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As best as I can tell, hotel pools fall into 3 categories:

  1. No heating / heating by solar energy alone. The water is usually around the same temperature as the air, maybe a bit warmer if there's a lot of sun.
  2. Heated to standard pool temperature, around 27C.
  3. Heated to a higher temperature, around 30C.

While 27C is more than enough for swimming, it's not enjoyable for sitting around in the pool. But I can't figure out how to find hotels in the third category, as the term "heated pool" refers to both 27C and 28+C pools, as best as I can tell. It's also not about the number of stars that a hotel has - I've seen 4-star hotels with 27C pools and 3-star hotels with 30C pools.

So far I've sometimes been able to figure it out by carefully reading the reviews and checking whether anyone complained about the water being cold, but maybe there's a better way?

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    Do you actually measure the pool temperature or is that just your feeling? Water temperature can be extremely subjective. Also in my experience in some places the pool can be very warm one day, and the next day much cooler after a a big rainy episode.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jan 2 at 19:41
  • @jcaron I don't literally carry a thermometer but the difference is very noticeable. 27C is a temperature where you need some convincing to get in. Around 30C it becomes warm enough that you want to get in.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Jan 2 at 19:57
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    27C is way to high for an actual swimming workout, but not too bad for lounging around.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Jan 2 at 21:46
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    To add: in Germany and other parts of Europe, you’d be looking for a Therme, which usually has swimmable and hot pools.
    – deceze
    Commented Jan 3 at 0:00
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    Generally, “spa” may get you what you’re looking for, as for example here: soranohotel.com/en/spa. But again, what exactly that means may substantially differ between different parts of the world.
    – deceze
    Commented Jan 3 at 0:20

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I wouldn't expect much temperature consistency from your average we-also-have-a-pool hotel pool. If you simply have a hotel which simply includes a pool, you'd probably need to contact the hotel in advance to figure out whether they place any importance on its temperate and what it's set to.

The presence of a “swim-up bar” is a good sign that it’s a pool heated to a comfortable temperature.

If you're specifically looking for a warm-to-hot bath to relax in, you'll probably want to look for places centred around this very idea, or at least hotels which offer specifically hot water pools. These may have different terms in different parts of the world.

In Europe, you'd be looking for a thermal bath (de: Therme, fr: thermalisme, es: termalismo and similar variants). These usually have swimmable warm pools and separate hot pools, in addition to saunas. You can find thermal baths to just spend a few hours to a day, and hotels build around thermal baths.

In Arabic countries (and as exports from there), you'll find hammam or Turkish baths with similar roots.

The general international term is spa. Depending on the country, this may or may not focus more on massages or saunas and more or less swimming, but you'll surely find warm water there in some form. If your hotel specifically advertises a spa, you can be fairly sure it has a "loungeable" pool. More or less random example: https://soranohotel.com/en/spa/.

In some countries there may be specific local variations like onsen, which is its own cultural thing to the degree that you specifically go there to experience it. You can again find onsen to dip into for an hour, and guest houses or entire towns designed around the onsen to spend a few days at.

Internationally similar places are generically known as hot springs or hot spring resorts, which may or may not have local cultural significance the way onsen have in Japan.

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  • (+1) While the words have the same root, it's worth noting that unlike the English “spa” and maybe the German Therme, the French word thermalisme only refers to spring water in an officially recognised spa town. Anything else would be called a “spa” in French too.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jan 3 at 0:58
  • Similar to the protected term “Bad” in Germany I guess.
    – deceze
    Commented Jan 3 at 1:03
  • A generic term that can be used in North America is "hot springs" which seems to relate to your European "thermal bath" concept. Of course searching for "aguas calientes" in Mexico simply turns up the municipality/state of Aguascalientes rather than any specific hot springs - although the town has plenty of them.
    – Peter M
    Commented Jan 3 at 2:23
  • @Peter I thought of "hot springs" in America more in terms of Yellowstone, but I suppose a "hot spring resort" is specifically what an onsen/thermal bath is in other parts of the world.
    – deceze
    Commented Jan 3 at 2:31
  • @deceze Hot springs can also simply refer to hot water bubbling up from somewhere, whether a part of a resort or simply natural - I have both in my local area. But I'd think of Yellowstone more in terms of the geysers there - which are on the extreme side of "hot", although there are human rated hot springs in the general area.
    – Peter M
    Commented Jan 3 at 2:37

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