Sold well, day passes to a hotel pool, beach club or lido fill the quiet days without swamping the busy ones. Sold badly, they leave your own guests hunting for a lounger on an August Saturday. Here it is in order, best read before the season opens rather than halfway through the school holidays.
Set the daily cap first
Before any price, decide how many passes to sell a day. The lowest of three numbers wins:
- What your risk assessment allows. There are no swimming-pool-specific health and safety laws, as one council's guidance for pool operators puts it: you work under your general duties, with the HSE's HSG179 as the reference, and occupancy is one of the things to weigh. Check that, your fire risk assessment and any licence or planning condition.
- The loungers you own. If a lounger comes with the pass, you can't sell more passes than free loungers.
- Your guests or members. Hold their share back first, sized for a full day.
Capacity counts people at once, and a pass lasts all day, so work it out for the busiest hour, say early afternoon.
A made-up example: a hotel whose risk assessment allows 120 people round the pool at once, with 70 loungers and about 40 guests using it on a hot Saturday. On numbers you could take 80 from outside; on loungers, only 30. Your cap is 30 passes.
A lido has no residents, so the whole cap is for sale, and a booking system that sells morning and afternoon sessions rather than whole days lets the same water sell twice.
What's in the pass, and what's extra
Start with a basic pass of entry, lounger and towel, and sell the rest as extras or a dearer pass: a cabana or daybed, a parasol, parking, lunch, or credit at the bar. Then two decisions:
- Keep the lounger in the pass. Sell it separately with fewer loungers than passes and the people who arrive at nine with a towel get them all.
- Children. A price of their own, or free up to an age, but they count towards the cap like anyone else.
Pool day pass pricing
Price the most wanted day first, a Saturday in the summer holidays, expecting it to sell out, then come down for the days that are hard to fill. A made-up pattern, VAT included:
- Weekdays in term time: £20.
- Weekends and the school summer holidays: £30.
- Bank holidays: priced as a weekend.
If a day sells out a week ahead, it was too cheap; if one doesn't reach half, add a drink or lunch to the pass before cutting the price.
Sell ahead and stop at the cap
- Sell online and take payment when they book. People who have paid tend to turn up. Once the cap is reached, sales stop, at the gate too.
- Want walk-ups? Hold part of the cap back for the gate and keep it off the website.
- Check every pass at the entrance, by code or by name.
- Publish the season before it starts: opening dates, prices and rules, so the first warm weekend sells ahead.
Cancellations and bad weather
A pass for a set day doesn't carry the 14-day cancellation right for buying at a distance: regulation 28 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 excludes leisure services booked for a specific date. Your policy governs, so write it down and show it before payment:
- How late a pass can be cancelled for free, say 48 hours before. The CMA's guide on cancelling says a business may keep only enough to cover its actual losses and must take reasonable steps to reduce them, for example by reselling.
- What happens if you close, for a storm or a breakdown: a full refund.
- What counts as bad weather. A grey day isn't a closure. Decide who makes the call and by what time, say 10am, and tell everyone booked.
These rules protect individuals; a company booking a team day is governed mostly by the contract you agree. This is general information, not legal advice.
Selling direct or through a third party
Day-pass marketplaces put your pool in front of visitors and people who never knew it was open to the public, for a commission on each pass. Run the sum (passes a month through them × price × rate) and ask who keeps the customer's details. Use them for the days you can't fill alone and your own page for the locals who come back, and split the cap, say 25 passes on your page and 5 on theirs, so no lounger is sold twice.
Doing it with Tuora
Tuora sells your day passes from your own page. You set how many places the pool has each day; they sell one by one and never one more, however many people are buying at once. The price per person changes with the day and the season, loungers and towels are extras, and payment goes into your own Stripe account. If you close a day, you get the list of who had booked, with their phone numbers. €75 a month, no commission per pass. More on pools and day passes.
You can try it before talking to anyone: buy a pass at our demo club, which sells pool day passes with a daily cap, then open its back office.