Kindred Reviews, Complaints & Contacts

Kindred's Terms of Service name Kindred Concepts, Inc. as the provider of livekindred.com and the app. Its Privacy Policy and BBB profile give 70 Gold Street, San Francisco, CA 94133 as its address.

The company says it does not: its FAQ states "Kindred is free to join!" and the Pricing Policy says there is no fee required to become a member. Members pay a service fee and two cleaning fees per trip, and an optional Kindred Passport subscription costs $600 per year according to the Pricing Policy.

The FAQ says cancellations are made in the app or web app, with a refund or penalty breakdown shown before you confirm. There is no penalty more than 60 days before arrival or within 24 hours of booking confirmation. At 31 to 60 days the guest forfeits 25 percent of the booking's credits (up to 14) and gets back 75 percent of the service fees and all cleaning fees. At 8 to 30 days the guest forfeits all service fees and credits, and the cleaning fee is refunded. At 0 to 7 days there is no credit or service-fee refund and the cleaning fee is refunded less a $50 charge; within 24 hours of check-in only the checkout cleaning fee is refunded. Shortening a trip within 30 days of arrival brings no refund, and the Cancellation Policy says Kindred may, after review, end the membership of a member who cancels two or more confirmed trips within 12 months. For a documented serious illness, death, government travel ban, declared emergency or similar event, Kindred may waive penalties at its sole discretion, so send the documents to the Concierge. The Terms word the cleaning-fee exception differently (within three days), so check the amounts shown in the app.

The FAQ says that if a host cancels more than 30 days before arrival, the guest receives a full refund of credits and fees. Within 30 days, Guest Trip Protection may apply. That policy says Kindred tries to find another Kindred home for the same dates, in the same city or within 20 miles, at no extra cost. If none is available, it may reimburse third-party lodging at its discretion, up to $250 a night for two guests in listed major cities and $200 elsewhere, for up to seven nights. A guest who prefers neither gets a full refund of credits and fees. A host cancellation within 24 hours of booking brings a full refund but no Trip Protection, and protection is lost if the guest changed the booking without the host's approval or broke the Terms or Code of Conduct.

The Pricing and Credit Policy says to email [email protected] or contact the Concierge, provided all Passport fees due so far are paid. The Terms say the annual fee is charged again on each anniversary and that a renewal reminder is sent at least 30 days before the term ends, so cancel before the renewal date. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current subscription period and no refund is issued for Passport fees already paid. If Kindred itself terminates the account, upfront payers receive a prorated refund for full months remaining, less waived service fees, and quarterly installments already paid are non-refundable.

The FAQ says to contact the Concierge or email [email protected], and the Terms also name [email protected]; the team confirms and processes the request, usually within 48 hours, once active trips and any Passport subscription are finished. Deleting the account cancels all unused credits under the Terms. The FAQ also offers deactivating the home as an alternative that keeps credits.

The FAQ says every member must verify identity through Stripe Identity using a government ID and selfie, that Kindred does not store those details, and that homes are checked from photos and must have active insurance and meet safety standards. The Terms say Kindred has not verified the accuracy of what hosts say about themselves and their homes, that "verified" means only that a verification process was completed, and that the process may not detect all fraud.

Both protections described in the FAQ are for hosts. A host reports damage or missing items through Kindred's claims process, by flagging the guest's profile, messaging the Concierge or emailing [email protected], within 3 days of discovering it and no later than 7 days after the stay, with photos, proof of ownership and repair or replacement estimates. The Damage Protection Program is a reimbursement program managed by Kindred, not insurance. Its maximum is $100,000 per stay for qualifying damage to the host's home or belongings caused by a guest or a Kindred-arranged cleaner. Minor incidents are capped at $500 per stay, repair comes before replacement, items more than 12 months old are replaced at depreciated value, and the host must hold an active homeowners or renters policy. The program excludes normal wear, routine maintenance and high-value items such as fine art and antiques, and pet care arranged between members is not covered. Liability insurance underwritten by The Hartford covers up to $1,000,000 per incident if a guest is injured or a guest's belongings are damaged at the host's home, and pays only after the host's own homeowners or renters policy. Under the Terms a guest is responsible for what they and anyone they invite do in the home, and the program lets Kindred seek reimbursement from a guest. A guest with a problem during a stay should use the urgent menu in the app or contact the Concierge.

