I like to swim when I travel. It means I don’t bring lots of bulky gym clothes – all you need is a speedo and a pair of goggles. Well, that’s all you need. You also need a decent pool. I travel to London a lot and always use the Marshall Street Baths in Soho, cost of entry $6 and the pool is a respectable 30 metres long. But so many hotels advertise pools and when you get down to it, they are hopelessly inadequate (tiny pools); or if they’re outdoor pools they have some fancy shape that is unswimmable.

Case in point, the swimming pool at the #Sheraton Towers in Chicago. It should be called a floating pool because that’s about the only thing it’s good for; that and a great view of Chicago. One flip turn and you’re at the other end. I adapted by jogging around it, which is a great form of exercise, especially if there is no deep end.

But I really think that hotels miss the boat here, if you’ll pardon the nautical expression. When I walked through the gym to get to the pool, there must have been 35 machines. Yet here was this pool and they sunk all this money into it – and they made it too short. How much more money would it cost to increase the length of this pool, using Sheraton dollars?

And it’s the same as the other pools I’ve been to in these hotels. They don’t get it – a pool has to be between 20 and 25 meters, otherwise it’s just a ploy to come up in a search. And as a swimmer I feel that we are being duped. Swimmers unite! Beware of trick photography – if there is only one photo, from an odd angle, note that it’s probably no bigger than a Jacuzzi!