Here’s how much money you can make renting out your pool

The sharing economy apparently allows you to turn all your skills and everything you own into a stream of income. In addition to driving, delivering and walking your dog, you can rent your house, your car, VR, garage and/or parking space to strangers for money. In recent years, residential swimming pools have also entered the scene. via Swimplywhich offers hourly rentals for private owners.

Signing up your pool sounds like an easy source of passive income – and if you’ve already paid the initial cost, you can too, right? Especially when you read headlines about people make $177,000 in revenue in just two years.

But as with Airbnb or any other peer-to-peer sharing network, it’s probably more complicated than posting a few photos, calculating a rental rate, and watching the bookings come in. Does listing your pool on Swimply really pay off?

What influences pool rental prices?

Swimply lets you set your own hourly rate, which can range from around $30 to several hundred dollars per hour for up to five guests, plus additional hourly charges per person for larger groups. The platform recommends undercutting prices in your area when you start attracting bookings, then increase your rates once you have some reviews.

Many factors affect how you set rental rates:

• Location: Your city and neighborhood will affect what you charge, supply and demand, right? A search for pools in Los Angeles shows hourly rates generally higher than those listed in Salt Lake City, while New York hosts charge far more than both for seemingly far less. Also, if there are a lot of pools in your area, you may need to lower the prices to stay competitive.
• Pool type and size: Large, well-maintained pools in large yards with plenty of patio seating, as well as those with added features like a hot tub, water faucet, slide, or diving board, can attract swimmers willing to pay more and allow you to accommodate larger groups with per-person fees.
• Approvals: As with Airbnb, you can spark interest with amenities such as heating, barbecues, fire pits, pool floats, outdoor showers, Bluetooth speakers, towels, and bathrooms. You can also charge for access to these amenities while keeping your base hourly rate low to attract attention. Some hosts even offer drink coolers, party decorations, and event planning services.
• Comments: Collecting lots of five-star reviews can get you higher prices.
• Discounts: You can charge less on weekdays than on weekends or increase your rate for holidays.
• Pool rules: Do you allow children? Pets? Parties? Alcohol? Refunds?

What are the rental costs for your swimming pool?

First of all, your Swimply ad is not pure profit. The company takes a 15% discount on all bookings and occasionally offers discounts or promo codes to guests, which is beyond the control of the hosts. (Note that customers also pay a fee for each reservation.)

You may or may not end up paying additional insurance premiums to open your pool. Swimply offers $1,000,000 in liability insurance at no additional cost to all guests, plus up to $10,000 reimbursement for damage to your pool or property if guests refuse to pay. But you should also check with your home insurance that there are no gaps in your liability.

If your pool is not set up to accommodate groups, there may be upfront expenses. For example, if you don’t have an outdoor bathroom or garage, and you don’t want people coming into your house (or peeing in your pool), you might need to rent a port-a-potty. or install some type of outhouse. Patio furniture and pool floats are other basics you may need to purchase. So you’re looking at a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to improve your ad.

Then there is the cost of maintaining your pool. According to HomeAdvisor, it can range from $3,000 to $5,000 per year, which you will probably pay no matter what. But consider the money and labor required to clean, maintain, or repair your pool with more frequent use by larger groups. Oregon guy who won $177,000 on Swimply calls himself a ‘pool supplier’ and checks his pool chemicals 5-10 times per day– barely an example of passive income – and you’ll have to do some marketing when you first start out. But assuming exactly two years of hosting, that’s $242 earned per day.

Another concrete example: Reddit user u/SDgirlburner describes his experience earn $2,500 in 50 days after listing their pool on Swimply in June 2020:

• Rental rate: $30 per hour plus $5 per person after the first 5 people
• Equipment: bathroom, Bluetooth speaker, barbecue
• Maintenance fee: $100 per month
• Average income per day: $50

The user notes that there are only a few other pools within a 30-mile radius, so they’re likely getting more reservations than they would if the area was heavily saturated. And they claim not to pay more for maintenance and cleaning related to hosting guests.

Finally, your local laws may require a business license or safety equipment, and so does Swimply. requires your pool to follow safety guidelinesall this will cost something.

How to price your pool for rental

Let’s say you own a house with a pool in a suburb of Atlanta. Via Swimply you charge $60 per hour for weekend bookings of up to 5 people with a $5 per person fee for large parties. Here is the breakdown of a basic two hour booking for 8 people on a Saturday:

• two hours x $60 per hour = $120
• two hours x three additional guests x $5 per hour = $30
• Swimply Host Commission: $150 x 15% = $22.50
• Total payment: $127.50

Then, let’s say that same group wants to use your gas grill ($10 per rental period), hot tub ($35 per rental period), and speaker system ($3 per hour). This puts your initial total at $201 and your payout at $170.85.

In theory, you could accommodate multiple bookings per day, especially on busy weekends or holidays. To break even with the lowest annual maintenance/repair costs – assuming there are no additional installation or insurance costs – you should book a basic two-hour rental 24 days a year, or almost twice a week during the summer. Not bad, really, as long as you don’t have to use the pool yourself during popular times. Ultimately, it comes down to how much you are willing to invest to get a return on your investment.