“Swimming lessons for toddlers”, “adult swimming lessons” and “kids swimming lessons” with the name of the suburb are searched by parents who already know the lessons are hard to get. They want to know which pool you use, the ages and levels, when the next term starts and the day booking opens, the price for the term, how many children each instructor has, whether the instructor is in the water with the small ones, and what happens when a lesson is missed. Websites for swim schools in Dublin are judged on booking morning, when all of those questions land at once.
Booking morning
Enrolment opens at nine on a given day, the phone rings until lunch, and half the people who wanted a place are told to try again next term. The way out is a booking system that shows each class by level, day and time with the spaces left, takes the term fee at the moment of booking, sends the confirmation, and puts the rest on a waitlist by level. Existing families can be given a re-enrolment window the week before. You then deal with the exceptions instead of every call.
If you already run bookings through a system you like, the site links into it so the parent who found you on Google gets to the right page in one tap. The options are set out in how to take online bookings.
Levels, ratios and the small things parents ask
Describe each level in a sentence a parent can match their child to, from parent and baby through to stroke development, and say how a child moves up. State the instructor to child ratio and whether instructors are in the water for the younger groups. List the qualifications your teachers hold, Swim Ireland or otherwise, and that they are Garda vetted. Then answer the small things: swim nappies for babies, hats and goggles, where to change, whether parents sit poolside, the water temperature, and where to park at ten to five on a weekday.
Adults get their own page. A nervous adult who never learned will not ring a number that sounds like it is for children. Tell them the class is small, the pool is shallow where they start, and that plenty of people start at forty.
The pool belongs to someone else
Most swim schools rent hours in a hotel leisure centre, a school pool or a community pool. That brings two problems. Google puts your pin on the hotel, or shows the hotel’s listing instead of yours. And the pool closes for maintenance with a week’s notice.
We set up the school’s own Google Business Profile so it is your name, your phone number and your hours that show, with the pool addresses on the site and the entrance described, so a parent arriving for the first lesson goes to the leisure centre door and not reception. For closures, the edit page lets you post “no lessons Saturday 14th, pool maintenance, make-up on the 28th” in a minute. The guide to getting your business on Google Maps explains the pin problem in more detail.
The swim school year
Three terms following the school calendar, a break at Christmas and Easter, and intensive courses in July and August when a week of daily lessons does more than a term of Saturdays. Each term’s dates, prices and booking day go on the page as soon as you know them. The make-up lesson policy goes beside them, in your words, so the question is answered before the parent asks.
What the build needs from you
The levels with a line on each, the age bands, the term dates and prices, the pool addresses and entrances, the ratio, the make-up and refund policy, the qualifications your teachers hold, and photos of the pool from the deck. Children in the water only appear with written consent from their parents, and the pool is photographed empty otherwise. The booking system you use, if you have one, and ten minutes on the phone.
Plan and cost
Term bookings with payment, waitlists and reminders need Complete, at €1,499 to set up and €100 a month. A small school that fills by word of mouth and takes fees by transfer can start on Essentials at €499 and €50 a month, with the term dates, the levels and an enquiry form. Both are on the pricing page. Dance schools run on the same term rhythm with different questions at the door, and that page is websites for dance schools.