The Kindred platform is truly incredible. I originally came across their app because someone shared a video of a home they stayed in and I hadn’t heard of their platform before. After learning about home swaps and the credits-earning system (and likening it to a modern version of “The Holiday”), my husband and I decided to sign up for it. I’ve hosted a number of guests while traveling for work, and it’s been incredible! The setup was easy (they send a free photographer for your home listing), and I have loved getting to know members from around the world.Something that sets them apart: you have to have a home listed in order to stay in someone else’s. It provides an added layer of trust and security that I haven’t felt with other platforms. We have two more guests coming this fall and I’m excited to start booking a few stays using some of the credits we’ve accrued! Meanwhile, my husband’s excited to have “free house cleaners” come twice while we’re away. 😂

This service is great in theory but the app really needs to work on functionality and they could learn from other home exchange sites. You can’t find the messages you have sent to people unless a booking is confirmed, making it hard to track. Once you list dates your place is available you can no longer accept inquiries outside of those dates - I am open to inquiries AND I want to list specific dates - not either or. You can’t see the who is looking for trades to your city or who has marked you as a favorite which would make it way easier and more likely to find matches. I live in a city that is dense with members on this app - someones in this company have links to Berlin and SF. So it seems like it’s just hard to get traction if you live there because folks looking have so much to choose from. All that said a few of the pluses are the points for the referrals, the photography of your home and the cleaning service to name a few. The app also vets homes for quality which is nice - the places are a notch above other home trading sites. The points for referrals also does fill the app with folks who aren’t as serious about swapping but then those folks also don’t tend to put photos up. I like this service but it needs to improve from a UX perspective. I’m on another site where I get about four inquiries a week. On this site I get none.

I was genuinely SO EXCITED when I got accepted for this app - I thought the idea was amazing and that it’d make traveling so much easier for a single person in their late 20’s like myself. Unfortunately - while the concept is great - the app just doesn’t work. I have now requested 4 separate stays for a trip to NYC in January, and not a single has accepted me. I’ve created their intro videos and everything. To me it seems like a lot of people are signing up for this app with the goal of using the intro credits, but aren’t actually willing to hold up their end of the bargain and let people stay in theirs. I also have a bunch of dates listed available that no one’s requested - so it’s hard imagining that I’ll even be able to earn my points back once/ or if - I ever am actually able to get someone to accept me for a stay. I really home they figure this out - because the concept is amazing.

I am giving Kindred the benefit of the doubt because we just took our first trip with a Kindred stay and it was one of the best ever. However, the app could use a few things. First of all, the messages are hard to find. They are accessible from the search screen, but not the home button. Also, when I tried to navigate the app to show a friend where we were staying, I couldn’t get to it easily. I do not like that once I got through to the access info I still was not all the way checked in. I feel like if I have access to the property I should not have to go back to find a button.