Don’t take your eye off the pool

One of the biggest attractions of a resort hotel is the swimming pool, an oasis of crystal clear water that glistens in the sunlight like a diamond. To maintain a pristine pool takes time, care and most of all attention to detail with a keen eye on chlorine and PH levels.

Brand standards usually dictate various chemical levels that must be maintained to provide a safe and appealing swimming experience. Maintenance of the pool is often outsourced to a local company and hotel management quite literally 'take their eye off the pool'.

We see, with increasing regularity, pools that are turning from sparkling clean to dirty green cloudy swamps over a matter of days with warning signs ignored until it is too late. This change invariably impacts on Guest experience and in some cases poses a serious health risk for Guests where chlorine levels have been neglected, algae grows and any ingestion of the water could cause sickness.

In this latest example at a 5* luxury resort in Indonesia, we noticed the pool change colour over a  5 day period until such point as, in our opinion, the pool is not safe to swim in, is too cloudy to clearly see the bottom and makes for a pretty shocking Guest experience. 

There are only a handful of reasons for a pool to turn green so quickly and all are easily avoidable with the right process, procedures and monitoring. Something has clearly gone badly wrong at this resort.