What the Tech? App of the Day: Swimply
There is an app for everything. Even things you’d never ever think about. Swimply is one of those apps that, after you hear about it you think “hmmm, that makes sense.”
Swimply pairs people who own backyard swimming pools with people who wish they had a backyard swimming pool.
Here’s how it works:
Pool owners list their swimming pool on Swimply adding any special features, photographs, location, and any extras. Other users looking for a pool day can use the Swimply app to find rentable swimming pools in their area, or where they’re going to visit.
Chelsey and Michael Odum listed their pool on Swimply at the start of the summer.
“We got on the app, we set it up and then we got, a few days later we got a notification of a reservation,” said Chelsey who took the lead for her family after hearing about the app from their realtor. “I was kind of excited about it and it just kind of blew up from there.”
The Odums charge $30 an hour to rent their pool. For each renter, they set out towels on chaise lounge chairs, provide charcoal for the grill and Bluetooth speakers that renters can use to connect their phones and play music. They also added lights in the pool and hanging above the deck. To their surprise, the pool stays rented out just about anytime they make it available.
“We’ve had people coming several times a week and it’s just been really busy,” said Chelsey. “There have been families that have come several times, there have been birthday parties and I wouldn’t have imagined people would come here for their birthday but there have been like 3 birthday parties here.”
Most swimming pools listed on Swimply have rules such as no parties larger than 15 but many of those allow for more people for an additional charge. Swimply takes a percentage of the rental fee.
The Odums’ say so far, renters have cleaned up after themselves, and just recently, at a 6-hour birthday party, the renters provided them food and washed their dishes.
My first question to Chelsey, and one many of you might ask yourself was: “isn’t it weird having total strangers swim in your pool?”
“It was a little weird at first,” said Chelsey. “Because they had to come in the house if they needed to use the bathroom since we don’t have a bathroom outside. But after that first one, it wasn’t that weird at all. The more people come, they don’t seem to mind it and I don’t mind it.”
The Swimply app is available for iPhones and Android devices. You can also rent out your pool, find a pool to rent, and make all of the arrangements on the Swimply.com website.
