I love a deal, so I was intrigued when I saw a forum post about Kindred, a home sharing website I’d never heard of, but that was offering 5 free nights to new sign ups (click here to jump to the details of that offer at the bottom of this post).
I was curious enough to sign up for the site, was quickly approved, and found a surprising number of chic homes in desirable cities around the world. I recently got a chance to use my 5 free nights at a fantastic house in Raleigh, and wanted to share my honest thoughts, as well as answer all your questions about Kindred!
What is Kindred, and How Does it Work?
Kindred is a home swap site that operates on a credit system. Anytime you allow someone to stay in your home, you earn 1 credit per night. Those credits can then be redeemed for nights at any other member’s home, regardless of size or location. You’ll also earn 5 credits when you sign up, and can earn 2 credits for each approved friend you refer. Credits cannot be purchased.
The site is open to renters as well as homeowners, and because it’s home swapping for credits, rather than renting out on a site like Airbnb, it generally at least falls into a grey area of your lease.
Members can list their home’s availability, and get final approval over who stays in their home. You can also select that you’re only open to direct swaps.
Once a stay is booked, Kindred arranges a house cleaning prior to the guest’s arrival, as well as after their departure. For members in the US, Kindred sends the host a kit that includes bed sheets, a duvet cover, towels, a toiletry kit, and a kitchen sponge for guests to use. They also send a lockbox if you’d like, and privacy stickers, so you can indicate where guests shouldn’t poke around (like closets or basement doors).
Kindred Fees
Kindred charges guests a $5 to $35 a night service fee on every booking. They say the fee varies according to location and length of stay, though the stays I’ve booked/ looked at were all showing fees of $35 a night. Platform fees can be waived with an optional Kindred Passport membership, which costs $600 a year. So the breakeven point for membership is just over 17 nights of stays per year.
Guests also pay arrival and departure cleaning fees that vary according to the size of the home. For the 2 bed/ 2 bath house we stayed at, the cleaning fees totaled $300. For a 5 bedroom house we have booked for a stay later this year, the cleaning fees were $400.
There are no fees that you pay to host.
If you’re traveling on Kindred quite a bit, paying for Passport is a no-brainer. If you’re not likely to travel often, you’ll get the best value for your fees by choosing one longer stay in a more expensive city. For example, staying a week in NYC would cost 7 credits + $245 + the cleaning fees, well below the cost of a hotel or vacation rental.
Because the cleaning fees are the same for short or longer stays, it can make the effective nightly rate for short stays much more expensive.
I do see plenty of homes that have short weekend availability windows, and I’m not sure how much sense that makes for most people given the fees. But if you’re looking for longer stays, there are plenty of month or more stays available too. Many Kindred members are renting out a second home, or their primary home while they travel extensively, and this is where you can often get the best value for your money.
My Kindred Review
Applying and Getting Started
The application process is fairly simple. You provide your address, answer some questions about your home, and snap some photos (they say no need to clean for these photos, they just want a sense of your place). Then they’ll either waitlist you, or send your application for review. I’ve had a couple friends get waitlisted because Kindred isn’t available in their area yet.
When I applied to Kindred, I wasn’t sure if I’d be approved. Our apartment is fairly new and nice enough, but it’s an average suburban apartment in a non-touristy city. It’s possible that Kindred will become more picky as time goes on, but our apartment was approved within 24 hours.
After being accepted, you can download and use the members-only app, where you can browse all member homes. Your home isn’t visible on the site until you complete your home profile, which you don’t need to do right away–your 5 free nights can be used without any obligation to host. When I booked and completed our first stay, no photos or info about our home was visible on Kindred.
The app is well designed for a startup, and I especially like what Kindred calls Wishlists, but are really ongoing searches that are constantly updated with newly available homes.
Looking for a 2 bedroom home with a washer and dryer, and a pool in Los Angeles for 7 nights in October?
Set your criteria, and Kindred will let you know when a new home is added, or an existing host adds availability. You can set specific dates, a flexible timeframe, or no timeframe at all. It’s very thoughtfully designed, and makes it easy to find the perfect stay.
Booking on Kindred
So yes, I mentioned in the intro to this post that there are tons of gorgeous properties in amazing cities around the world. I could have used my 5 free nights to book something in Paris–and it would have been a better deal for the fees that I paid. But I already had quite a bit of travel planned for this spring and summer, and wanted something low-key and driveable. I settled on Raleigh, a city I lived in for awhile, and miss quite a bit (as a side note, mid April was the perfect time to go–everything was in bloom!).
I found a pretty 2 bedroom house in Raleigh through the Wishlist feature, requested to book, and was quickly approved. In my request, I checked that I’d be willing to meet with the host over a video call, but they approved me without meeting. Since the first stay, I’ve also booked a stay in a seriously nice house with a pool in Phoenix for my mother’s birthday. The host for our upcoming stay also didn’t require me to meet with them. I’d like to think I’m very trustworthy, but still, I’m impressed by people’s trust!
