When you arrive at a top-notch hotel pool and discover that it is silently and mysteriously closed, there’s a certain kind of frustration. There is no maintenance sign. No apparent cause. Only a staff member who refuses to look directly at you and a velvet rope. There’s a good chance a celebrity had it reserved if you’ve encountered this.
Although it’s not a new practice, in recent years it has become more intentional. Hotel pools are now treated like private jets by high-profile visitors, actors in between press tours, musicians in the middle of stadium runs tech billionaires who feel that Ibiza is no longer private enough. Block booking the whole area, sometimes for just one afternoon. For a few days at a time.
These types of pools aren’t always the largest or most ostentatious. Position is far more important than size. The view and seclusion whether the water is sufficiently visible to feel cinematic and private enough that no one is taking pictures of you from a kayak are what count.
The art’otel London Battersea Power Station’s rooftop pool, which is sixteen stories high and overlooks the four well-known chimneys, has evolved into exactly this kind of destination. A cocktail bar with Perola’s signature menu is located nearby the space is designed to resemble a found artifact. It’s the kind of pool that takes stunning pictures as a result, it has subtly evolved into the kind of pool that people want only for themselves.
In unexpected places, the pattern is repeated. For many years, Positano’s Le Sirenuse hotel pool, which is situated above pricey yachts and offers almost theatrical views, has been one of the most photographed in the world. There’s something about that specific elevation over the Amalfi Coast that seems to reset, even after four visits. That might be the reason why celebrities keep coming back, as well as the reason why some weeks are inexplicably off-limits to regular reservations. The pool itself seems to be doing more than just providing a swimming area.
The Careyes resort in Mexico uses a completely different register. Designed as a remote haven for artists on the rocky coast of Jalisco by an eccentric Italian count, it attracts a bohemian crowd that includes enough quietly famous faces to make full buyouts a regular occurrence.
You wouldn’t stumble upon the cliffside villa pools, some of which wrap almost 360 degrees around the building. You must first learn about them learning about them usually necessitates a certain degree of access. The staff appears to be skilled at seamless discretion, though it’s still unclear exactly how these arrangements are coordinated.
It’s intriguing how location consistently reclaims its position as the most important factor. The best pool on Fernando de Noronha, a protected volcanic archipelago 200 miles off the northeastern coast of Brazil, is located at the modest, unassuming Pousada Maravilha, which offers views that are truly unmatched. Three stars. Five-star opinions. It’s the kind of place where a complete buyout is significantly less expensive than anything in Paris and offers something that Paris truly cannot match.
France’s Atlantic Coast provides an alternative interpretation of this reasoning. Built into a pine-covered hillside above the Dune du Pilat, Philippe Starck’s purposefully eccentric hotel La Co(o)rniche centers its entire architecture around the pool and the changing light over Arcachon Bay.
It’s the kind of property that people who have long since outgrown the need for obvious destinations find in secret. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the pools attracting the most covert celebrity attention almost always have one thing in common: they are locations that required a person with good vision to recognize before the crowds arrived.
Depending on your viewpoint, full pool buyouts may seem like a small act of environmental hoarding or a reasonable luxury. It appears obvious that the practice will continue. If anything, the desire for true seclusion water, sky no strangers continues to grow. Almost always, the pools that are worth visiting if you can get there first are also the ones that are worth completely booking out.