Breaking Into Commercial Pool Service

Ready to land commercial pool accounts without racing to the bottom on price? We break down exactly how to win bids with HOAs, apartments, and hotels while protecting your margins, your time, and your sanity. From first contact to long-term retention, this is a step-by-step guide to building a profitable commercial line that doesn’t drain your residential route.

We start with how decision-making works behind the scenes: HOAs need multiple bids, boards are volunteer-led, and property managers value reliable partners who make their jobs easier. You’ll learn why a concise, one-page proposal beats a 20-page packet, how to use SEO and targeted ads to get found for “commercial pool service” in your city, and what to say when you call management companies to be added to their bid lists. We also cover when to cold walk properties, how to read a neglected pool as your opening, and how to present outcomes—uptime, compliance, and clear communication—instead of just tasks.

Pricing is where most pros stumble. We explain the headache factor that should be baked into every commercial rate to cover inspections, chemistry logs, access issues, bather load spikes, late payments, and extra visits during heat waves. You’ll hear why HOAs are often more stable and faster to approve repairs than apartments, and how to set a hard price floor that keeps you out of unprofitable contracts. We dive into insurance and certifications too: typical two million liability requirements, when CPO is enough, when county certification is mandatory, and smart stopgaps if an inspector demands credentials on short notice.

• adding a headache factor to every commercial bid
• why HOAs pay more reliably than apartments
• how to get in via SEO, Google Ads, and cold calls
• using one-page bids for faster board decisions
• navigating two million liability limits and certificates
• county certification vs CPO and surprise inspections
• setting a price floor and when to walk away
• balancing visit frequency, capacity, and route design
• strategies for blind bidding and p

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Episode Focus
• 2:29 Why Commercial Pools Demand Higher Bids
• 5:54 The Headache Factor Explained
• 9:25 Pricing Pushback And Educating Boards
• 13:32 Insurance And Certification Requirements
• 17:25 Outreach To HOA And Property Managers
• 21:34 HOAs Versus Apartments: Key Differences

