As Spain swelters and COVID cases grow, pool renting app thrives

Customers enjoy the warm weather in a private swimming pool to avoid crowds in public swimming pools during the coronavirus pandemic in Madrid, Spain July 16, 2021. REUTERS/Javier Barbancho

ARROYOMOLINOS, Spain (Reuters) - A cooling dip in the mid-July swelter of central Spain no longer requires owning a private pool, or risking COVID-19 contagion at crowded public swimming facilities, Aura Cenet discovered.

The 21-year-old waitress from Madrid and her three friends hired a private pool in the garden of a house in Arroyomolinos, a town 28 km (18 miles) southwest of the capital city, using the Swimmy app.