Do you mean to hire it out or to do it yourself? What type of system will you have (inline chlorinator, salt water generator, ozone, etc.)?

to hire it out...cartridge filter, solar, & pool sweep (nothing else that you mentioned above).

We live in Santa Cruz and just got bids for our new pool. The range was between $80 and $115. The lower bid was for every other week and the higher was for once a week. We are going with the higher one, at least in the beginning, to get our pool balanced and in shape.

Do it yourself. It really isn't difficult and a local pool store will be happy to help.

I havent tracked it but, I bet I spend less than $30 a month in chemicals, etc in mid summer.

I spend $100/month in your area for weekly service - this does not include cleaning the cartridge filter - which they want $75 to do each time (needs it about every 6 months - unless something "big" comes along that causes a more frequent need). I do this myself.

Sounds like you are "in the ballpark" I see for service. Honestly we are going to take back over the pool - we'd used the service since the owner was great about recommending vendors/contractors to help us clean up after our pool build (we needed it) - but it seems pretty straightforward and we can save a lot doing it ourselves.

To date I've never heard anyone say that they felt their pool service was a great value. Pool services are all about making a profit, they'll spend absolutely as little time as possible at your pool. To you your pool is an expensive investment that you want to last forever. To a pool service it's just another of the 12 pools they've seen that day. A pool is not hard to maintain, but it DOES take more than the few minutes once every 2 weeks that they'll put into it! Besides, every pool owner should at least do their pool maintenance long enough themselves so that they know and understand their pool. When something goes wrong you are the first line of defense. You'll be the first to see if an algae bloom starts, or equipment isn't functioning properly, etc. And you should know how to respond to these things. Most people find that once they start doing the maintenance themselves that it's quite easy and it's actually fairly enjoyable because it gets you outside. If you travel a lot, then get an SWG. You'll only need to add acid every week or two for maintenance. I have a buddy that travels more than anyone I've ever met and he maintains his pool himself without trouble. Use that money for something more worthwhile, like getting someone to mow the yard or clean the house, LOL!

The only thing useful in pool service in my opinion is if they clean your cartridge filter and they don't, they charge extra for that. IMHO, thats the real PITA and can kill 2-3 hours when I do it. I must do too good of a job if they can do that for $75...it might be worth it to pay someone for that.