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

Hey, welcome to the Pool Game Podcast show. Kind of getting your foot in the door with HOA communities and commercial pool service accounts, some try-to-true ways of kind of breaking in, and some things to know about if you are pursuing these commercial type accounts. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the Pool Guy Coaching Program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. From me, I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. If you're considering branching out into commercial pool service, which can be very lucrative financially, of course, there are several ways you can do this. One thing you can start doing is advertising with your SEO settings online, maybe run some Google ads, promoting your business in the area as a commercial pool service, and management companies will actually sometimes search online for new service companies to get bids. Typically, they have to get several bids to make it official. For example, if you are familiar with an HOA community, I've been the president of my community now, I think for like nine years. And one thing that we strive to do is to make sure we get three bids for everything we have to do in here. Now, of course, there are vendors that we work with where we don't have to rebid everything. And no one in the community is gonna be questioning the fact that we're using the same vendor that we've been using for you know 15 years. But if something new, like the landscaping needs to be the landscaper needs to be replaced, we definitely have to get three landscaping or more bids to show the community that we are doing our due diligence and getting a landscaper that's going to be effective and also affordable to the budget that we have set for landscaping. So this is something that may be a way-in for you when they are doing multiple bids, apartment complexes and hotels and and these organizations. Also, the manager there will like to get several bids. Now they're looking at they're looking at it a little differently than an HOA. We're getting bids because we have a set budget and we want to fit that particular service into that budget, and we're also looking for someone who's gonna do a good job so we investigate their reputation and things like that, which are important because it's a little bit different because we own basically all of the community property in here. Each owner owns a percentage of it, I guess, if you want to put it that way. Whereas someone working for an apartment complex, it's just there to save the owner or corporation money. And so they're looking for sometimes the lowest bid possible, which may not be a bid that makes you money as well if you do bid really low on these commercial pools, and one of the things you have to realize is that commercial pool service is something that you can't go cheap on. What I mean is if you are bidding a c a commercial pool service or an HOA to the point where it's almost like a residential pool rate, then you're not really making any money and you're adding on all the extra burdens, time commitments, and headaches for really no monetary compensation. I say this often when pool guys are like, hey, I want to do commercial pool service and I want to bid. You know, what's a good bid for this pool? And I always tell them that you want to add on a certain percentage, which I call the headache factor. Now, the reason I use that term is because it's broad enough to include many aspects of commercial pool service that you may not think about that are really a headache. For instance, the health department, having to keep logs of your chemical readings, having the health department inspect the pool, sometimes having a health department employee who really is after the perfect chemistry that can never be accomplished in the commercial pool, causing you a headache. Another one is if there's an apartment complex with a gate, of course, there's a gate around the pool, but a lot of people will put a brick on there to prop it open so all their friends can use the pool whenever. These are also a headache factor because now the pool is being used by the community, plus a bunch of strangers in a neighborhood, plus there's a safety risk created by them propping the gate open. Another problem, another headache. And it could also be that the management company doesn't pay you on time, and so you're doing the pool kind of for free for a month because they haven't been paying you. You don't really want to cancel service because it's a large account, you know,$2,000 a month, and you kind of need that money, and so you kind of limp along financially because they really owe you that money from the previous month, you're not getting it, you don't want to cancel again, headache factor. So these are all things that you have to kind of charge the the commercial pool for, and that's why sometimes when you when we you know, I have I'm actually part of two HOAs. One I live in one, I have a townhouse and another, and we have a small pool in the in the townhouse community, and I was actually president of both communities at the same time, which is crazy. But we got a bid for pool service. The pool is just a regular backyard-sized pool, really, with a separate spa. And the bid came in for six hundred dollars, and of course, everyone was like, that's outrageous. Six hundred dollars for this pool twice a week? And then I had to explain to them that a lot of the pricing is due to the fact that you know there there's these things that they have to be doing as well, besides just cleaning the pool. There was some understanding. I thought the bid was a little high actually, you know, for what they were gonna do. And I think we settled on another company for around 500. But you have to have that included in your service fee for it to be viable. Otherwise, just forget about doing HOAs and commercial pools and just add on, you know, for the time you spend there, add on maybe two more residential pools, and you'll have a better week, better day than having to go through all this. There's also a few things you have to have in place for commercial pool service. Number one, you would want to have a pretty robust general liability policy. Typically, if you're going to bid these, sometimes they'll ask for two million total of liability for your business to have. It's a little bit more expensive, it's not something that's detrimental to bidding on commercial pools, but you just have to be aware that you may have to increase your general liability insurance limit for these commercial accounts. You also have to realize that there may be real liability that you wouldn't face in a residential pool as well. And then the second thing that you have to realize is that there may be more requirements for commercial pools in your area. For example, here in Los Angeles County, they'll accept the CPO certification, of course, but they also would want you to have the certification from the county, which is a very hard test, by the way. It's not super easy, and they want you to have that as well with the CPO. So you may run into a problem in your area where you are CPO certified, and the health inspector would want you to be certified in the county as well. This is becoming more and more prevalent, and you may not even need a CPO in some cases. Like, for instance, in Los Angeles County, you can just get certified by the county and you wouldn't need the CPO. However, if you're crossing over to like San Bernardino County or Orange County, the CPO is handy because those counties may not require you to have a certificate, you know, certified by that county. So the CPO does is more universal, but counties may require you to also be certified to do commercial pools. So be aware of that fact that you may be doing a pool in Los Angeles County for two years and don't have any problem. And then one day the health inspector wants you to be certified in that county. It does happen. Now there's a workaround. This happened to one of my guys in the group where they were gonna close the pool because it wasn't LA County certified. So there was another member that I knew that was certified, and he kind of took over the billing for a month while he got certified. So there are workarounds, but this may happen, so just be aware of that. I just wanted to emphasize that there are some requirements for commercial pools. Besides having more insurance, you need to be certified CPO or county certified. So, how do you land these commercial accounts? I started talking about at the beginning, and I kind of got sidetracked, went down a rabbit hole. Of course, you can advertise that you are looking for commer you are doing commercial service and you may catch the attention of someone looking. You can also call property management companies, you can call HOA companies. Don't be scared by the bad reviews, by the way. I think almost every HOA management company has like two stars total, like you know, the reviews are people are really not happy with sometimes them having them fix a violation, so they'll leave a bad review. So I wouldn't worry too much about working with an HOA management company that has like a two-star rating. It's very typical. I think the one that we have is like three stars or two and a half stars because the complaints outweigh anyone that no one really leaves a good review, they leave bad reviews out there, and this is the same thing with a lot of businesses that are service-oriented. So don't be