i have a crazy idea

[Blondie]

What do you mean how many should come to the park that the money will come back Blondie!!

Well, seeing you're in Austria, I don't know how popular swimming is there. Since I live in Florida, swimming is a MAJOR thing here. Kids grow up in the water here. Plus it doesn't snow here, so you can basically swim year round outside. But I don't know how it is like in your area. If swimming a really popular thing, you'll probably have a steady business, especially if it's indoors. But if swimming is not practiced at all in the winter, you're going to have to figure out something to do in that part of the year. 40€ does seem a lot too me. Personally, I would charge 10€ per person. Maybe 15€ but anything over 20 would be very pricey for a one day swim.

[Pascal21M]

By us iz snows in the winter months. Is 15 euro not to less?? You must finance it. Swimming is also popular by us but no so popular as by you

[Blondie]

I mean it depends on what kind of attractions you would have there. If you're going to have just some pools, it's not going to be worth much more than 15-20 euro per person a day. Because they could always swim somewhere else for cheaper or free. If you're adding stuff like, waterfalls, slides, more entertainment, then maybe you can charge more.

I'm just saying my opinion, if someone charged a person in Florida $40 to swim at a pool, they would walk right out of there. Waterparks here don't even charge $40 for a swim. Something between 15 and 25 would be reasonable.

[Pascal21M]

It should be there only pools indoor and outdoor with caves and grotts. This should be curvy.

[MerEmma]

I mean it depends on what kind of attractions you would have there. If you're going to have just some pools, it's not going to be worth much more than 15-20 euro per person a day. Because they could always swim somewhere else for cheaper or free. If you're adding stuff like, waterfalls, slides, more entertainment, then maybe you can charge more.

I'm just saying my opinion, if someone charged a person in Florida $40 to swim at a pool, they would walk right out of there. Waterparks here don't even charge $40 for a swim. Something between 15 and 25 would be reasonable.

Really? Huh. The waterparks around here charge $50-$60 a ticket, but public pools tend to be $5-$10.

[Pascal21M]

I will open it all with discounts for mermaids and mermen

[Merman Dan]

I have always wanted a swimming pool like Shark Reef at Typhoon Lagoon. Combine that with a lazy river and then we're talking!

[roamingmer]

There are various tutorials on how to construct a business plan online, and you have got some good advice from Blondie. Hohen Sie, was Sie sagts ist immer richtig.

Have a look at various large water parks in Europe - Europarks or CentreParks can give you an idea of the type of environment needed to house multiple warm pools throughout the winter, and obviously summer is easier. Here in Switzerland a yearly pass to an outdoor pool is about 80 USD-120 USD. A summer pass to 20 outdoor heated pools in Zurich area is around 160 USD. A day pass to a large complex max 20 USD per person. Heavily motivated swimmers will visit the pool every day, but most will attend when the sun is out and water is warm.

So lets start backwards & forwards costing to see what is feasible. Take a large outdoor pool complex (children pool, slides, diving boards, 50m pool, toddler pool) which probably gets max 100 people a day on a 30C day. 50% of the people have a summer pass (120 USD split over 20 weeks = 6 USD / day / person). Thats 300 USD for 50 people. The other 50 pay a daily entrance fee of 8 USD. Thats 400 USD. So total takings per day would be 700 USD in principle.

Now take off the wages of the two life guards who are present. They are paid 50 USD / hour. The pool is open for 9 hours. Thats 900 USD outgoing per day. You are already negative 200 USD, so no-go.
Now take off the heating costs - just for the office (280 USD / month = 10 USD / day approx). Now the pool heating costs, repair costs and you can easily be in the region of another 100 USD / day.
Hmm... not looking good.
Remember cleaning costs... income tax on your net income, social security costs for your employees, public liability insurance (even if it is a members only club), advertising (probably 20% of your income), electricity, gas, building maintainence, changing rooms, security. You could easily be right that you need 350 people / day at 40 USD to make it work - but the answer is clear. It is not going to work in this scenario. It is a nice dream, and if you win the Lotto then good luck setting it up - but it will be a bottomless moneypit unless you have a secret ingredient.

Sorry...

[Echidna]

I'm pretty sure that the outdoor pool I'm visiting had lots more than just 100 guests per warm day.
Sure, we only get a handful of warm days, weeks at most, but both the pool and all its surroundings are simply swarming with people- think Rush-Hour subway in a large city.

It might be less for an area with more competition pool-wise- in Bavaria are not only more pools than where I live, but also many nice lakes-, but in general, German pools tend to be full.

That said, I think pools that do less well are subsidized by the municipalities.
At any rate, even though this idea obviously needs lots of planning, it might not be impossible to do
if a city/municipality can be convinced of the merit of such a new facility.

[MerEmma]

The amount of people that visit a pool TOTALLY depends on location and time of year. It's really hard to estimate.

[Mermaid Sparkle]

There are various tutorials on how to construct a business plan online, and you have got some good advice from Blondie. Hohen Sie, was Sie sagts ist immer richtig.

