A Review of the Venetian swimming pools in Las Vegas:
The water in the main pools at the Venetian and at her sister
hotel the Palazzo is simply funky. There is no sparkle to it and you can barely
see the bottom in only 4’6” of water. With water quality like this, these are
not pools that you would want to put your face in—or really any bodily orifice.
Furthermore, as crowed and shallow as they are, these are not so much “swimming”
pools as they are “posing” pools or “standing with a beer in my hand” pools.
The main pool complex does have a lot to offer: amenities
include towel service, friendly hosts that will help you find a lounge chair, a
bar, cocktail waitresses, music, and countless pretty and not so pretty people.
For those wanting to pay a premium, there are also cabanas for rent.
The pools themselves are nothing special. They are a series
of shallow rectangles surrounded by a sea of lounge chairs and separated by
planters and pathways. At each end of these pools are extremely shallow areas
(about a foot of water). These areas are populated by floating lounges. The
centers of these pools are only slightly deeper. The deepest point in any of
these pools is 4’6”. With pools this shallow, there is no diving. Furthermore,
with as many people as there are standing in these pools, these pools really aren’t
good for swimming—at least not on a summer weekend. But the real reason not to
swim there is the horrible water quality. You shouldn’t put your face in these
waters. Despite the fact that I wouldn’t personally dare to get into these
pools, there was no shortage of people who were willing to and this is their
main problem.
As a Certified Pool Operator (CPO) and a pool contractor
with 22 years in the pool industry I am fully aware of the challenges that face
the pool operators here and at other major hotels. First is the sheer number of
bathers—and as discussing as it sounds, when someone first gets into a pool
they are bathing all sorts of products from their bodies. Each person brings in
their own unique blend of sunblock, moisturizer, hair products, and makeup. Plus
there are the bodily fluids: the sweat, the urine, and the occasionally vomit
from standing in the sun drinking alcohol all day. There are also spilled
drinks and detergents and dirt tracked in on people’s feet. All of this goes
into the water, but what takes it out?
Chlorine can oxidize the organics—the skin cells, the
bacteria, and so forth (that is, break them down into smaller parts), but chlorine
doesn’t eliminate organic matter from the pool nor can it effectively break
down the oil based sunblocks and makeup. As a result, organic refuse and an
oily film ends up staying in the water causing it to be cloudy and having a
dull look.
What a pool like this really needs is a clarifier to clump
this biofilm together in large enough chunks that the filter can take it out. Filtration
is key and a pool like this needs serious turnover. A standard commercial pool
should, according to most code requirements, turnover its entire volume in 6
hours. Now this isn’t quite as good as it sounds since the filtered water mixes
with the dirty water that is still in the pool. Because of this mixing of clean
and dirty, it takes about 4 turns of the pool (24 hours on a pool with a 6 hour
turnover to get 98% filtered water and 2% unfiltered. With a pool like this—with
such a large bather load, a 6 hour turnover is simply not enough to provide adequate
filtration. I would hope that these pools have a much shorter turnover time—something
closer to the 30 minute turnover that is required for commercial spas would
seem more appropriate. But whatever the turnover rate is, I can tell you from
experience that it is inadequate for a summer weekend. As the water really
looked bad—and that is the true test.
In addition to adequate turnover and filtration, pools like
these really need to be using enzymes to help break down these oily films that
float on their surfaces and cloud the water. It seems, however, that in the case
of the pools at the Venetian, that filtration, clarifiers, and enzymes were not
keeping up with the demand.
Besides the main funky pool complex, there is, however
another smaller pool complex on the property. This one has a small circular or octagon
shaped pool with a large planter in the center that is nice for cooling off and
a small warm pool – not quite spa temperature warm – but a comfortable
temperature for lounging if you aren’t moving much. There are also two smaller
spas (hot tubs / Jacuzzis) near by that are somewhat secluded by planters.
Although these pools weren’t perfect, they looked good enough that I felt OK
about getting in them – as I really did want to swim and spend time by the pool
– and I even felt OK about swimming underwater here. There is no music on this
side and drink service seems more miss than hit.
