CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
If you are looking for a way to cool off without spending money on a big vacation, a private pool rental might be closer than you think.
Nick Thompson has been renting out his Corpus Christi backyard pool through Swimply for three years. He described the app as an Airbnb for pools — a way to rent a private pool for a few hours without owning one yourself.
Thompson said a family friend first told him about the platform, but it took him a while to take the leap.
"Friend of the family let us know that it was a thing that you could rent your pool out. Took a year dragging my feet to finally actually look into it, but did. And ever since then, we've just been improving along the way," Thompson said.
This summer, he has been getting about one booking per week. Guests come for birthday parties, family reunions, or just a few hours away from the crowds.
"As opposed to going to the beach, you don't have to deal with the sand, the other people, the chaos that comes with that, going all the way to the beach, the traffic. You get your own private setting, free to do what you want, you know, responsibly. So it's great. We have a lot of birthday parties. We've had a big family reunion back here, 30 people, and they've all had a blast," Thompson said.
For Thompson, the appeal goes beyond the extra income.
"Really sharing our backyard with people. I mean, we started this just kind of doing our backyard for our kids and making it nice for them to come play and us enjoy it. And why keep a good thing to ourselves? So if we're able to share it with other residents of the area and out-of-towners that come in, so why not?" Thompson said.
Thompson said Swimply is still largely unknown in Corpus Christi, and getting the word out is the biggest thing hosts can do to grow the concept locally.
"Just know that Swimply exists. It's just not that well-known in Corpus, so getting the word out there about the app is really the biggest thing we can do," Thompson said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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