1. Owner Services & Onboarding
  2. Property Maintenance/Guest

Pool Heat Fees and Pool Heating Procedures

Learn more about how we efficiently manage your Pool/Spa operation during the season.

 

How are we helping our Owners? Summary of Results from Recent Changes: 

Reducing Pool Heat Temp from 85 to 83 Degrees on Arrivals - This has been a large win overall, significantly reducing heater up-time by an average of 8-15% depending on the size of the pool with minimal Guest impact. This is going to remain a standard go-forward. We will increase back to 85 complimentary if the Guests requests during their stay.

Additional Pool Heat - Extra $10 Per Degree Per Day - If a Guest wants to go higher the 85 degrees then we are charging them an extra $10 per day per degree that they would like the Pool heated to. For example, if the Guest calls and would like the pool to go to 90 degrees then they would pay and extra $50/day (90 degrees-85 base degrees = 5 degrees x $10/day = $50/day)

Non-Commissioned Heating Fees on New Bookings - This has been implemented and working. As mentioned on previous emails this is on average increasing your Utility Fee income by as much as 106%.  

Pool Heat Fee Summary

Other Newly Implemented Changes:

We are introducing the concept of "Pool Heat Blocks" - The concept is to offer Guests the ability to turn on Pool Heating for 2 nights/3 days at a time. This enables them to say turn on Pool Heat for the weekend but if they aren't going to use the Pool during the week then they won't need to pay for it. This is going to make us more competitive for longer term stays offering our Guests a way to practically save money as well as reducing Owners utility bills.

We've updated our Operating Model depending on Pool Temperature - We have been hard at work running studies here locally to determine when is the shortest amount of time that we need the Pool Heaters on to ensure that we are getting to temp around arrival within reason. What we've developed are 2 operating models:

  • Plan #1 Day Prior to Arrival - Mid Nov-Mid Feb - we will turn on Pool Heating 8am the day prior to arrival. Based on Pool Temp of 59 degrees or lower. This is necessary given the amount of time it takes to get to temperature. 
  • Plan #2 Day Of Arrival - Mid Feb-Mid Apr & Mid Sept-Mid Nov - we will turn on Pool Heating 8am the day of arrival. Based on Pool Temp of 60 degrees or higher. Right now we are operating in Plan #2

By implementing these different plans we seeing a variety of benefits:

  • We are reducing the run time by 20% over the course of a 4 night stay for 4 months out of the year where pool temps are typically above 60 degrees by turning on Pool Heater the day of arrival vs the day before. The extra benefit and off-chance that a guest mentions the pool wasn't warm enough by check-in doesn't off-set the extra cost for our Owners.
  • We are reducing the Pool Filter up time from 6am-12am to 8am-10pm going from 18 to 14 hours per day (22% savings) which will not only save on Gas but will save on Electricity in the Spring & Summer months.
  • We are still able to target getting the Pools for Guests 80-83 degrees for the Pool by check in of 3pm. 

You can see the 2 models and our calculated run-time averages below: 

Pool Heat Policy - Plan 1
Pool Heat Policy - Plan 2
Changes can only be implemented with a Remote Access System and 4-Button Controller Installed:

This is only available for Owners with a remote access system like AquaLink or Pentair as well as a 4 button remote. Please reach out if you'd like more info. Your Pool Service Provider should be able to install these for $750-$1500 depending on your situation. We can also use a preferred provider to install and simply be repaid through a debit to future rents. Please reach out to actionitem@acmehouseco.com if you'd like to move forward or have any questions.

Remote Management-1