On July 4, 2025, American Pool lifeguards stationed at Cortland Rosslyn completely disregarded the official policy that residents could stay on the pool deck until 10 PM (while the pool itself closed at 8 PM). Despite multiple residents showing them the official email notice, the lifeguards became aggressive and demanded everyone leave the deck. When the Cortland manager arrived and confirmed with his leadership that residents were allowed to stay, the lifeguards refused to take him seriously. They then threatened to sue Cortland and call the police on residents--which is not only absurd but wildly unprofessional. These lifeguards are not building management and have no right to harass paying residents. Rather than correcting the lifeguards' behavior, residents were temporarily forced off the deck just so the lifeguards could "take pictures." By the time the issue was resolved--over an hour later--many residents had left, and the 4th of July celebration was effectively ruined. This shows an alarming lack of training, communication, and professionalism by American Pool. Until they fix their internal mess and teach their staff how to respect both property managers and residents, I strongly recommend avoiding any community that contracts them. read more

I was hired as a POOL MANAGER by American Pool to manage a facility that they had just received the contract to administer. I am an active Lifeguard Instructor and a Certified Pool Operator with years of experience managing pools and teaching lifeguard classes. My experience with American Pool did not go well and I quit on opening weekend out of plain exasperation. First, the intro to their company for managers is a two-hour Zoom. With that you are supposed to be able to manage one of their locations. Instead of just giving us a link to the PPT, the presenter suggested we take snap shots of each screen. The presentation touched on a few topics, but was not in depth and left out an awful lot of information. At the end we were given a list of contacts for our areas. My area contact never responded to a single E-mail I sent. While American Pool corporate managers would interact with my facility's representatives (it was in a HOA), they routinely kept me out of conversations and never reached out to me; not even when they made site visits to the pool as the summer approached. I lived a two-minute car drive away. I sent the regional manager an E-mail just two weeks before opening, practically begging for a call so I could get some questions answered and at least get some contact information, and got nothing. This was a trend. Questions to their training officer? Nothing. Questions on scheduling. Nothing, then some sporadic support. Questions on insufficient staffing levels: nothing. I was left to wing it. After I put a schedule together is when Neely (see below reviews) started messaging me to say I had made mistakes. Ok. Fine. They were minor. But maybe if they had answered my earlier questions or provided some type of support, this would not have happened. Then she would go in and change my schedule without letting me know, or after the fact. When she insisted I fully staff the pool over three days between Memorial Day Weekend and the next Friday, when the facility was closed, I walked. I find this company's communications to be horrid. The onboarding was totally insufficient. They basically ignored and kept a pool manager out of the loop, which told me all I needed to know about staying in their employment. They are also an Ellis company. This is a corporate Lifeguard Certification business model. Ellis certified guards can only work at Ellis facilities. As a Red Cross instructor, I have taught cross over courses for their (former) guards who needed Red Cross certification to work at just about anyplace else. Do your due diligence before you accept employment with this company as a LIFEGUARD (the wages they offered my staff were below what the other pools in the area offered) or as a MANAGER (a whopping $19 an hour for a short-staffed pool that routinely reached its capacity levels). It turned out to be a huge waste of my time. Stay safe. read more

I worked at American Pools And here's what I have to say about working there. Neely Risal = Theres a woman whos name is called Neely Risal whos basically the supervisors manager and she mostly deals with lifeguards and managers and supervisors. She basically Doesn't respond when contacting her, she basically removes your hours from your long and shorts shift . she removes you without any reasoning and she leaves you on read when trying to contact her. Also managers and supervisors dont like her for some reason, I dont know the reason but I overheard them talking about it. Guards dont like her because the reasons I have listed above and Big bonus they pay lifeguards $14.58 which is below minimum wage but their reasoning for them paying lifeguards that amount is because they work at multi guard pools. But there are people who work at a multi guard pool who get paid $17.15. American pools have favarates. When the season starts they paid lifeguards $16.70. The introduce that payment so that they hire alot of guards and they change the pay rate whenever they feel like it. Dont follow for these scams and Neely Risal isnt fair towards the lifeguards and her reducing hours. Please remember dont believe for these scams American Pools tell you. read more

This was such an awful company and experience. 0/100 would recommend. As a lifeguard there it was a very traumatic experience. The Washingtonian Woods pool got shut down by the health inspector (because the pool could have electrocuted the patrons) please please use caution when going to this pool or using American Pools services. The pool management company who manages it is also very unprofessional (American Pool). The manager was probably the worst of them all and was very disorganized and didn't know how to treat his guards. The manager also harassed his guards and was a borderline predator as he asked for personal information from us and would request to meet up outside of the pool. He made the pool unsafe and that's probably why it got shut down. Don't go to work there, it was absolutely horrendous. He would randomly assign you shifts and would ask you to do the worst things that aren't in your job description. Please go to/work at this pool with extreme caution. It's a horrible experience. read more

American Pool - LLC is the worst. They do not honor their contracts, but they demand payment after doing nothing and being terrible communicators. read more

the company does not honor its contact for providing lifeguards at the agreed to times and days. they arbitrarily cancel days with no notice. they arbitrarily try to assess surcharges for whatever they want. they don't understand that multi year contacts aren't a guarantee but an option by either party to walk away. they are a continual headache and cause a short summer pool season to be a great disappointment. read more

This company supplies lifeguards for our apartment complex pool. The lifeguards are 14-15 yr olds with the mentality of 11 year olds. They sit facing the fence non-stop playing with their cell phones with their back to the children in the pools. They curse and swear and run around the pool bouncing a basketball in people's faces while they are trying to lay out and relax. The noise and reverberation caused by a basketball slammed in the pool concrete over and over is deafening. They stick their heads through the the fence facing outwards, yelling at girls trying, to "pick up chicks". They refuse to have swimmers sign into the log and write their Bldg/Apt number, so the pool had become a magnet for throngs of unaccompanied minors that do not live in the complex. It's not a huge pool, so there' usually little or no room for actual tenants. Some of "lifeguards" bring animals in or have their friends with animals hang out there; the other day there was a poor frenzied dog running around the pool with no leash barking at everyone, being ignore by the "lifeguard" and the lifeguard's pal who brought the dog. Like I say, this is a trashy company. Also, they are paid ahead on a contract basis, so they have no incentive to actually pay the 'lifeguard" to actually be there. To cut expenses, they like to send the "lifeguard" home early, closing the pool with no notice. Trash is the nicest word I can think of for this company, the real word to describe them would be a vulgarity which I won't use. read more

I work for this company and they are literally the worst. I started working here when I was 15, and got pool operator and lifeguard certified, but was getting paid less than beginners (over 18) with only one certification. I left after my second year because the pay was shit, they often get payroll incorrect, and the staffers like to ignore you when they're not doing their job correctly (Rachel). They're understaffed and no one knows what they're doing, they illegally open pools with no AED or pool operator on site, they hire cheap foreign guards who don't do their job correctly, and they take their sweet time handling any issues you have. I have returned to the company because i needed a chill job that can work with my college schedule. I have not received my first paycheck and i got paid 11 days ago. I DO NOT RECOMMEND WORKING HERE AT ALL! I don't recommend hiring them to manage your pool either because they will have your pool open against health code violations because of their inadequacy, and your property can get shut down because of that. This is my third year and I will never be returning to American Pool. Everyone I have worked with in the past had quit for pay reasons and lack of communications. They just merged with Community pool too and have more pools with the same amount of staff. smart. But from what ive heard DRD is no better so... read more