Cool pool tool

Splashy new app with cool pools for rent dives into Houston

You can rent this Rice Village-area pool for $50 an hour.

A new app is making a splash in Houston by enabling sun worshippers to rent pools, Airbnb-style.

Swimply, which launched in Houston last month, promotes itself as the first online marketplace for pool sharing. On the app, someone searching for a cool pool to borrow can sift through offerings based on location, price, and amenities (like grills and hot tubs). A potential customer also can peruse reviews left by renters. Once a renter finds an appropriate pool, he or she then reserves it through the Swimply platform.

A review of Houston-area pools available for rent found prices ranging from $40 to $125 an hour.

For instance, a pool near Rice Village that’s listed at $50 an hour is touted as feeling like “a resort in the Italian Riviera.” It comes with an outdoor kitchen, hot tub, limestone floors, and even a basketball court.

For $100 an hour, you and your crew can rent a pool in Cypress, complete with a hot tub, barbecue, trampoline, bounce house, pool toys, and a margarita/slushie machine.

Swimply says prices are based on size of the pool area, as well as amenities, rental time, and rental demand. The company also notes that each pool undergoes a safety inspection prior to being listed on the app. Pool owners can use the app to purchase services like pool cleaning and maintenance before and after a renter takes a dip.

“Whether you’re stuck at home with the kids, tired from a long day of work (or homework), or just bored, we want you to be able to teleport somewhere awesome with a few clicks of a button,” Swimply says on its website. “We want mini-escapes to be as ordinary as visiting a café or [taking] a good nap. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, it should only take a moment from the time you want to be somewhere happier until the time you actually are.”

The app launched with a pilot program in the summer of 2018 and is being rolled out nationwide this summer. Currently, there are also pools for rent in the Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio areas.

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Cashing In

Texas cashes in among top-10 best U.S. state economies in 2026 report

Outline map of texas with transparent american dollar banknotes

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A new study gauging the success or decline in economic performance in every state has revealed Texas' economy remains stable in 2026 after it dropped out of the top five to No. 8 last year.

Texas boasts the No. 8 best state economy in the U.S. this year, according to WalletHub's annual "Best & Worst State Economies" report. The personal finance website's analysts ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 relevant metrics to measure each state's economic activity and health status, and its "innovation potential."

Notably, Texas leads the nation for the most exports per capita in the U.S. in a five-way tie with Louisiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Indiana. Across the study's three main categories, Texas ranked highly for its economic activity (No. 7) and economic health (No. 11), and the state's "innovation potential" rank is the 24th best in the nation.

This is how WalletHub ranked Texas' economic performance, where No. 1 is considered the best and No. 25 is considered average:

No. 6 – Change in non-farm payrolls
No. 8 – Change in GDP
No. 8 – Startup activity
No. 11 – Annual median household income
No. 18 – Government surplus/deficit per capita
No. 21 – Percentage of jobs in high-tech industries
No. 30 – Unemployment rate

WalletHub previously ranked Texas one of the top three states to start a business in 2026, with Houston earning its own entrepreneurial acclaim in separate rankings of the best big cities for new businesses and for starting a career.

"U.S. economic growth depends heavily on the performance of individual states, and some contribute more than others," the report's author wrote. "For example, California, Texas, New York and Florida have economies so large that if they were countries, they would rank in the top 20 in the world."

The five states with the worst state economies in 2026 are Rhode Island (No. 47), Maine (No. 48), Louisana (No. 49), Kentucky (No. 50), and West Virginia (No. 51).

The top 10 best state economies for 2026 are:

No. 1 – Massachusetts
No. 2 – Washington
No. 3 – Utah
No. 4 – California
No. 5 – Delaware
No. 6 – North Carolina
No. 7 – New York
No. 8 – Texas
No. 9 – Colorado
No. 10 – Florida

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