30 April 2024 , 08:26
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A dad earns £85k-a-year renting out the swimming pool in his garden.
Steve Crum, 65, was struggling with the expensive upkeep costs of his large Victorian family home which came with a pool. He looked into replacing it with an Airbnb but when he was quoted £20k for the work, he decided to advertise the pool on a local Facebook group.
He says the pool outside his home in Warrington, Cheshire, is fully booked from 8am to 9pm year round. It costs £25 for a private 90 minutes one person session and £56 for a group of eight. He says it's a hit with people who don't like to swim in public.
Steve, who previously worked in IT, said: "It was maybe used to be used once a week before. It cost £500 to heat a month. It was wasted. Three years ago we had an old house with no one in it. It was very expensive to run. I thought 'hang on we have a swimming pool, what about renting the pool out?'
The pool at Steve's home that he now rents out (Nick Crum/SWNS)"I didn't have any expectations. The swimming pool is busy from 8am to 9pm. It's our main income. It's a joy to see people coming and going." Steve thought about replacing it with two more bedrooms so he could Airbnb part of the house. Instead he decided to make use of what he had and put an advert on his local Facebook group to open up his pool in August 2021. In the first few years Steve made £40k to £50k but now makes £85k a year. Steve said: "It's unbelievable."
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He finds people come to his pool who can't or don't want to go to a public pool for body conscious reasons. Steve also has lots of special needs groups who are able to swim in the private environment. Steve's sons Nick, 39, a film producer, and Dave Crum, 37, a financial adviser, launched Swimple - an app to help others do the same last year.
They now have six active pools listed. Nick said: "It's very rewarding for many reasons. It's a different swimming experience. Everyone gets to have a little bit of luxury. It's usually something you only get on holiday. There is less and less access to swimming. We're trying to combat that."
From left - Nick Crum, 39, Dave Crum 37, and Steve Crum, 65 (Nick Crum/SWNS)Steve said: "When I started it just thought about the money. I had no idea what lovely people you get. It's really rewarding. People get so much out of the swimming pool. We want to get more people swimming. We want to get more access to pools around the UK. Pools are cost sucking. They have a tendency to de-value properties."