Photo: Kentaroo Tryman/Getty Images/Maskot
Kindred is emphatic that it’s not Airbnb. Instead of a place for listing your home (or the investment property you bought to turn into a bachelor-party abyss) as a vacation rental, Kindred advertises itself as a “members-only community for home swapping.” No money is exchanged — except cleaning and service fees and a $300 annual membership. The start-up, which launched earlier this year after raising $7.75 million in a seed-funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, claims to be agnostic about the homes it features: The properties can be big or small, rented or owned, as long as they are “safe, well-cared-for homes occupied by people who love to travel.” But these well-cared-for homes — a Sausalito retreat with built-ins and views of the bay; an apartment in Mexico City’s La Condesa with a window wall leading out onto a terrace — mostly look like the