Can I Rent Out My Swimming Pool?
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The new trend of renting out your swimming pool by the hour has caught on recently with apps like Swimply where you can find paying customers willing to trade cash for a booked slot of time in your pool. It is of little surprise that the idea of renting out your pool became even more popular during the pandemic and lockdowns where travel was limited. Swimming pools in general have been experiencing record levels of sales for new installations as well as renovations of older and even dilapidated pools. As it turns out if you are forced suddenly to stay at home around the clock for extended periods of time it is a massive advantage to have a swimming pool. Actually in general it is a massive advantage to have a pool, or a massive luxury to say the least, but during lockdowns a backyard swimming pool was as good as you could hope to have. Those that could not hope to have one then hope to be able to rent one.
Have you been to a commercial pool like the local YMCA lately? First, the level of chlorine in the water is enough to burn the pigment off of your children, but that is their own fault because the chlorine levels are only this high to combat the urine they are adding anyway. Public pools are crowded, chaotic and noisy on a cool Tuesday afternoon. If you want to swim at a public pool on a blazing hot summer day on the weekend then you are probably going to need a tylenol or two by the end of the day. It can be hard to even find enough space for you to cool off, let alone swim, and there is certainly no relaxing happening. By comparison a residential pool sounds absolutely amazing. With a residential pool you can have the entire pool to yourself. This is simply not possible any other way unless you can afford to own a pool for yourself. Floating casually on an inflatable raft with only the sounds of nature surrounding you is a serene experience that you simply can not recreate in a public pool environment. For someone without a pool the idea of renting a pool by the hour would be appealing enough to even be worth a premium amount. Pool owners who have been renting out their pools seem to mirror this sentiment.
How much does it cost to rent a pool for an hour? - Depending on area, time and day the average cost can be $50 to $75 per hour.
Are private pool rentals heated? - Some pool rentals are heated are some are not.
Is it legal to rent out a private pool? - What are you some kind of square? Seriously though renting out a private pool is a gray area.
Why renting your pool is not easy money - It may come as a surprise to you but any swimming pool industry worker can tell you that many people who own and operate swimming pools do not actually use them at all. It is very common to close a pool for the winter season and in speaking with the pool owner learn that the pool was not used at all that year. Or perhaps a single occasion by a single person. While this might sounds crazy you need to appreciate that even if you have no plan to use your pool you are still required to open it, chemically treat it, brush and vacuum it etc. to prevent it from turning into a bacteria and parasite laden swamp, which is what a stagnant and isolated body of water would be without an active filtration system and chemical management of the water. This is why many people own pools and do not use them at all. A common story is that the pool was for the kids, and now the kids are all grown up and moved away with houses and pools of their own. Perhaps the grandchildren might swim on a visit but other than that the pool gets no use at all. It is little wonder that these people, who are many, are interested in monetizing the pool that they are committed to operating and maintaining. It costs a lot to care for a pool whether you swim or not so turning something which is a financial burden into a money maker sounds like a slam dunk idea...but I do not think that it is. At least not long term.
Liability in renting out your pool - What you might not appreciate when you look to rent your pool out to strangers is that there is a boat load of liability involved in doing so. Some of this liability will be immediately obvious but there is likely more that you are not considering. Obviously if someone dives into your pool and breaks their neck, which definitely does happen, then you will be liable even if you have a "no diving" sign right next to where they jumped in. At the very least you will have to fight to prove you are not liable. What about a less obvious situation like someone who swims in your pool gets sick shortly afterwards and they (and the doctor treating them) believes that the illness might have come from your (poorly treated) swimming pool water. What if this person ends up going blind, or having limbs amputated, or develops a brain parasite that debilitates them permanently? Will you be able to prove that you maintain the water to such a standard as to be able to chemically prove that your water did not make someone sick? The short answer is no, and yes that is something that a commercial pool operator would have to be able to prove with chemical log books in the event of an illness or death which is potentially related to the aquatic facility.
People can have a catastrophic injury in a swimming pool. People can also get sick from water related issues, both minor and serious in nature. In addition to these extremes there is also the highly likely potential for a slip and fall accident or a minor injury to someone that somehow results in legal action. This is an unfortunate reality of the world we live in and letting strangers access your residential pool is a door wide open for exploitation by unscrupulous individuals.
Commercial Pools VS. Private Pools
Commercial swimming pools and residential swimming pools really are not the same thing. They are not really built the same way, or to the same specifications, and the operation and chemical maintenance of residential pools is quite a lot less involved than maintaining commercial swimming pools. The rules for entrapment hazards, water velocity, chemistry parameters and filtration turnover are all much more strict for commercial pools. This is to prevent anyone from getting hurt, which includes hurting themselves doing something stupid, which anyone who has worked with the public can tell you is a certainty.
You might be able to get away with renting out your pool by the hour right now but I believe this to be a loophole type situation that is likely to be buttoned up due to these liability issues. To give you another example, commercial pools are required to have depth markers for how deep the pool is every few feet so that someone on the deck can know how deep the water is without jumping in. Very important if you can not swim. Residential pools do not have depth markers. This is just one of many ways in which residential pools do not meet the standard required for the general public to use a swimming pool safely.
While people look at renting out their pool as a residual income opportunity the reality is that it is not residual in nature, and the income part itself is dubious. What if someone breaks something on your pool? Good luck having them pay for any damage they have done. You are taking a risk with your pool by renting it out. Someone could drop and break a glass which requires you to drain and clean the pool eating up a month of profit or more. Pool owners know not to have glass around or in a pool but someone just renting a pool for an hour might not know or appreciate this rule. I tend to look at renting out a pool like renting out your sports car when you are not using it. If you had a sweet new Corvette you could make some good cash by renting it out by the hour to people...but that probably sounds like a bad idea to you. A lot of liability, a lot of things could go wrong or get broken, or likely the car would get damaged and that thing cost you a small fortune. That is exactly how I view renting out your swimming pool by the hour. Like renting out a high performance sports car to the general public. You could, but the reward hardly seems worth the risk.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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