Homeowners Are Renting Out Their Pools for Extra Cash

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Homeowners are listing their underused private pools online to rent them out for a few hours, fueling demand for a trend the media has dubbed an “Airbnb for backyard pools.”

For example, homeowner Jim Battan, in Portland, Ore., told The Wall Street Journal that he began renting out his underused pool in September through an online platform. Since then, he has hosted 2,700 guests in less than a year and expects to have earned $111,000 by the end of the summer, The Journal reports.

The listing company Swimply allows homeowners to rent out their pools to earn extra cash. About 13,000 pool owners are using the platform in about 125 markets. Reservations reportedly have boomed since the pandemic.

Homeowner pool hosts can earn an average of $5,000 to $10,000 a month on their pool rentals, according to Swimply. Most hosts charge between $35 and $50 an hour. Swimply collects 15% from the hosts and 10% from booking guests. Other companies, such as Peerspace, also offer homeowners a venue to rent out their pools, as do short-term rental sites like Airbnb and Vrbo.

“With the heat rising, we see lots of demand for outdoor spaces, many of which have pools,” Matt Bendett, Peerspace co-founder, told The Wall Street Journal.

The extra cash that hosts collect is helping them pay off their pools and pay for pool maintenance.