About
BestPoolHotels is an independent editorial guide to the world's most memorable hotel pools. We don't rank hotels on thread count, lobby art, or breakfast buffets — we rank them on the one thing our readers actually came for: the pool.
Most hotel guides treat the pool as an afterthought. We flip that. Every hotel on this site is selected and ranked because of how good its pool is — the view, the water, the loungers, the crowd, the sunset light. If the pool isn't worth a flight, it doesn't make our lists.
We keep our city lists short — usually five to ten hotels — so every spot is one we'd genuinely book ourselves.
Every hotel has exactly one Pool Score from 0 to 10 — the same number on every page. It is built from 5 evidence-based criteria worth 100 points in total. A criterion we cannot document is left out rather than guessed, and the page says how many criteria the score is based on.
| Criterion | What we look at | Max points |
|---|---|---|
| Guest pool sentiment * | How guests describe the pool itself, across deduplicated reviews. | 40 |
| Heating | Whether the shared swimming pool is heated, and for how much of the year. | 15 |
| Number of pools * | Shared swimming pools count first; spa, children's and private pools add little. | 15 |
| Pool size | The largest shared pool guests can use, measured in area or length. | 20 |
| Independent recognition | Positive, independently published articles about the pool. | 10 |
* Required — without it no score is published. Model version evidence-v2; each hotel page shows when its score was last recalculated.
Pool Score (0–10) is our evidence-based assessment of the pool, built from the criteria above. Meta Rating (0–100)is a separate, external signal — a weighted blend of guest ratings from Google and TripAdvisor for the hotel as a whole.
The two often agree, but they measure different things: a beautiful pool can sit in a hotel with mixed service reviews (and vice versa). When a hotel has no usable third-party rating data, we hide the Meta Rating rather than show a fake number.
Scores are recalculated automatically once a month.
A small note: pool details can be seasonal — opening dates, hours, and access for non-guests change year to year. Always double-check pool info on your booking page before you book.
Our shortlists come from a mix of on-the-ground visits, the hotels' own websites, and a careful read of recent traveler reviews across major booking platforms.
We never copy review text. Everything you read here is rewritten in our own words by our editors, with quotes and specifics cross-checked against multiple sources. If a hotel claims a "rooftop infinity pool" but real guests describe a small plunge tub, we go with the guests.
Pricing, opening hours, and seasonal details are verified directly with the hotel before publishing and re-checked at least once per year.
BestPoolHotels is funded by affiliate links. When you click a "Check availability" or "Book" link and complete a booking, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions keep the site independent and ad-free.
Affiliate relationships never influence our Pool Score or which hotels we include. Rankings are decided by the editorial team before any booking links are added, and hotels cannot pay for placement.
For full details, see our advertising disclosure. Questions? Email hello@bestpoolhotels.com.