By Jeremy Ruben, Founder of LANDOVA Design & Planning · October 20, 2026
Before You Call a Pool Builder · Part 6 of 7
I spent years selling and designing pools, and I closed nearly three times the proportion of opportunities as the rest of my sales team. I'm writing from the inside, not from the sidelines.
Five stars. Five stars. Five more stars. At this rate, you'd think the company was building swimming pools for the entire cast of a feel-good holiday movie.
But here is a question worth asking before you trust that sparkling rating with one of the biggest investments you'll make in your backyard: Who actually wrote those reviews—and what had the company done for them when they wrote them?
I've seen enough to stop taking stars at face value
There are things you learn selling pools that you cannot unlearn. I've seen firsthand how review gathering can become more about manufacturing a public image than documenting genuine customer experiences. I also know how incentives around review counts can change what a sales team is encouraged to prioritize.
I'm choosing not to name companies or recount private incidents here. My experience is my own, and I won't pretend it establishes anything about every builder or every review. But I will say this: there is a reason I no longer want to work in the pool-selling side of this industry. I don't think homeowners should have to guess whether public praise reflects real construction results.
Not every five-star review is suspicious. Plenty of pool builders earn outstanding feedback through excellent work. The problem is that an authentic review of a sales meeting, a heavily solicited review, and a fabricated review can all look equally impressive when reduced to a row of yellow stars.
Five stars for the appetizer. What about the actual meal?
Imagine leaving a five-star restaurant review immediately after the waiter brings you water and says the chef is amazing. You might have met a terrific waiter. You still haven't tasted dinner.
The pool equivalent happens when someone praises the designer, the appointment or the sales experience before excavation has even begun. That praise might be sincere. But it isn't a review of the pool's construction, startup, final walkthrough or warranty service.
A pool is often the single most expensive component in a backyard project. Homeowners deserve evidence that reaches further than a charming consultation.
When reviews become a scoreboard
Here's the part that concerns me most: a company can begin treating review counts like sales statistics. If employees are rewarded for generating reviews, the incentive can shift from earn a great review by doing great work to get a review—preferably today.
Incentives alone don't prove a review is fake. Legitimate businesses ask satisfied customers to share their experiences. But when a review program rewards volume without protecting authenticity, the public rating can become harder to interpret. And fake or misleading reviews, when they occur, are unfair to homeowners and to honest builders competing on real work.
There's a difference between collecting feedback and collecting stars. One helps customers make decisions. The other can turn a reputation into a marketing prop.
What a review can—and cannot—tell you
A review from someone who just signed a contract tells you about the sales process. A review written during construction captures only part of the experience. A review from a homeowner who has used the completed pool for a year may tell you much more about workmanship, communication, equipment and service.
Read the review's wording and timing. “We can't wait to get started!” isn't a construction endorsement. “The salesperson was wonderful!” isn't a warranty history. Both can be perfectly true without answering the questions that matter most after the deposit.
My five-question reality check
- Was the pool finished? Look for reviews that clearly describe a completed project, not just a great first impression.
- Can the builder provide relevant completed-project references? Ask for a comparable installation and, when possible, a homeowner who has used it for some time.
- Who will actually build and manage your pool? Ask about the project manager, subcontractors, inspections and communication after signing.
- Do the promises exist on paper? Compare the sales pitch against the scope, exclusions, change-order process and warranty terms.
- Is the praise consistent across the entire experience? Look for details about construction, completion and follow-up—not just the smiling person who sold the project.
Approach negative reviews with the same care. One complaint doesn't prove a pattern, and one glowing comment doesn't guarantee perfection. Look for specific, verifiable experiences and ask thoughtful questions.
Vetted trade partners. Your project. Your choice.
My firsthand experience in pool sales is one reason LANDOVA takes its trade-partner standards seriously. Pool builders who participate as LANDOVA trade partners are subject to vetting, including checks of relevant licensing, insurance, completed-project experience, references, and how they communicate and respond when problems arise. These checks must be completed before a builder is represented as vetted, and qualifications should be rechecked as appropriate. Vetting gives homeowners more useful information; it is not a guarantee of performance.
But LANDOVA does not tell you which pool builder to hire—or which one not to hire. A trade partner's participation is not an instruction to choose that company, and homeowners are free to consider builders outside LANDOVA's trade-partner network.
Our job is to put the homeowner in control: one coordinated design, a clearly defined scope, useful estimating information, a structured bidding process, and tools for comparing proposals, qualifications, exclusions, and responsibilities. The goal is to give you more information and better ways to evaluate it, so you can make a confident, informed decision for yourself.
Ultimately, you choose the builder. LANDOVA helps you understand exactly what you're choosing.
Good builders should welcome better questions
I want homeowners to hire excellent pool builders. I also want honest builders to win because of their work—not because somebody else found a way to make a review count look spectacular.
This is why I built LANDOVA around planning the entire outdoor project first. When you know the design, scope and priorities before requesting bids, you can evaluate builders on something more useful than presentation skills and a star rating.
Read the reviews. Appreciate the salesperson. But before you hand over the deposit, make sure the five-star experience extends past the handshake.
Start with a whole-project plan before choosing who builds your pool.
Read the complete series
- Buying a Pool? Why a Pool Builder Shouldn’t Be Your First Call
- You Want a Backyard. The Proposal May Only Include a Pool.
- A Pool Salesperson Is Selling a Pool. Who Is Helping You Plan?
- Three Pool Quotes Can Mean Three Completely Different Projects
- The Pool Price Isn’t the Backyard Budget
- Five Stars for the Sales Pitch. But Has Anyone Built the Pool Yet? — You are here
- The Better Way to Buy a Pool: Plan With LANDOVA, Then Choose Your Builder
