Kindred Reviews 206

I began exploring this when they contacted me recently, a couple years after initially applying- quickly I realized this is a Marc Andreessen/PayPal mafia/private equity venture, not a real community. I wrote a polite request to help me delete my personal information and account , because there seemed to be no way to do that in the app. I was notified of a reply, but when I tried to log in and read it, I was no longer able to access my account. There is no one to call, and they still have all of my personal information. Dangerous scam- don’t make yourself vulnerable as I did. These techno fascists are trying to control everything we do with their wealth and power- it’s not trustworthy, it’s mercenary. They lure you in with promises of community building, but they will follow the enshitification playbook, as they have for uber, facebook, airbnb- they’ll squeeze us from every angle to extract wealth and erode the service. It’s a total scam.

I'm currently on a stay in Barcelona and extremely disappointed with Kindred’s response to a clear violation of their own Property Requirements.
According to Kindred's standards, every home must have a functional full kitchen. My current stay has no pans, pots, water cooker,etc.
I contacted the concierge, but they have been unhelpful and have not offered a relocation or solution. Has anyone else experienced this? Is Kindred becoming more like a "sterile rental" platform without the quality control they promise?
Warning to others: Don't assume the concierge will have your back if the home doesn't match the requirements

Complete and utter scam. I paid a high annual fee, then 1 month later, they completely changed their policy. I asked for a cancellation because I never would have subscribed with their new policy, but they pointed me to their fine print stating they can change their policies anytime. You will find a lot of frustration on this on reddit, including from hosts who had their places completely trashed - they gave 3 days notice - yes, 3 days.

I just wanted to say that I think the Kindred support team is truly great. Their home protection program really impressed me. I had two rather unpleasant incidents with significant damage, and they handled the refunds quickly and efficiently. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth and responsive they were, so any negative reviews out there don’t match my experience at all.

My only real concern is more about the type of guests you encounter. Unfortunately, many people treat it like a cheap alternative to Airbnb rather than a true home exchange community. So I’ve started only accepting guests with a solid history and badges to ensure they’re genuinely interested in home exchange, not just a bargain stay. I think the platform could do a bit more to help differentiate that. It’s better to keep it a real community of people who actually want to exchange homes, rather than turning it into a discount hotel substitute.

Impossible to delete account, highly untrustworthy. Must be hell to trade your house via this site.

The best way to travel.
So much cheaper and authentic than Airbnb.

Don't do it. Their promises of treating my home better than their own are not true - I had significant damage on several things because of a cleaner and a guest (all the cleaners sucked by the way, but the last one was the worst one) and Kindred barely offers a 1/3rd refund. Crazy stuff.

It's a pity because I love the philosophy behind it, and of course it's nice to book other people's home for relatively little money with bigger groups of people, but with all the money, time and stress it cost me, I would not recommend it at all.

I had such a wonderful experience staying at a Kindred home in Amsterdam. My host was incredibly kind and proactive—he set up a call before the trip to introduce his home and share neighborhood tips, which made me feel right at home.

The apartment was beautifully designed, in a perfect location, and felt more like staying with a friend than a typical rental. He was also traveling through Kindred at the same time, which made the exchange feel mutual and connected.

The fee was affordable compared to staying in a hotel, especially for the comfort and personal touch.

Kindred also took care of everything—from scheduling a cleaner to offering helpful trip support. I can’t wait to do it again.

I was really excited to start hosting through Kindred.

The most attractive and important part about it, for me, was the professional cleaning service. Because they provide professional cleanings both before and after the guest comes.

I left my house uncleaned, as instructed by Kindred. I am traveling internationally and I had a guest coming through Kindred for a two-night booking. After that I have another guest coming through another service. So it is important that the house is left clean for the next booking.

Unfortunately, my Kindred guest just cancelled one day before the booking. In accordance with the Kindred cancellation rules, the guest is losing the admin fee they paid, as well as the 2 credits. What I am only just learning now is that the cleaners are no longer coming.

The guest receives most of the cleaning fee back, even if they cancel the day before. So the end result is that Kindred doesn't lose anything (they keep the admin fee), but as the host (who has done everything right and hasn't cancelled and has spent a lot of time following all the instructions and filling out all the online forms for this booking), I am suddenly on the other side of the world without the cleaning service that was part of the agreement, and with hardly any time to find another professional cleaner, who will also cost me a couple of hundred bucks.

Why should hosts be punished when guests cancel the day before a booking? This is a ridiculous policy. They should simply provide one cleaning, instead of two, when this happens.

This was my first attempt at hosting, and I am feeling so let down. It was a huge effort the get everything set up for creating the listing and managing the first booking. I will never do this again.

I hosted someone on Kindred for the first time for four nights, and they caused significant damage to my butcherblock countertops. Kindred requested before and after photos, said that they would cover the damage, had me get a quote from my contractor, then made me also get a quote from their preferred contractor, and then backed out of the commitment and said they would only cover half of the damage that both contractors quoted at about $6500. Now I'm stuck with over a $3000 bill to fix the damage in my kitchen. And they want me to sign a damage release waiver to get the ~50% / $3218.75 financial coverage for it. Host at your own risk and learn from my mistakes.

Keep in mind, I have been hosting on Airbnb for years, and the Kindred guest treated my house worse than 95% of Airbnb guests. Probably because they knew they wouldn't receive a public review for how they acted.

So far so good, it is exactly like airbnb but you only pay for cleaning fee. Clean interface on both mobile and web browser, also they have concierge for you to consult.
The only downside is that they dont have much homes available which is normal for a new company. I already planned my first trip and can't wait.