Legal requirements for swimming pools are causing headaches for small hospitality units

The Confederation of Tourist Accommodation Entrepreneurs of Greece (SETKE) is requesting that the Ministry of Tourism review the conditions for the operation of swimming pools within businesses that rent furnished rooms – apartments.

As the confederation states in its announcement, the entrepreneurs of tourist accommodation that have a swimming pool are in hot water due to the current provisions, specifically article 46 of Law 4688, which requires units with less than 50 rooms with such pools to have “lifeguard duties performed by the safety supervisor, who has a valid certificate of attendance at a pool lifeguard theoretical and practical training program from a lifeguard training school.”

SETKE, maintains that this regulation is impossible to apply to small tourist accommodations, with a capacity of 5, 10, and 15 rooms, for practical as well as financial reasons, and has been badgering the Ministry of Tourism by emphasizing that it will have a negative impact on their competitiveness but also on their sustainability.

After two years of health and economic crisis, entrepreneurs had hopes in this year’s tourist season for recovery, but instead are finally faced with the imposition of fines and the risk of their swimming pools being shut down. And this, he notes, “at a time when the swimming pools of Airbnb-type properties, which host a corresponding number of people, operate without any obligation at all.”

SETKE, is once again calling on the Ministry of Tourism to review the conditions for the operation of swimming pools for companies renting furnished rooms – apartments and not to force entrepreneurs to suspend the operation of their swimming pools, degrading the services provided with all that this entails.