Have a look at various large water parks in Europe - Europarks or CentreParks can give you an idea of the type of environment needed to house multiple warm pools throughout the winter, and obviously summer is easier. Here in Switzerland a yearly pass to an outdoor pool is about 80 USD-120 USD. A summer pass to 20 outdoor heated pools in Zurich area is around 160 USD. A day pass to a large complex max 20 USD per person. Heavily motivated swimmers will visit the pool every day, but most will attend when the sun is out and water is warm.

So lets start backwards & forwards costing to see what is feasible. Take a large outdoor pool complex (children pool, slides, diving boards, 50m pool, toddler pool) which probably gets max 100 people a day on a 30C day. 50% of the people have a summer pass (120 USD split over 20 weeks = 6 USD / day / person). Thats 300 USD for 50 people. The other 50 pay a daily entrance fee of 8 USD. Thats 400 USD. So total takings per day would be 700 USD in principle.

Now take off the wages of the two life guards who are present. They are paid 50 USD / hour. The pool is open for 9 hours. Thats 900 USD outgoing per day. You are already negative 200 USD, so no-go.
Now take off the heating costs - just for the office (280 USD / month = 10 USD / day approx). Now the pool heating costs, repair costs and you can easily be in the region of another 100 USD / day.
Hmm... not looking good.
Remember cleaning costs... income tax on your net income, social security costs for your employees, public liability insurance (even if it is a members only club), advertising (probably 20% of your income), electricity, gas, building maintainence, changing rooms, security. You could easily be right that you need 350 people / day at 40 USD to make it work - but the answer is clear. It is not going to work in this scenario. It is a nice dream, and if you win the Lotto then good luck setting it up - but it will be a bottomless moneypit unless you have a secret ingredient.

Sorry...

HOLY COW. 50 USD/hr? That seems way over-priced. The minimum wage in my state is 7.78/hr. I would think Lifeguards AT MOST, would get 12/hr. That's only 100/day/lifeguard.

I'm a restaurant owner and I think it's a feasible idea. As long as it has something to keep people coming in to visit (like mermaids). If you called it mermaid paradise and advertised it as a place where mermaids could come swim and people could come visit and watch. Maybe keep one mermaid employed in the pool at all times.
Your large costs are mainly going to be upkeep, as I can see.
All you need is a loan and a plan to get it going.

[Blondie]

Really? Huh. The waterparks around here charge $50-$60 a ticket, but public pools tend to be $5-$10.

Well.... You're right. You live in central Florida too so you have some of the best waterparks out there. Here in Jax we don't have a lot and they're no where near the scale at which the ones in like, Orlando are.

So yeah I guess you're right. For a NICE and really fun waterpark it'll be more like $50-60. This is slides, wavepools, other crazy water attractions. Not just pools.

Now take off the wages of the two life guards who are present. They are paid 50 USD / hour. The pool is open for 9 hours. Thats 900 USD outgoing per day. You are already negative 200 USD, so no-go.

Whoaaaa no. Lifeguards get NOTHING close to that. I was a lifeguard for three years and I got $10 an hour. Some beach lifeguards might make between $12-17 USD an hour. But I have NEVER met one who has made over $20 an hour. The one who I met who made that much had been working at the beach and was one of the captains of the guard in the city. And he had been doing it for years, plus he was following in the footsteps of his father. $50 an hour is waaaaay out there. My mother is an ICU nurse and she doesn't even get close to that amount.

But overall, I agree with your business plan. It doesn't seem plausible to me either. It does seem like a cool dream and would be fun to do if you had endless boatloads of cash, but that's just not realistic.

[MerEmma]

Well.... You're right. You live in central Florida too so you have some of the best waterparks out there. Here in Jax we don't have a lot and they're no where near the scale at which the ones in like, Orlando are.

So yeah I guess you're right. For a NICE and really fun waterpark it'll be more like $50-60. This is slides, wavepools, other crazy water attractions. Not just pools.

I forget that there's such a thing as smaller waterparks, bahaha. I've only been to big Disney/Busch/SeaWorld waterparks and I forgot that there are smaller waterparks that charge less. Total mistake. :P

[MerAnthony]

I know that there is one like you describe here in th U.S. I talk to her from time to time. I am not sure where she is located but I bet it is in a warmer area of the U.S.

[Pascal21M]

It shouldnt be a waterpark just a similiar pool
Who will donate for it when it will be able to realize

[Pascal21M]

What do you think about this pool: http://urbex2011.files.wordpress.com...6/img_6927.jpg ??
Do you think we can modernize it?

[MerEmma]

A pool like that is pretty dang big--very expensive to operate.

[roamingmer]

Perhaps Pascal21M is actually a visionary - someone who drive an idea no matter what. So go for it.

Sorry I should have stated that prices in USD are based on a (nearly) 1:1 conversion from Swiss Francs. A physical therapist will earn 100 USD / hour (not so well paid). A shop teller (assistant) probably closer to the lower limits. But Switzerland is an expensive country and our prices / salaries and cost of living are very disproportionate compared to USA.

[Echidna]

It's not that big, but it looks like it'd take quite a few grand to renovate.

[Pascal21M]

Or we can buy only a ground area where we put a indoor pool on it