Fagin

Hoping I can ask your assistance, a very good friend of mine is working with a new luxury hotel in Florida and is looking at putting together the best possible pool service. Can you let me know the best services and features you have experienced poolside?

Goodmorning2U

The pool area and its service are akin to the larger hotel experience. Pool service can be broken down into three segments 1. greeting 2. service during stay and 3. farewell.

Greeting:
A guest should be welcomed and offered assistance upon arrival. This might include setting up a lounge chair, be given towels, and offered a drink/food. The attendant could ask for the room number, look up the last name of the occupants and there after address the guest by name. Name recognition is important and not well practiced in pool areas. This could be an area where your friend positivily distinguishes his department from the competition.
Service during stay: Ensuring that drink/food service has been properly recieved, making sure that drinks are topped off, enough towels are available, having reading material available for men and women-name recognition remembered and practiced.
Farewell: A "have a wonderful day" or "hope to see you tommorrow" is appropriate. A guest should be recognized upon departure as warmly as upon arrival.

Can you tell us which Florida hotel is thinking about improving its pool service?

number_6

Some things other hotels do (though maybe not in FL):
- chilled towels
- bucket of ice brought poolside even if not ordering drinks
- chilled misters (evian at one hotel, having the right mineral water sprayed on you to evaporate is sooooo important)
- specially good pina coladas (the most important poolside component)

Kagehitokiri

if you want tips on REAL service, try reading some of the trip reports for Amanresorts

Service around swimming pools >
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6021012

@ FS Punta Mita >
FS Hawaii and LA were also singled out, as well as Esperanza in Los Cabos.

adamak

Do what Four Season does. Been to Maui & Vegas, both pools have their pluses and minuses. But their services alone made them outstanding. Princeville is not bad either.

1. Staff remembers me and my preference. See me coming and already had towels in hand and walked me to the areas I like.
2. Chill towels and water readily available, without being asked.
3. Waiter services plentiful. No need to wave them down and wait hours.
4. Move umbrella constantly throughout the days so more chairs are under shades.
5. Clean up chairs when they see people are leaving.

In other words, anticipate the needs & wants of customers. Staff needs to care.

Don't do what Westin Maui does -
1. Staff are plentiful, but they're too busy walking back and forth. They take 1 drink order, wait by the bar for 10 min, bring it over to 1 person. Come back, take another single order. I don't quite know what they do all day besides waiting by the pool bar.
2. Have policies but won't enforce it. People leave towels on chair before breakfast. You're not supposed to. When asked to remove these towels so people at the pool actually have chairs to sit down...was told no.
3. Two umbrellas with 500 chairs underneath it. Why?
4. Nickel and dime you by the pool, on top of the $400+ room price and $30 or so resort fee.

I actually pay less in Princeville & 4S Vegas than Westin Maui. Ha. Talk about luxurious.

observer

Plenty of shade, however it is achieved

Policing for "saved" chairs

Segregate an area of the pool for lap swimmers. This could be by placing some lane dividers along the length of part of the pool, and stating that inflatable turtles are not welcome there.

Minimize background music

Kagehitokiri

FS Miami was said to be much worse than many of their other properties.

xracer

I have been there several times and found that the pool service is either great or really, really bad. It's Miami, so I guess it depends on the attitude of the employees working at the pool that day.

Kagehitokiri

wow. but theres the #1 thing.. CONSISTENCY

francophile

Another plus for the FS LV: use of the fitness room is complimentary for overnight guests. At the Bellagio there's a $25 fee:

http://www.bellagio.com/pages/spasalon_exercise.asp

And I assume that's per person per day. So on a one night stay, if I wanted to work out right after check-in and in the morning (to work off the previous evening's food orgy at the buffet), then is it $50?

Mr. Strong

No cellphones allowed in pool area. This rule applies at Hotel Splendido in Portofino and I happily saw it enforced last October.

trvlr70

At this property, the staff will routinely offer complimentary popsickles or chilled fresh fruit during the heat of the afternoon. I thought this was a nice touch.

Also, the staff brings around superchilled bottles of water at no charge.

I'd like to recommend the delicious frozen vokda lemonades as well.

Kagehitokiri

so Fagin, tell your friend he needs to find some good FS pool staff and then steal them, and have them train others

Kettering Northants QC

(1) Space, I want to be able to lie out with Mrs Northants and not feel that my every utterance will be heard by at least half a dozen other people

(2) One that is often overlooked IMO is the washrooms / changing rooms around the pool - the pool area can be fantastic but often I've found the washrooms and changing areas to be humid / stinky places - the most notable exception to this was the Pen in BKK - luxurious, marble clad, air conditioned, clean and immaculate

(3) I don't like signing for towels, I don't mind you discretely double-checking I'm a guest. Also if it rains, understand we might want to run back to the room with a towel around us - Don't worry we won't steal them, we'll leave them for housekeeping to return.

(4) I like those free little snacks that come around every couple of hours - mini ice creams etc - a mini ice cream won't fill me up it will make it more likely to say "I think I'll order a bigger one from the menu"

(5) Free water

(6) Decent wooden loungers with a nice mattress- I don't want my arse to fall throught strips of plastic.

(7) In warm humid areas plenty of loungers under cover so I can still chill out when it's rainy

(8) No VIP areas or exhorbitant fees that turn certain areas like poolside cabanas into VIP areas

(9) A kids free pool / bathing area is welcome for people who want to lounge around in a b it of peace and quiet

(10) Encouraging people to move to and from the pool area appropriately dressed - i.e. put some dressing gowns in the bedrooms. Seeing people walking around the hotels public areas in skimpy clothes doesn't scream class

(11) If its hot I like to be able to find somewhere with a breeze

(12) A pool area with a view is very nice

(13) a large hot tub- big enough for at least 6 people to sit in without feeling as though they are in close contact.

(14) A few water features / good gardening to add character - The sheraton Chiang Mai was probably the worst hotel I've ever stayed in for this - a smallish slab of hot concrete with a tiny feaureless pool plonked in the middle.

(15) The Pen in BKK have an entrance route to to their pool area - over a nice little bridge- we liked this it means that staff can discretely keep an eye on who is coming and going.

(16) A watchful eye is kept on the local insect life - I once had a nest of giant ants attacking me at the pool in the Krungthep Wing at the Shangri la in Bangkok.

(17) I don't want to see the local call girls and rent boys seeking out business around the pool

(18) I don't like bars in the middle of pools

schwarm

best in my experience:

-FS Kona: Extremely attentive staff who greeted properly and helped with set-up; a lot of attention with H20, drinks, spritz, etc.; good at keeping tidy as people left. Also, the cabanas were a major plus for this shade-seeker. However, there aren't quite enough chairs, as evidenced by the several disputes that I witnessed regarding reserved (or not) spaces. This is a serious strike against.

-Bora Bora Nui: Maybe not as attentive or closely serviced, but plenty of space. The best little treats/snacks every hour or two.