A vitality pool, a lap pool or a leisure pool, all make excellent value-added features for a hotel of any type. Whether your hotel focuses on business travellers, big groups, school trips, family trips or individuals, singles or couples, do not miss the opportunity of making the most out of your water features.
What type of pool suits different types of hotels and how can you ensure that you add the best fitting, most relevant water feature to your property? Knowing what your customers are interested in, as well as making the most of your building and outdoor space, are key to maximising your return on investment when it comes to hotel pools.
In this article, we’ll cover the key ways to choose a pool for your hotel, the type of hotel and pool combinations that match best, and the top pool designs to consider in order to enhance your outdoor and indoor water spaces.
If you’re trying to pick a pool that matches your hotel, here are some tips on making your choice and ensuring that your customers will fully appreciate the water features you provide.
Your hotel architecture and style
The design of your hotel will play an important role in choosing a pool. If you have a modern building decorated primarily in inox and glass, with a simple colour scheme, the best way to go for a matching simple design is adding a lap pool, a zero edge pool, or even an outdoor spa pool. In terms of design, a glass or stainless steel pool will fit into a modern setting. Alternatively, marble tiling can enhance the ambience of your pool area.
However, more traditional or rustic types of hotels may benefit from ornate spa and relaxation pools outdoors, for example, with matching terracotta stone designs. You could also echo wood decking if your hotel is built in a chalet style.
Indoors, you can opt for a sleek, modern design for a spa, which sits separately from the rest of your hotel. However, in a mountain chalet, a wooden, warm-hued spa design would fit perfectly.
Space available for your pools
If you only have a small space available, you’ll surely want to maximise it when building a pool. If you have enough space, consider a regular lap pool – a great leisure pool for any type of customer, from casual tourists to business travellers.
Properties with reduced indoor space or limited to an underground pool option might choose to install a vitality pool or a hot tub. As a relaxing touch, smaller spaces can benefit from a Finnish sauna and a treatment room which fit in most hotels and will suit romantic destinations as well as business hotels. Alternatively, you can install a rooftop pool or a single lane lap pool to make sure customers can exercise while staying in your hotel.
Decorating with water features
A swimming pool is not the only water feature solution you can install in your hotel. There are additional options such as water fountains at the reception, a water show as your brand signature, cascades, water curtains or water walls. Another trending option are the so-called dry deck fountains, which provide a multifunctional, dynamic and refreshing environment both in outdoor and indoor spaces.
The modern hospitality industry has evolved to offer varied experiences for users. The winning formula means each hotel and resort develops their own swimming pool as a manifesto for their approach to hospitality.
This means all amenities and stylistic choices, including the possibilities in location and atmosphere, must remain coherent and aligned with their target customers’ desire. Picking the right pool or water feature can have a great impact on the look and attractiveness of your hotel. Below are some suggestions.
Resorts and holiday & leisure hotels
For a resort hotel, a large leisure pool is a must-have. Make sure you install a large pool with a shallow end, or one large pool for adults coupled with a smaller children’s pool. This way, the whole family can enjoy the water safely. A splash park for the little ones, a lagoon, water slides, themed pools or other similar features also look great at a resort and make your guests likelier to stay on-site as they have access to more fun outlets.
Hotel swimming pools in these installations tend to be grand spaces focused both on entertainment and wellness. So if you have enough room, your resort can also benefit from a wellness centre which can include spa pools, like a vitality pool, and special treatment pools like floatation therapy pods. These can all be accessed independently by non-residents upon paying a fee, or you can include them in a package for your hotel guests.
Lifestyle hotels
With some similarities to a boutique or luxury hotel, lifestyle hotels feature a unique character and distinctive design. Quirky, cutting-edge, avant-garde, trendy, funky or charming, a lifestyle hotel tends to be placed in urban spaces. Its architecture style and ornamentation are usually related to the country or region where it is placed, embracing the local culture. With the guest experience as the centrepiece, the multiple high-standing spaces, services and experiences are created to spend the most of their leisure time on it, recreating the local culture. Lifestyle hotels offer a personalized and unique experience, as each one has its own style and particularities. They can include art galleries, local cuisine restaurants, distinctive lobbies and resting areas, traditional shows, etc. Its main goal is to encapsulate the local essence in the same space.
