u/Gingerbutt81

Spotted this new feature in the app. You’re currently capped at 2 simultaneous stay requests. If you want to send a third, it costs you 1 credit.

This is honestly pretty frustrating imo. Hosts on Kindred are often unresponsive. I’ve been told previously by the Kindred team that the best strategy is to reach out to multiple hosts at the same time to improve your chances of securing a stay. Now they want to charge credits to do that.

It also just feels backwards. Shouldn’t Kindred be encouraging more booking activity, not putting up paywalls around it? The supply issue is already a known problem on the platform. Capping requests and charging credits to unlock more doesn’t seem like the right solution.

Curious if others feel the same way or if I’m missing something here.

I haven’t had a good experience with KLM in quite some time now. Their customer service is not good. When I reach out to them via chat I don’t get a response for a minimum of 24 hours. Calling is also a horrible experience where nobody seems willing to help. Even with recent flight cancellations, staff were unwilling to even try to help us get rebooked and luckily were able to do it through Air France because they are partners.

Anyways…today, we were completely boarded and then they started reseating people due to weight distribution. I get it but they were asking like 10 different people. I don’t understand why this couldn’t be done ahead of time so we could have an on time departure.

I just got my A2 results and did better than I thought. I got perfect scores on the reading and speaking. A 90% overall score!

How did everyone else do?

Honestly I’ve been feeling like it’s gotten a bit worse since we joined and I’m hoping others push back on that.

Some of the perks that were there when we first joined are gone, the free hosting kits being the most obvious one. And customer service feels like it has slipped a bit compared to when we first started with a lot of AI responses.

On the flip side the product itself keeps adding new features and the community feels more active. So it’s not all bad.

Has your experience gotten better or worse over time? Would love to hear that I’m wrong on this one.

Even with Kindred handling the professional cleaning there's still a fair amount of prep involved before guests arrive. Tidying up, putting things away, making sure everything is in order. For a 2-3 night stay the effort starts to feel like a lot compared to the credits earned.

We've been debating raising our minimum stay requirement because of this. Ours is currently a 3 night minimum. Curious what others have landed on. What's your minimum and do you ever make exceptions?

I’m in a SF startup draft right now. I decided to pivot to a tank a few rounds in once I realized everyone else was trying to win now. I already traded some assets for 1 extra 27 1st. I was thinking of trading away KWIII for another one. This would make my chances of getting the 1.01 very high and then also have the extra picks of course. Thoughts?

A few months back Kindred added the ability to post an open request to a specific area when there are no available listings. The idea is that a potential host in that area sees it and either opens up their availability or reaches out directly to offer their home.

I tried it once looking for a stay and never heard anything back. It's a cool concept but I'm not sure it would actually convince someone to host if they weren't already planning to.

Has this worked for anyone? Curious to see if this feature has worked for anyone.

I keep seeing a banner for this in the app and have gotten a couple of notifications for the Meta Circle group on Kindred. It looks like some kind of exclusive group for Meta employees.

Just curious if anyone gotten access? Are the homes actually different or more exclusive than the regular pool?

I imagine hotel/Airbnb prices in World Cup host cities are going to be brutal for the next few weeks.

Is anyone using it for World Cup trips? Feel like this would be a great use case for Kindred!

Curious how others manage their credits. Do you try to use them at roughly the same rate you host or do you prefer to accumulate as many nights as possible?

We've hosted more than we've traveled so far and have a decent credit balance built up but do prefer to not host too much more than we're using Kindred for our own stays.

What is your current night count and how do you go about this?

I'm hoping someone here has been through something similar and can point me in the right direction.

My friend is Cuban-American and is very close to obtaining Spanish citizenship through his grandfather, who was born in Asturias, Spain in the 1890s. He has the Cuban birth certificate for the grandfather which lists Asturias as his birthplace. The last document he needs is the certificado literal de nacimiento from Spain from the Spanish civil registry.

He's already tried the Ministry of Justice online portal and it came back empty. The record is older than 100 years, so it's not digitized. I believe it's sitting in a physical book somewhere in the local Registro Civil or municipal archive in Asturias.

Has anyone dealt with this situation? Specifically tracking down a pre-1900 Spanish civil registry record for citizenship purposes?

Any recommendations, especially from people who've actually used a specific service, would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm hoping someone here has been through something similar and can point me in the right direction.

My friend is Cuban-American and is very close to obtaining Spanish citizenship through his grandfather, who was born in Asturias, Spain in the 1890s. He has the Cuban birth certificate for the grandfather which lists Asturias as his birthplace. The last document he needs is the certificado literal de nacimiento from Spain from the Spanish civil registry.

He's already tried the Ministry of Justice online portal and it came back empty. The record is older than 100 years, so it's not digitized. I believe it's sitting in a physical book somewhere in the local Registro Civil or municipal archive in Asturias.

Has anyone dealt with this situation? Specifically tracking down a pre-1900 Spanish civil registry record for citizenship purposes?

Any recommendations, especially from people who've actually used a specific service, would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

We seem to prioritize location every time. If we're going to Paris, I want to be in the heart of the city even if the home itself isn’t amazing. I'd rather walk out the door and be in the middle of everything than stay in a stunning home that's 45 minutes from where the sites I want to see are.

I do see some incredible homes on Kindred that are a bit outside the center and do consider them though but haven't pulled the trigger on one yet.

Do you compromise on location for the right home or is being in a great location more important?

I was looking to make a booking for Madrid today and the listing had Barcelona mentioned in the bio as well as the home listing. Even the specific street listed was Barcelona and not Madrid.

When reaching out to Kindred, it was an AI bot that offers to help find another home and can’t fix the listing so tagged concierge to jump in. I am now waiting on a response.

This is pretty frustrating to be honest. It took me less than 5 minutes to see this home wasn’t in the correct city it was listed under. Had a guest booked this and showed up to a home that was in a city hours away, that would have been a disaster. Just kinda disappointed to know that apparently Kindred isn’t looking very deeply into things before listings are approved.

Edit: here is the Kindred representative’s response:

Thanks so much for flagging this — really appreciate you taking the time to check and raise it.

Just to clarify, we’re only able to make listing changes if they’re requested by the account holder. That said, it’s possible there may be a mismatch or that some details in the bio/description need updating from their side.

I’d recommend reaching out directly to the member to confirm the correct city details so they can review and update if needed.

Thanks again for flagging this — it helps ensure listings stay accurate. If you run into any other questions or need help with anything else, just let me know!

This response is pretty ridiculous to me. It should not be my responsibility to get to the bottom of an issue due to lack of diligence by the Kindred team. Really disappointed by this lack of effort. Even the response seems AI generated.

To me, they serve different purposes. Airbnb is faster, more flexible, and easier for last minute plans. Kindred takes more patience but the value when it works out is really great. Staying in a real home for a fraction of the cost changes how you travel. I also don't have enough nights saved up so I could exclusively stay in Kindreds.

That said, Kindred may not be for everyone. If you need specific dates in a specific city booked less than a month out, you could have a frustrating experience.

Do you use both? Has Kindred replaced Airbnb for anyone entirely?

When we first joined our approval rate on requests was not great. Over time we figured out that a detailed home description, plenty of photos, and a personal bio that shows you are a real person makes a big difference. Also, being open to doing a call with the host first has helped us in a couple of instances. Hosts want to know who is staying in their home.

I will say sometimes hosts just don't respond. This is definitely just a part of Kindred...

Would love to hear what has worked for others. Any specific changes that made a noticeable difference?