'A eureka moment': The Airbnb for private California swimming pools is booming

[Demovictory9]

https://www.sfgate.com/living-in-sf/article/Swimply-Airbnb-for-private-pools-Bay-Area-15591707.php



“Maybe it’s just me, but I think it would be weird to have people use your pool.”

My 10-year-old shouts this from the back of the car as I pull up to a stranger’s house to, uh, use their pool.

I’m in Palo Alto with my two oldest daughters on a Wednesday afternoon walking through the side yard of a $2 million-plus home. We walk past an open window and see one of the homeowners sitting on their couch watching TV, and I realize it’s not just my 10-year-old who thinks this is odd.


It is weird to use someone else’s pool. Especially while they’re home.


But let’s be honest: everything is weird in 2020. And if you can get past that, renting someone else’s pool is also sorta great.


Which Bunim Laskin is banking on you being able to do.


The New Jersey native launched Swimply — the Airbnb for swimming pools — in June of 2019, two summers after he first hatched the idea when his entire Lakewood, New Jersey, neighborhood started paying a nice neighbor to use their pool.

“In 2018 I dropped out of school and decided to do a small test in my local town and so I found pools on Google Earth and started knocking on doors,” he says via telephone. “I knocked on 80, and four said yes.”

Two years later, his four-pool test is now a legitimate 6,000-pool business that’s spread to 30 states. More than 25 percent of the pools on the site are located in California, and some pool owners are making up to $5,000 a month according to Laskin — which is a nice chunk of change in the middle of a pandemic.


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[soothsayer]

1. Pretty smart

[Renew Deal]

2. I know someone that does this.

I don’t know if it’s possible, but it seems like easy money.

[Beakybird]

3. I wonder how much I can make for letting people run through the sprinkler.

[ornotna]

6. You get extra

If you have a slip'n slide too.

[MissB]

4. Brilliant

I didn’t see anything about liability insurance- I wonder how that works.

[Demovictory9]

7. Yeah..i wonder how home owners insurance company

Feels about this.

[global1]

5. Was This Business Opportunity Presented On 'Shark Tank'?.....

I seem to recall seeing this - but I don't know if any of the Shark's invested in it. If you recall seeing this on Shark Tank - what was the outcome? Which Shark invested? Or did they all just pass this up?

[MissB]

8. Yes.

(It was briefly mentioned towards the end of the article)

They didn’t get the money.
The episode aired just as folks went into lockdown.
Their business shot up remarkably.