.

After a brief visit, Laura disappeared. There was nothing else to do but relax. I floated on foam noodles, drank La Croix, took a few sloppy swings on the green. I enjoyed the relief of temperate water on another day of apocalyptic weather, the break from the barrage of worldly distractions. It’s strange, almost, to be lying so flat, so calm, so relatively alone. I thought about whether I would do this again.

Swimming can be a vulnerable experience, stripping, splashing, lifting out of the water like a slain Great White. Doing it at someone else’s house is weird, yes, but no weirder than stumbling into a hotel or community pool full of other kill sharks. Share 10 ways with friends? A decent way to spend an afternoon.

After our time was up, we took care to put the pool noodles back. I started the drive home with a mountain of wet clothes seeping out of the passenger seat. A good day. A beautiful day. Next time I’m bringing my dog ​​and a small raft.

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