Earn money by listing your gear on Synth Swap.

We do our absolute best in trying to make sure that Synth Swap is a community where people treat each other and one another’s devices with great care. All borrower orders are placed as booking requests that both you (the lender) and us will have to accept before a request turns into an approved order.

Before we lend your device to a borrower, we:

1. Ask the borrower to describe how they’re planning to use your device when placing a booking request (you’ll see this when we ask for your approval).

2. Make the borrower sign our terms & conditions, which include being personally liable up to the full value of the device in case of any issues.

3. Verify the borrower’s ID and proof of address.

4. Ask for you to review the details of the booking request and and either accept or decline it.

5. Charge the borrower for the full rental amount + a security deposit.

6. Make the borrower authorise us to be able to charge the borrower’s payment method on file up to the full value of your device in case of any problems.

7. Provide the borrower with instructions on how to treat devices with care, how to return on time, etc.

Additionally, for the first two months upon our launch, we’ll be picking up and delivering all orders ourselves, meaning we have a chance to meet each and every borrower and go over how to treat your device respectfully with them.

We also ask for feedback on every rental event and make sure that any members who do not meet our high standards will be removed from our community.

Have a look at this article on how to set up your payments account in our Lender Portal.

We release payments to lenders once a device has been picked up and the rental period has started. We provide all lenders with a Stripe account, where payments will reach you within 24 hours of the start of the rental event, and then forwarded to your bank account.

This is up to you. Many of our community members prefer longer rentals, eg. weekly or monthly. But we do also support daily rentals.

We currently have two temporary pickup locations in Berlin Neukölln and Prenzlauer Berg. In January 2024, we’ll move into a permanent location in Mitte. We’ll ask for you to drop off an item that’s getting rented to our location. If you are unable to do so, we can arrange to pick it up from you.

After a booking request has been received for your device, we’ll send out the details to you and double check availability. You then have 24 hours to confirm or reject the request.

After you’ve confirmed, we’ll arrange the logistics. We’ll release the payment to you within 24 hours of a rental event starting.

We offer lenders a chance to sign up for a full insurance coverage for cases of most damages to your gear (including the borrower not returning the device). We also charge security deposits for each rental event and verify all users of the platform. You can read more about insurance and security here.

To make sure your device is ready for pickup, it's important to make sure it's in good working order, clean, and ready to be transported. Please make sure all cables, power supplies, and any other accessories are included and in good condition.

We’ll also be asking you to document the condition of the device thoroughly before and after the rental. This is a requirement for us to be able to mediate any potential disputes.

In order to be able to mediate any potential disputes, we’ll ask you to document the condition of your device before and after each rental. We’ll publish the exact instructions soon.

This works similarly than what you might be familiar with from car rentals. You’ll be asked to take detailed photos of your device from all angles and a video that proves that the main features of the device are working. Besides any cosmetic damages, we’ll also need to know about any other defects before and after a rental.

More details on this will be published soon.

In short, the serious ones are damage and theft.

We’ve put a lot of effort into making sure that using Synth Swap is as safe as possible. We offer lenders a chance to sign up for a comprehensive insurance policy. We also charge security deposits for each rental event and have the personal and payment details of all borrowers on file, while also verifying ID’s and checking for proof of address.

This combination makes it rather unlikely that someone would go ahead and not return your gear. And in the unlikely case of your device getting damaged or not returned and the borrower not cooperating with us, having insurance will make sure that things get fixed and you are properly compensated.

While these sorts of unfortunate events are very unlikely, you should take these risks into account when listing devices.

Another aspect worth considering is small wear and tear. Little marks of use are not covered by our insurance and are the tradeoff that will likely occur if you regularly rent out a device. If having normal wear and tear appearing on your device is something that you know will bother you, then it might not be worth it to lend your devices out.

Yes. Currently by default we ask you to specify whether or not it’s acceptable to use your device in a smoking environment, and whether or not borrowers can use your device outside of a home and/or studio environment (eg. taking it to a gig).

You have the chance to specify any other special conditions when listing devices.

We’d be more than happy to have a chat and address any questions or concerns you might have! You can book a call with us here.