To be pissed off that my £65 a month gym has turned into a kids leisure centre for the holidays?

[OverTheHammer]

I pay £65 a month for David Lloyd membership. It's always been a child friendly place but they normally have specific times when kids can use the pool and gym etc. Since the start of the summer holidays however the pools have turned into "family fun zones" all day every day. I can't be doing with going in when it's like that as it's just too busy and noisy. On top of this the gym is running numerous "kid fit" classes meaning a lot of the gym equipment and tennis courts are taken up by kids.

AIBU to think they don't need to turn the whole place into a children's centre just because it's the summer holidays?? And if they really must do this, perhaps the rest of us should get a monthly discount until September?

That's cheeky . Yanbu

My DL in Cheshire is the same except I pay £98 a month. The cafe bit is supposed to have an adults area and business lounge but running, screaming kids take over the whole lot and the staff say nothing. I love kids but it is like being in soft play hell!

Yanbu COMPLAIN

Jeez I'd be asking for reduced rate too!! I had no idea that DL gym membership was so much!

My gym membership is £40 pcm (or would be if it wasn't heavily subsidised by my employers) and despite there being childrens summer camps happening on site they don't seem to interfere with members use.

eg. the family swim sessions are the only "children allowed" sessions, children under 16 (IIRC) are not allowed in the gym, other facilities like tennis courts indoor sports hall courts etc always have space for members.

I use DL and it's full of kids but ours has a crèche, soft play, kids swimming and tennis lessons, clubs etc so it's no surprise! Ours markets itself as a family friendly place so if I wanted adult only I wouldn't have joined.

I would complain. Our local leisure centre offers timed family splash sessions in the training pool (after the usual swimming lessons) plus half of the main pool. The other half of the main pool is kept for lane swimming so people can actually go and use it for a proper swim.

I think they should definitely be made aware that you are unable to make proper use of your membership due to all the kids activities.

Complain. YANBU. It's not on if people are paying large sums of money to find they can't use the equipment they want when they want for a whole month. I don't tend to use the gym very often, I wanted a place where I could swim regularly plus a steam room. Two nearest leisure centres offered membership but the pool was rarely available daytimes due to being used by schools and several evenings a week for water polo or lessons. Several of the hotel ones were similar, with the pool out of action for schools.

This is one of the reasons I go to an independent place. With the exception of Sunday mornings for kids swimming lessons, there are no other times when the pool is out of action for adults and after 7 pm the whole place is adults only. I pay £33 per month and it has two weights rooms, two cardio suites, a spin suite, two rooms with loads of classes, three squash courts, four hard tennis courts, loads of parking, a bar and a sports hall with six badminton courts. Only thing they don't have is a jacuzzi. It's not as smart as DL or Fitness First but it's a damn sight cheaper and never ever overly busy.

YANBU. But if £££ family memberships are a big segment of their income they may well not listen.

A PP pays £35 a month for DL: that's a massive bargain!

Complain!!

I am a parent and am happy that kids have more access to stuff than they did before, but not everywhere needs to be over run with other peoples kids!!

I'm a member at DL too. Whenever I see a child in the gym or a studio class, I tell a member of the Reception team. They are off like Mo Farah to get the parent to remove the child. They aren't insured for this. Just do the same. Teenagers it's different, they have usually had proper instructions. If they are larking about, get Reception to sort it. No good asking gym staff, they are always busy.

Tweet them, a gym should be an adult place, not a kids play center.

DLs is aimed at families so I don't think she will get very far.

I'm thinking this is the DL branch near me, I'm not a member though (not at their prices!). If it is, I think it's the outdoor pool which is a big draw on sunny days.

missing the point, but why on earth do people pay £65 per month for a gym?
Go for a jog round the park love, it's free.
If you go early enough the kids aren't in there and it's quiet.

complain

apart from anything else, if they are giving out £1 a day membership for people's children in the holidays, the service is fundamentally different

What do the terms and conditions say? If they sold you specific times for adults only in the gym then surely they have broken them and you should be refunded for the whole time. Being unable to use it for 6 weeks of the year is not on and I agree that if it's become a family leisure centre, then it's not what you were sold?

I guess everywhere operates differnetly but I once had a company offer me discounted gym membership to a chain - when I visited it was full of kids so I didn't join. I reckon there's a big market for a gym chain where only over 18s are allowed.

gilly, but the rower and elliptical are so much nicer, plus you have to watch for all kinds of hazards in the local park. I now run and have weights at home to reduce the bills, but I'd prefer a gym tbh. I love zoning out on a rower with music on earphones!

also some people can't just go and run, it puts a lot of strain on the joints.

gilly My park doesn't have a gym. Or a steam room. Or a sauna. Or tennis, squash or badminton courts. And if it rains, you can stay dry. Obvious really if you think about it.

gilly my gym has a beautiful pool, sauna, steam room, beauty salon, cafe, seating area with complimentary newspapers, air conditioned gym, 3 studios, spin, all the Les Mills classes you could chuck a book at, ballroom dancing, yoga, social bbqs, lovely members and fantastic instructors.

I go to the park for a run too when the weather is clement, when it isn't, ah well I head back into the gym to run on one of the dozen or so treadmills. It's worth every penny of the £52 per month and I could stay in there 16 hours a day, 7 days a week if I so desired - see the difference? .

oh and no children, teenagers or pets allowed

Gym of that gym lovingtheathletics

OP what exactly are you going to complain about? That paying members are using the gym? While you're at it why don't you also complain about school run traffic clogging up the roads in term time and the parks being full of the blighters during the holidays..

YABU join an adult only gym!

Loopy it is lovely, we are very lucky.

OP I do rather agree that if you join a family friendly gym then you are going to get like - families - in it generally.

Well yanbu to be a bit fed up with kids everywhere but it's likely those families pay the membership all year round and get the most use out of it in the holidays. I think this is just the reality of living in a fairly densely populated country. Everywhere is busy.

I'm surprised there are not dedicated roped off swimming lanes for adults though.

I cancelled my DL membership because it was impossible to find a regular time for 14yo DD to do swim training there, despite me paying a huge amount for her membership. The "adults only" brigade had protested to such an extent that children, even those there for serious swimming were completely marginalised. YABU.

YANBU, it's exactly the same in my David Lloyd. Not many kids in the gym but they all run around screaming in the changing rooms and the reception/cafe area, and they've taken over the pool. A kid pointed at me yesterday and told his mum he could swim better than me. I don't want a reduced discount, I want them to put their foot down and keep the term-time rules over the summer holidays.