Home Exchange Platform: How KeyNest helped Kindred expand its presence and operations in Europe

Meet Kindred: an innovative home-swapping community that aims to transform travel costs through community collaboration. Kindred’s members can easily swap homes, earning credits through hosting, allowing for seamless exchanges at various times throughout the year.

Founded in 2021 in San Francisco by Justine and Tasneem, Kindred stemmed from Justine's discovery of informal home-swapping within her network. She recognized the opportunity for a travel-centric lifestyle at significantly lower costs—often just a fraction of what traditional accommodation options like Airbnb or hotels would typically entail.

Today, Kindred simplifies home-swapping with matchmaking technology, making it easier to find matches and explore new destinations. The platform also focuses on host convenience by arranging cleaning and providing welcome kits, all within a trusted members-only network. The team at Kindred aim to make the seemingly complex process of home swapping, a breeze.

After launching in the United States, Kindred expanded to Europe in the summer of 2023, beginning a swift expansion journey. Initially, Kindred’s focus in Europe was primarily on cities such as London, Berlin, and Amsterdam. However, they have now expanded their presence into different regions, with homes available in countries like France, Spain, and Italy.

Turning the home-swapping process into a global community experience

When a member joins Kindred, they undergo an onboarding call and receive information about the welcome kit, including options for linens and towels. They can specify preferences for key exchange, whether it's through KeyNest, a lockbox, or a friend/neighbour. 

The Kindred team manages everything related to guest arrival and supports the host at every point of the process. After a trip is booked, they work with trusted cleaners, giving members the option to use Kindred cleaners or their own. 

The team schedules cleaners for check-in and check-out, sharing access instructions in advance. Kindred helps with hosting tasks and sends a refresher kit with travel-sized toiletries for each guest. This efficient process ensures members don't have to stress about operational details, providing a hassle-free experience.

Kindred’s members can opt-in to use KeyNest Points as a key storage and exchange solution, and we spoke to one of Kindred’s representatives about her experience with KeyNest in Europe.

KeyNest Points are used as house key collection points for guests arriving in the city, but also as a key exchange location for cleaners who make sure the property is clean both before and after the house swap.

Kindred and KeyNest: a match for smooth arrival operations

We have spoken to Georgina Oxford, Kindred’s Member Experience Manager for Europe, about her experiences involving KeyNest as a key exchange solution for the platform members.

“Kindred members choose KeyNest for various reasons. Some can't use lockboxes because their landlords don't allow it or have removed existing ones. Others worry about lockbox security, even though they are usually tough to break into. 

KeyNest Points are usually located in staffed, monitored places like shops, giving an extra sense of security. Some of our members also struggle to find suitable spots for lockboxes, making KeyNest a preferred flexible solution when traditional options are challenging.”

Georgina sees the local key exchange with KeyNest as a convenient solution in all the European locations:

“If there's a KeyNest conveniently located near the house and accessible 24/7, that’s a perfect situation and means there would be no problems with key exchange. Rarely, there might be an issue with the code, but KeyNest Team has been excellent in providing support in case anything happens.

It's helpful to have a KeyNest account with reusable codes for a specific key - it makes things so much easier! When I set up a new key for a member, I can make sure that (for example) a cleaner can easily use the same code when collecting the key every time - which makes for a fuss-free, quick process.

Compared to relying on a friend of a Kindred member to manage the check-in, which, while nice, comes with logistical challenges, KeyNest offers a simpler solution, especially for handling potential delays or late arrivals. Using KeyNest makes the key exchange process smoother, reducing issues and interactions with keys.”

How easy is it to use KeyNest to support the home exchange process?

Georgina says: 

“Setting up a new key on KeyNest is super easy—it only takes a few seconds to create a key on my account, which comes with a choice of a local Keynest Point where keys would be kept, and a set of collection and drop-off codes used to manage the keys.

After that, I just copy and paste the address and codes into our Kindred system, and it's all set for the guest automatically.”

She mentions that collecting the keys takes just a minute:

“Both guests and hosts usually find dropping off and picking up keys in a local KeyNest Point simple - they just have to walk over and request the keys, and that’s super quick. If there's ever an issue, contacting KeyNest support is no problem—they're always helpful and patient and pick up calls 24/7. 

My favourite thing about using KeyNest for key exchange must be the way I get to view the key status online, and the reusable key collection codes that I can set up once and then reuse multiple times. Overall, I like how easy the website is to use, and it's convenient to find KeyNest locations. It just makes everything run smoothly for our team.”

KeyNest’s Customer Support - an additional hand in complex check-in cases

Georgina also has some good stories to tell about KeyNest’s customer service team:

“Once, our London super host, who's hosted many times, had a mix-up with the keys. The wrong keys got dropped off instead of the new ones, and it got a bit confusing. 

The KeyNest team helped track down the keys at the shop within minutes and confirmed the mix-up. We sorted it out by confirming my email address and transferring the key to the correct account. 

The team's help was really appreciated in sorting that one out - managing such a case remotely could potentially be such a fuss, but with KeyNest’s support, I managed to sort it out unexpectedly quickly.”

Georgina sums up her experience with KeyNest with a short comment:

“KeyNest has played a big role in our rapid growth in Europe by making key exchanges smooth, which, in turn, makes hosting with Kindred a great experience. Thanks a lot to the KeyNest team for that!”