All FAQs
General
The basics of how Kindred works: what it is, who it is for and how a stay comes together.
Kindred credits represent “earned nights” that a member can spend to stay in a Kindred home. We designed Kindred to be a give-to-get community, where you must contribute to the community in order to benefit from it. Members who host others earn credits that they can use to book a stay at a different home at a later time.
Currently, 1 credit = 1 night at any home, anywhere in the world. Credits do not have any assigned monetary value and cannot be purchased or sold.
There are only 3 ways to earn credits:
No, they do not. In fact, most of our trips do not include two members staying in each other’s homes at the exact same time.
Our “give a night to get a night” policy gives members greater flexibility by allowing members to host others and bank those nights, later using them to stay at a different member home.
Today, one night given equals one night earned, regardless of the city or home size, and there is no way to purchase nights – members earn nights only by contributing to the community.
We believe that giving a night to a member of the community is a gift, regardless of your square footage – and we believe that those who give to the community should be able to receive from the community in return.
After a stay, hosts and guests rate each other and their experience from 1 to 5. Our Trust & Safety team reads low host ratings of 3 or below and follows up when the written feedback mentions damage, missing items, cleanliness, conduct or safety.
Kindred is the first company that makes home swapping both trusted and convenient.
Home swapping has been around for a long time in the form of websites or chat groups where unverified users can post their own listings. With platforms like this, users don’t know if the posted homes are real, and it can be very hard to sift through listings to find a good match. If you find a stay, there are a ton of logistics to deal with to set up the trip, and the experience is high risk and unpredictable.
Kindred, on the other hand, is a verified community that offers a full-service travel experience, including matchmaking and 24/7 trip support, delivered through our mobile app and web app. We seek to make every step of the journey thoughtful, reliable, and simple. That means taking on the burden of coordinating cleanings before and after each stay: Kindred works to connect you with a trusted cleaner for your trip whenever possible. If a Kindred cleaner isn’t available in your area or timeframe, we encourage members to use a cleaner they know personally.
Kindred is a closed network for home exchanges between verified residents, not a vacation rental or short-term rental platform.
On Kindred, there is no financial exchange between guest and host. Members are trusted peers looking to travel more vs. professional hosts running a rental business, and the homes are real residences vs. investment properties.
Kindred seeks to connect members who have something in common (like a mutual friend, a shared network, or similar quality homes) who welcome one another as guests. You can swap homes 1-for-1, or earn nights by hosting and use those nights to stay somewhere else later.
We currently accept homes in approximately 200 cities across North America and Europe. Browse all of our destinations here!
Our active locations include, but are not limited to:
Yes! Kindred works on both Android & iOS devices. Our Android app can be found here while our iPhone app can be found here.
Additionally, our Concierge team can work with you over your in-app concierge chat and email to find and book stays.
You’re in! Welcome to Kindred!
By this point you’ll have received an email welcoming you onto Kindred, with guidance on how to get started. You’ll find all the details you need & links in that email.
To highlight, here’s where we’d recommend kicking off your Kindred journey:
Congrats on such an exciting life milestone! We know how special each and every home is, and we aim to make this transition, when it comes to Kindred, seamless.
My old home
We’ll deactivate the home you previously had on Kindred. Don't worry, you'll still have access to the Kindred app and the credits you’ve accrued, and can continue to stay & swap with those credits!
My new home
To get your new home on Kindred, please fill out a new application at livekindred.com with the following information:
Let the Kindred Concierge team know once the application for your new home is complete, and we'll expedite the review!
Contact the Concierge team or email hello@livekindred.com and tell us you'd like to delete your account. Our team confirms the request and processes it, usually within 48 hours. If you have an active trip as a guest or host, or an active Passport subscription, we first need to help wrap those up.
Before you delete, you have another option. We can set your home to inactive instead. Your home stops appearing in the app, your credits are kept, and you can come back later without applying again. After a full deletion, you apply again if you return.
You can upload & edit your home profile photos in the Kindred mobile app or in the web app at livekindred.com.
If you do decide to take your own photos, we have put together a helpful guide that we share with our own professional photographers on how to shoot the home. You can check out our photography guidelines guide for more details.
Note: all photos must be landscape/horizontal due to the way the web app and mobile app display photos.
We believe that great photos help your home stand out and increase your chances of finding a match. Most members take their own photos and upload them to their profiles — more information on that here. In certain markets, Kindred currently offers a complimentary professional photography session for your home, where we send one of our trusted photographers to your home for a photo shoot.
Follow these steps to request complimentary professional photography:
Alternatively, you can click the link in your welcome email or ask the Kindred Concierge to help with your request!
Photo sessions typically take 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of the home. When you go to schedule your professional photography session (via the link in your welcome email, or in your “Profile” page in the app), we’ll ask for a few timeframes that work best with your schedule to help arrange the session.
Photos typically take 5-7 business days to come back and then you can expect another 2-3 business days to get those uploaded onto your profile. We'll send you an email when they're ready :)