Business and conference hotels
Aligned with a business target customers’ needs, these hotels offer adequate space for large business meetings and conferences. As such, they provide guest rooms, event locations, food and bar areas, as well as various entertainment possibilities, including swimming pool installations.
In hotels primarily used for business trips, conventions and conference purposes, a pool and a wellness centre offer a great way to unwind after a long day. Consider adding a leisure pool to your hotel if you don’t have the space for a lap pool. Alternatively, an infinity pool or a rooftop pool can elevate your hotel to luxury status.
Also, a wellness space is welcomed in conference hotels. Perhaps add an inox (stainless steel) vitality pool, sauna and steam bath with the option of one or two treatment rooms for those who can spare the time to book a relaxing massage. And, last but not least, gym facilities will enhance your hotel and add to the guests’ experience and comfort.
Inns
Aiming at cosy, familiar atmospheres, inns are typically small and strive to offer unique settings for their guests. Swimming pool installations often need to adapt to these hotels’ space limitations and distinctive decorative tastes.
All-suites
All-suite hotels offer private, exclusive experiences and spaces for their guests. Their suite rooms often include bedrooms, living areas and kitchens. Adding private swimming pools to this formula further encourages the feeling of exclusivity.
Boutique or Theme & Design hotels
Boutique hotels entice “hip” travellers looking for unique, original atmospheres in popular tourist destinations. Wellness pools often accompany the type of experience boutique hotels can offer.
Gastro hotels (focused on offering outstanding food experiences for “foodies”) and heritage accommodations (that aim to promote the local culture and historical experiences) can also be included as a subset of boutique hotels.
Wellness & Spa hotels
Following the hotel and spa formula, this option responds to the growing demand for “wellness tourism”. Pool installations take centre stage in this type of hotel, offering a space for relaxation and exclusive treatments.
Besides the classic spa and sauna experience, plus massages and beauty treatments, our recommendations include an inox vitality pool, an inox lap pool, wellness pools of different temperatures and sizes like cold plunge, and a hydromassage pool is also a good choice to complete the pool area. Thus, your wellness area will play a major role in the hotel.
Additionally, creating a wellness circuit for clients to follow can be useful to ensure they make the most of the space and lengthen their stay, thereby consuming services in the hotel and the wellness area. Another feature that wellness and spa hotels can offer is wellness pods or private spaces, where clients can access their own small private wellness pools, as well as individual treatments.
Sustainable hotels
Also known as eco or sustainable hotels, they aim to offer accommodation and leisure experiences from an environmentally-friendly approach. These hotel choices (including hotel swimming pools) will prioritize sustainable energies and operations that help them minimise their environmental impact.
When you add a water feature or pool to your hotel, you will have a choice of several design types depending on the space and style of your establishment.
For pools, you can opt for:
- Infinity pool – with great views over the surrounding area;
- Traditional lap pool – 20-25m length if you have the space;
- Leisure pool – a big swimming pool for combined use: swimming, fitness or entertainment.
For your hotel spaces, we recommend ornamental fountains:
- Falling water curtains or walls;
- Basin fountains for entryways, gardens, and the reception area;
- A bigger fountain with a watershow for outside or in front of the building.
And do not forget wellness-centre specific pools, such as vitality pools, inox pools, hot tubs, or even floatation pools for unique sensory experiences.
Enhance any type of hotel with pools that suit your style
For any and all types of hotel, adding a pool and/or a wellness centre will only make it more attractive and unique. Guests can relax after a long day’s work, maintain a fitness regime while on holiday, or take advantage of all the unwinding and recharging benefits of a spa experience. Pools suit couples and business travellers alike, not to mention families with children looking for another fun outlet for the kids’ energy.