Aura Centre has revealed that it is no longer necessary to own a private pool or risk COVID-19 infection in a crowded public swimming facility when cooling the heatwave of mid-July in central Spain.
In Madrid, a 21-year-old waitress and her three friends used the Swimmy app to rent a private pool in the yard of a house in Arroyomolinos, 28 km southwest of the capital.
While relaxed in the pool, Centre said, “You are better protected here, without anyone to bother you. It’s a good idea, I don’t think I will go back to a municipal pool.”
As more people choose to avoid the community’s pools and beaches, the pandemic has made some businesses thrive, such as the manufacturing and maintenance of swimming pools worldwide.
Florida, the world’s largest swimming pool equipment provider in Spain, said in May said that the profit has surged to 40X and that demand for pools is likely to remain strong.
Estefania Leiva, communications director for the Swimmy Spain branch, founded in France in 2017, said owners of the Swimmy app could rent a pool and earn a monthly income of up to 1,200 euros.
The prices in Madrid are typically 12 to 30 euros per person for 12 hours.
“Even though (COVID-19) restrictions have been relaxed this year, in May and June, we have doubled the number of reservations compared with last year,” Leiva said.
She also said 150,000 application users chose from about 3,500 private pools in Spain and France and that Swimmy operates in Italy, Germany and the USA.
Due to the new outbreak this month, several regions have had to reapply some restrictions over the past few weeks.
“I rarely enjoy the swimming pool…so if I only use it a couple of hours, I prefer others to enjoy it, and the money comes in very handy because this kind of swimming pool is expensive to maintain,” said Vanessa Ghirardato, the owner of the pool rented out by Centre and her friends and who started using the app last year.