The Terms contain an agreement to resolve disputes by individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association and a class-action waiver, with limited exceptions. Either side may still bring an individual claim in small claims court if it falls within that court's limits, and the Terms require 30 days of good-faith informal discussion before arbitration can start. Arbitration follows the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules, with filing and arbitrator fees allocated under those rules. A new user who creates an account for the first time on or after the effective date of the Terms (the current version is marked last updated August 19, 2026) may opt out by emailing [email protected] with the subject "Arbitration Opt Out" within 30 days of creating the account; the notice must include full name, mailing address, signature, the account email address and a clear statement of opting out. Any member can reject a later amendment to the arbitration agreement by sending the same details to that address with the subject "Arbitration Amendment Rejection" within 30 days of the amendment taking effect. Read Section 15 of the Terms and consider independent legal advice. One federal case names the operator: Ruz v. Kindred Concepts, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-02001 (E.D. Cal.), a Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit closed by court order in August 2026.

Kindred is a members-only home-swap platform run by Kindred Concepts, Inc. of San Francisco, founded in 2021 by CEO Justine Palefsky and Tasneem Amina and backed by investors including NEA and Index Ventures. Trustpilot shows a TrustScore of 4.7 from 533 reviews, about 90 percent five-star and 5 percent one-star, and notes that the company invites customers to review, whether positive or negative. BBB rates Kindred Concepts F, citing 3 complaints and a failure to respond to 2 of them, and it is not BBB Accredited. Some one-star Trustpilot reviewers use the word scam: in October 2025 one said a policy changed a month after an annual fee was paid, in December 2025 one said she lost access to her account after asking for it and her personal data to be deleted and could not read the reply, and in April 2026 one said the host protection program offered $209.40 for a sofa a guest's dog destroyed. These are their accounts. Replying to a different Trustpilot review about account deletion, Kindred said it checks deletion requests before processing them. Joining is free; members pay per-trip service and cleaning fees and, optionally, $600 a year for Kindred Passport.

Kindred Concepts, Inc. is the San Francisco company named in the Terms of Service behind livekindred.com and the Kindred Home Swapping app, which the App Store shows at 4.9 out of 5 from 1.8K ratings. Applicants are screened: The New York Times reported that Kindred accepts about half of them, and the FAQ says members verify identity through Stripe Identity with a government ID and selfie and that homes must carry active insurance. The Terms say Kindred has not verified what hosts say about themselves and their homes and that "verified" means only that a verification process was completed. Customers' accounts differ. The Times article reports that one host was quickly reimbursed after a guest broke her dishes, and that she knows people whose bookings were cancelled at the last minute. One-star and two-star Trustpilot reviews describe slow customer service, poor cleaning and partial damage payouts.

Kindred does not publish a customer service phone number on its home page, in its FAQ or in its App Store listing. The customer service email address is [email protected], and members can also reach the Concierge team in the app, where Kindred describes 24/7 trip support. For an urgent problem during a stay, use the urgent menu in the app; Kindred says it aims to respond within 5 minutes to safety or access problems such as a lockout and within 20 minutes to less immediate ones such as damage. The company's BBB profile lists (415) 273-9668.

Kindred Concepts, Inc. operates Kindred. Justine Palefsky is co-founder and CEO, and Tasneem "Tas" Amina is co-founder; both worked at Opendoor before they started the company in 2021. It is venture-backed: NEA and Figma CEO Dylan Field co-led its $40 million Series B and Index Ventures led its $85 million Series C, both announced in February 2026. The announcements name investors but not their shareholdings.

Joining Kindred is free, so basic membership has no fee to cancel or refund. To leave, ask the Concierge or email [email protected] to delete the account; unused credits are cancelled when it is deleted. The paid plan is Kindred Passport, which you cancel through [email protected] or the Concierge: it ends at the close of the current subscription period and fees already paid are not refunded. Refunds on individual trips follow the cancellation schedule set out in the answer on cancelling a trip.