Friday 18 October 2013

Why a Hot Tub Could Be a Great Investment

Purchasing a portable hot tub for your garden could be one of the best decisions you make in life. Ok, this may seem over the top to some but a hot tub has a lot more to offer beyond its initial novelty value. This article will set out some of the key benefits to owning a hot tub but with a focus on the investment aspect.

Despite some fundamental differences, a good way to look at investment is by comparing the hot tub industry to the car industry. So, when purchasing a Range Rover for instance, you would expect it to be more reliable and better quality than say, a KIA. In reality, KIA are extremely reliable cars and Land Rovers have poor reliability. So the £20k-£40k difference in price will not guarantee better quality, even if it may provide better service. In the hot tub industry, it is extremely different.

Let's compare an online hot tub worth £3000 with lots of features and a £7000 hot tub bought from a dealership. That £3000 hot tub may seem like a purchase where you cannot go wrong, it is cheap and it comes with a warranty, which they have to fulfil. Yes, they do have to fulfil this warranty, however you need to do your homework when finding out about a dealership. Online reviews are great but do not rely on them, ask the online seller if they have their own engineers, ask if they understand the manufacturing process, ask how long they have been in the industry and ask if the parts are readily available. One of the key issues here is the Chinese control system, online hot tubs generally will have an uncommon control, which are not only prone to problems but also potentially unsafe. You cannot go wrong when purchasing a hot tub with either a Balboa, Gecko or own brand american system such as the Hot Spring IQ 2020®, all these systems are easy to replace if faulty and feature good safety systems. 

So what is the difference between the £3000 online hot tub and the £7000 model from a dealership. I would say the main difference could be service, I am not saying that all online hot tub dealers have poor service, but a good old fashioned pool and hot tub dealer will generally be able to offer a more personal and guaranteed service. The training that dealerships of the main hot tub brands undertake is also a lot more thorough, allowing them to excel in customer service. The difference in quality does not just involve the control system, the quality of certain brands is shown through massive global sales figures and genuine investment in innovation. 

The classic situation is someone looking to sell a 2-3 year old hot tub on ebay due to a house move, divorce or for financial reasons. Ebayers love their branding and what this results in is branded second hand tubs going for a very high price. Some second hand hot tubs sell for £5000, which is a huge amount of money for say an originally £7000 hot tub. You can see for yourself by searching used hot tubs on eBay and comparing the branded hot tubs to some obscure online spas. What I am trying to highlight is that investment in a good hot tub, from an established and reliable dealer can result in a smaller depreciation and allow you to get a high trade-in value, a well as a good price if you wanted to sell second hand privately. 

Investing in your garden is also never a bad thing. A hot tub adds value to your property and could potentially be the bargaining tool in a house sale. Even if the new owner didn't want the hot tub, the portable nature of it means that it can easily be removed and you can take it with you! 

In addition to the range of investment benefits that a hot tub has to offer, the personal benefits of hydrotherapy can be key to the daily lives of some individuals. For more information on these, please view our website article here- http://bit.ly/H7ZHgS

Happy Hot Tubs pride ourselves on good customer service, we are an authorised Hot Spring dealer (the world #1 hot tubs) and we are prominent on all social media sites, offering customer service in a more informal yet modern way. Our managing director was the creator and first chairman of BISHTA (British and Irish Hot Tub Association), he is one of the most established members of the UK hot tub industry and was part of the group that first manufactured hot tubs in the UK. This experience and wealth of knowledge feeds down to all our staff and through this we can offer you the best service in the industry. Follow our social media outlets for more useful information or visit our website- www.happyhottubs.co.uk