scared and contact them and say that if they are looking, if they have communities with a pool and they would like another bid to fit the requirement for that community, that you're willing to do a bid at no charge. They like that, they like the fact that you can go out there and do a bid without charging, and they may call you like two months later saying, hey, this community is looking to change services, can we get a bid from you? Once you get in your foot in the door with an HOA management, they're going to refer and you do a good job by the way, and you you charge reasonable rates. If another HOA is looking for pool service, you'll be one of the first ones on their list to refer to them for the other HOA community. Believe it or not, a lot of HOA management companies like using the same landscapers across their communities if they're in the local area and they can do that. They like using the same repairmen, electricians, because it's easy for them to call someone and refer someone that they know is good to the management or the actual HOA board. And this is something that once you get into an HOA community, chances are you're gonna get more HOA communities as well. I prefer HOAs over apartments, over you know, other kind of commercial pools, hotels, motels, because the HOA board usually is they they usually care more about the pool and they will okay repairs faster, different things, they're more proactive than the other kind of commercial pools. Plus, you're guaranteed to get paid because every month they write a check and you get paid like clockwork just as a rule with an HOA community. Whereas when you're working for an apartment complex, you may not get paid in the same fashion as you get paid with an HOA community. So I wouldn't go in the community looking for a board member or the president. That's not how how you how it works. I would just call HOA management companies and try to get in that way and try to become someone who can bid on service when necessary. And by the way, it's also very stable because rarely do HOAs change service providers. Once you get in, you're in for a long time unless you you know make a mistake or you do something that turns people against you. You're gonna be in to that particular job for a very long time. As far as apartments and you know, sometimes community centers, they really will rebid almost every year, sometimes or every two years, just to kind of save money on their budget. And this may be something that you wouldn't like doing because then you're gonna lose that account, and you know, you you have to also fight to get paid sometimes and fight for repairs and things like that. So there is a big a different flavor between HOA community pools and apartment complexes. One last thing as well is that those in an HOA community with the pool will treat the pool better than again an apartment complex. They won't have their kids swim in there with a diaper, they won't prop the gate open, they're very protective of the community pool because they're paying every month for it. Where in an apartment they're just renting, they don't really care, and so there's a different attitude towards the pool from an HOA community versus an apartment complex as well. Some ways to land apartment complexes and hotels and motels is just actually go in there cold calling, walk in to an apartment complex, have like a portfolio perspective, and by the way, I should say that if you are doing HOA bids, you would want to have a portfolio perspective. I would keep it to one or two pages. We've gotten bids for like redoing the LED lights in the community that were like 20 pages long. No one has time to read that. All the board members are volunteers. If you have one or two pages you can give to us explaining what you're gonna do and your services, much better. Same thing with apartment complexes and hotels, motels. Having a one-page perspective is much better than having like a booklet with like six pages of what you're gonna do. People don't have time and a one-page simple form, really nicely made. You can go to Canva and design it really nice and print it out, and you'll have these handouts that look beautiful that are simple. Now, of course, if you are doing a more extensive bid, you want to have that drawn out, but initially it's just a flyer basically to get business. So just walk in. I mean, just walk into these apartment complexes and find the management office if they're big enough, you know, call management companies as well, try to connect with some more property managers. A lot of times, HOA managers also do regular property management as well, and so that's also a way in there. You just have to kind of reach out and you know, go to the YMCA, go to the community center, go to the city, whatever you want to do to try to get these accounts. And a lot of times you can actually get some accounts because the previous or the current provider isn't doing a very good job. And you walk into an apartment complex with a flyer, it looks beautiful. The pool's not looking that great at that point. They may call you to do a bid, and then you can bid that pool. And sometimes, usually, you don't know what they're paying for service either. So that's kind of one of the hard aspects of bidding for these commercial accounts because maybe the person that let the pool turn on the apartment complex is really charging too little and you can't handle it because there's a time commitment. Sometimes you have to be there three times a week, sometimes four times a week. And if you don't have that time to do it, the pool can turn, or you just won't have the time to put into it. Then that's something also that causes the management company to look for someone else because the pool's not looking that great. And at that point, you can give a bid. Sometimes you can ask, you know, for a range of what they're paying. Sometimes they'll actually tell you what they're paying, which I've had happen before, and I've had group members that have asked, like, a community center, what are your what's your current rate? And the person buying the counter doesn't really know that they shouldn't be doing this to get a good bid. They'll just tell them, Yeah, we're paying, you know, uh$1,200 a month, and sometimes they're gonna just won't tell you. Sometimes you don't want to ask either, because that's awkward and not appropriate, but sometimes you may want to ask so that you can get an idea. You can say something like, so just out of curiosity, what are you paying this person? Because, you know, I can see that they're not really doing an excellent job here, and I want to just make sure that you're getting your money's worth, so you can just give me like a ballpark of what you're paying. You know, sometimes that opportunity is there, but a lot of times it's not, and you don't want to push it because then it looks kind of weird if you're asking them to give you information and just so you can do your bid, but sometimes it is readily available, so you have to kind of play that by ear. But I would say that most of the time you're just blind bidding, and you're blind bidding against other people bidding as well. And keep in mind again what I mentioned about the headache factor, there's a lot involved in commercial pools, and you want to bid it to a point where you're making money and you're not losing money, or residential pools, like five of them would cover this amount, and you're not going to make any money doing this, because you really do want to make pretty good money doing commercial pools, and you can make good money if you bid correctly. So don't be afraid to bid high because you need to sometimes in order to make money, and everyone else should be bidding high as well, or within the range of each other. And sometimes you they they'll pick you over someone else, even if you're more expensive, because they feel like you're qualified and can do the job correctly, they think you're a better person, better personality. So it's not always about price point in general, it's more about how you present your business, and if you can handle doing the commercial pools, they can see right away sometimes, like hey, this guy knows what he's talking about, he's charging an extra$200 a month, but I think he's gonna do a much better job than you know, ABC pool service. So definitely go in there with confidence and with a set amount of money that you're going to not go below. And of course, there's all different ways to bid these things. This podcast is not about bidding, particularly, but if you are getting at the commercial pool service, you definitely want to have some set pricing and have everything lined up so you can do it. A lot of times it's really hard to find time in a residential pool route for commercial pools. You may have to, you know, sell some of your residential pools to fit the commercial pools in. And it's really hard to balance both residential and commercial pools. Most commercial pool service companies just do commercial pools and not no residential, and most residential pool companies do residential and not commercial. So keep that in mind as well. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those on my website, swimming for learning.com. If you go there, just click on the podcast icon, and there'll be a drop-down menu with over 1800 podcasts there as well. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at poolguycoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a great rest of your week and God bless.