This past weekend we tried Swimply, an app that’s known as the “Airbnb for pools” where homeowners rent out their private pools to individuals or groups. Although we have a fantastic community pool that we spend most weekends at with the kids, there was something intriguing about the idea of having a beautiful pool all to ourselves.
After downloading the app, I searched for local pools using the filters to find ones with the most important stuff: a restroom and a water slide! Our 10-year-old twins are both fishes and could spend the entire day playing in the pool. When I saw the listing for a fabulous private pool with a grotto and a slide, I knew this was our place.
At first, I was a little wary about the whole idea — would it be weird swimming at a pool at someone else’s house? How would we enter and exit? Thankfully, all of the pool rules were spelled out clearly in the listing, and the homeowner was very communicative with us regarding everything from directions to the house to how we could use the bathroom during our visit (we were able to go inside their house and a super clean bathroom was right there by the door).
For our swim, we brought along our own towels, drinks and snacks and the homeowner supplied us with tons of fun floats and pool toys. There was a Bose speaker we connected my phone to so we could play the tunes of our choice. After a brief and friendly greeting, the homeowner gave us a tour and then went inside so we could have our privacy.
We had booked a four-hour visit and the twins were occupied the entire time going up and down the fast water slide, floating under the waterfall into the grotto and enjoying a beverage at the swim-up bar.
Dad got in on a serious water gun battle while I played with the twins for a while and then even had a chance to relax in one of the lounge chairs and read a few pages of my book!
The Swimply experience was great on so many levels — after many weekends of either going to the community pool or “down the Shore” it was fun to do something so novel. It was also great to have an entire pool to ourselves. This pool in particular made us feel like we were the only guests at a fancy resort. The best part of the day was just spending uninterrupted time together as a family.
You can download the Swimply app for iPhone or Android and easily plug in the dates, number of guests and hours you’re looking to rent a swimming pool. The prices are listed by the hour and vary from as low as $35/hr for a very basic above ground pool all the way up to $165/hr for a truly over-the-top pool experience.