A business in their backyard: Some Mass. residents are renting pools by the hour

Over the past few weeks, Moriarty said, she’s welcomed groups ranging from small families to parties of up to 25 people, and soon her backyard will host a gender reveal party.

Erin Moriarty, with the help of her sons, Danny, 8, and Billy, 5, cleaned her backyard pool.
Matthew J Lee/Globe staff

Swimply has 43 pools “live” on its platform in Massachusetts, and another 170 are on a waitlist pending approval, according to a spokeswoman. The New York-based startup said it vets potential hosts through background and pool safety checks, which sometimes happen in-person, among other protocols, before they can accept reservations. Swimply jumped into the Massachusetts market in May 2020, and its service is available in 125 other locales in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Bunim Laskin, cofounder and chief executive of Swimply, started the company in 2018 when he was 20 years old. Growing up in New Jersey as the oldest of 12 children, he often had…

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