Ms Kahan, 26, posted her TikTok video as a joke but the comments were serious. “People said, ‘How do I find these friends?’ or ‘How do you do that?’” she said, taking an honest approach: “You have to find some kind of connection, like a friend of a friend,” she said.
The thinly veiled informal hellos can be suspicious of the lucky summer house owners (or people with primary homes in summer positive locations).
“Now when I post pictures of my house in the Hamptons, I get 10 to 12 different people messaging me saying ‘Oh my God let’s catch up’ or ‘I need to see you this summer. When can we meet?’ said a fashion entrepreneur who owns a seven-bedroom house in Sag Harbor.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur, who requested that her name not be published for fear of offending the people she spoke of, has had her Hamptons home for three years and said the posts became an annual occurrence. “I can just tell when people I haven’t heard from in six months text me all the time right before Memorial Day weekend,” she said.
She’s reached more people than ever this year, and she thinks the looming recession fears are a factor. “People don’t spend that much money on travel,” she said. In fact, the Hamptons currently have double the number of homes available to rent than last year as potential renters cut back. According to the US Travel Association, an industry group, demand for hotel rooms is below March 2019 levels for the first time in months (even as the AAA estimates an 11 percent increase in air travel over Memorial Day weekend compared to the similarly frenetic summer from last year) maybe those travelers are flying to stay with friends or relatives at home).
Some people with summer houses find ways not to play host at all.
In July 2020, Lindsay Tyrpien, 33, creative director of an art gallery in SoHo, purchased a 1920s farmhouse in Livingston Manor, NY, a picturesque town about two hours north. She and her wife, Magdalena Tyrpien, 34, a biotech executive in Manhattan, undertook a major renovation of the 1,200-square-foot space and decided to switch out the second bedroom altogether; instead they have a very large bedroom and office space. (The couple also rents out the house.)
“We are both so busy in our professional lives that we cherish being able to spend that time together,” said Lindsay Tyrpien. “It’s just nice to go there and be alone and not even have the option to rent out.”