Kindred shows you what the fees will be before you request to book, and once approved for a stay on Kindred, you’re prompted to pay the cleaning fees and platform fees, if any.
Communication
Kindred opens up a chat between you and the host after approval, where you can ask any questions, and set up any logistics if necessary. In my case, the host had an electronic keypad lock, so there wasn’t much we needed to discuss. The Kindred concierge can also be tagged into your conversation if need be.
Kindred sends out a trip confirmation email, a reminder email closer to your stay, and as well as a dedicated email reminding you of your obligations as a guest. They stress the need to be respectful of the hosts home, replace anything you use up, and to show gratitude through a thank you note and/or a small gift.
The Kindred “Concierge” is also available anytime to answer questions about your trip or anything else about Kindred via chat. They say it may take up to 24 hours to respond, but in my experience they’ve responded within an hour each time I’ve had questions.
The one missing element here is the ability to ask questions about a property before you request a stay. I could imagine a lot of situations in which you might want to know more about a home before requesting to book, but Kindred only opens a line of communication between you and a host when you request to book their property.
I asked the Kindred Concierge, and they confirmed that this is the case. The only way to talk to a potential host is to submit a request to stay, and explain that you’re merely interested, and have some questions. Kindred doesn’t automatically charge you, even if the host accepts your stay request, so you at least wouldn’t risk being charged for a stay when using this workaround.
The Stay
The house was even better than the photos, in a leafy neighborhood with great outdoor space, and so many birds singing in the morning. Because part of the appeal of Kindred is that not just anyone can see your home listing, I’m not going to share a bunch of photos of the house. But this was my desk for the week:
And this was the path leading down to an area with hammocks by the creek that runs behind the house:
Overall, the house was wonderful, and I had no complaints. I could tell that the hosts had taken the time to move a lot of normal household clutter out of the way and into drawers and the like. It was clear real people lived there, but we also didn’t feel like we were tiptoeing around their stuff.
The Kindred Hosting Kit
I’d heard mixed things about the hosting kit that Kindred sends, so this was something I was intent on reviewing.
The beds were made up with the sheets Kindred had sent, and there were towels and a little kit with Aesop toiletries (along with a thank-you card meant to be filled out for the host) waiting in the bathroom:
The towels were good quality, 100% percent cotton, absorbent, and soft. The Aesop toiletries were obviously a nice touch.
But the sheets. Ugh. It was a little strange because the pillowcases were Amazon Basics brand, but at least 100% cotton. The tag on the sheets didn’t bother to identify their fabric composition, but I can tell you there was a whole lot of synthetic fiber in them. They did not feel nice, and they definitely didn’t feel breathable. The duvet covers felt the same.
I’m the kind of weirdo who regularly brings her own (linen! preferably French linen! I’m kind of fanatical about it) sheets to Airbnbs, so I came prepared with my own sheets. If this is the quality of sheet that Kindred usually sends, I’d suggest bringing your own as well. Who wants to book a luxury home and stay on sheets that belong at a cheap motel?
Check Out
When it came time to check out, there wasn’t much we needed to do. The host instructions included simple things like turning off lights, and Kindred just asks that you strip the beds and leave the towels in the pile. The cleaning fee paid covers everything else.
My Overall Take on Kindred
My experience with Kindred was excellent overall. From searching, to booking, to check-in, and during our stay, nearly everything was easy and seamless. I haven’t hosted yet, but my experience makes me feel more comfortable doing so.
The quality of the sheets was a hiccup for sure. If there’s any other criticism I can offer, it’s that Kindred’s understandable focus on guests not messing with or using host’s possessions means that you may have fewer amenities like linens available than at an Airbnb. If I’d wanted an extra blanket for example, I’d have felt awkward asking the host if I could poke in their closets and use their blankets. (This didn’t follow to the kitchen, where all of the tools were at our disposal).
Get 5 Free Nights on Kindred
Kindred’s offer for 5 nights free is the kind of deal you don’t find very often. I’m not sure if a member referral matters now that Kindred is out of beta, but they say you’ll receive faster application processing if you’re referred. I’d love if you’d use my referral link to sign up!
Those 5 nights won’t be completely free–you’ll still pay the platform and cleaning fees any other member would pay (laid out in my review above). But if you book in an expensive city, or a large house, it’s a very good deal.
Let’s say you sign up, and refer a friend to sign up as well. You’ll have 7 nights of credits available. You book a 3 bedroom home with a pool in Austin for a girls trip. The cleaning fees total $300, and the service fees are $245. That’s $545 for a week-long stay, when the home you booked would go for at least that much per night on Airbnb.
This is a generous offer from Kindred, and they’re counting on you wanting more after those 5 nights. In my case, at least, they’re right.