What do you want in a Soft Play/Activity Centre? Please let me know your thoughts and views..

[OMGIAMAMUM]

I'm in the process of putting together a business plan for a Soft Play Centre in Scotland. I have my own ideas and vision on how it's going to be HOWEVER I would really appreciate others views on what they look for in terms of a good time out with their small people please, in particular what you want, wish or look for in this sort of venue. It's really important for me to seek views of other mums for market research purposes.
In terms of what I have so far I can give you a brief description of my centre, which will:
? Be a children?s soft play centre where the emphasis is on fun and children are treated like VIP?s. Where the play equipment and the general environment is of a high quality, pleasant and clean.
? Have an age range of entry of 0 ? 12 years of age with a dedicated area for babies and toddlers to play.
? Have an emphasis on quality and service, to a level to rival other such centres coupled with a simple but tasty menu of snacks, meals and drinks available to suit both adult and child tastes with the emphasis on healthy but tasty food options for both parents and children. Emphasis on friendly but fast service for food and drinks we've probably all had some experiences when your trying to get something either ordered or heated up for your small people in such places and it's taken an age while you have a grumpy/v. hungry/unhappy child or children on your hands, so a common sense approach in these sorts of situations for customers will apply and the kids will be attended to asap by the staff.
? Be a funky place for parents to hang out and enjoy themselves while their children play with an area dedicated to parents and their wants and needs.
? Also be a party venue with a full range of party services and options for parents and children to choose from.

All views, thoughts and suggestions welcome please, the more the merrier.

Oooh yes - someone to rescue my toddler for me... 6 months pregnant is not a good shape to be trying to save her myself

not too echoey and noisy (if possible) and a place to sit and have coffee/snack, near to play area so can keep an eye on the lo.

All of the soft play places I go to have a rule that you can't eat your own food on the premises, and yet only sell junk food, ie sweets, crisps, pop, and no fruit and veg nibbles. If you are going to have this rule then make sure that there are healthy alternatives.

Definately a toddler area that's as interesting as the older area. I'm fed up being a human barricade to DS2 as he wants to escape the toddler area to follow his brother into the older area.

Don't think 12yr olds mix with 4/5yr olds. Need strong adult supervision to keep things calm & rescue overwhelmed little ones.

Please no Playstations. I spend a fortune taking the boys to these places then spend an age persuading & finally threatening my eldest to join in & get some exercise!

Have you got two of these threads up and running? Or have my comments disappeared???

Still have your comments Mrs Spoon (thanks once again v. much for these) just thought that if I put the thread in the Fun & Games section I may get some further response by refreshing this - well spotted!

LOL, sorry!

Thought I had entered the twilight zone!

There is one in Perth (Scotland) which has a ceramics studio in it, which my dd loved. They also have ceramic parties - I don't know which part of Scotland you are in but this is it - Noah's Ark

Decent coffee and plenty of free parking - oh, and no charge for adults!!! I couldn't believe it when I drove for half an hour recently to get to a newly opened play place and was charged £1 entry on top of what I paid for DD - when I queried what exactly I was paying for they muttered something about parking although they had advertised the venue as "with plenty of free parking".

On the age thing - it drives me nuts when parents of small children automatically assume big kids are to blame for everything bad that happens in these places. My eldest has regularly been hit/bitten/kicked by obnoxious little brats and then had their mums make loud comments about "too big to be here" even though he was well within the age range, but of course their precious little darlings coudldn't possibly be to blame . A separate area for bigger kids would be nice - some people don't seem to realise that their kids will grow up too some day!

I would appreciate the cameras too. Our local one has 3 entrances to equipment downstairs and 2 upstairs. It gets a bit worrying when one of them disapears and could be down the back stairs some where. I prefer the ones with one access point only. Especially for the 2-5 age area.

Hire staff that are specifically there to supervise play equipment not just for the kitchen and servery. NNEB or equilvelent if possible.

Double barrier the entrance and man at all times. i.e. you have to go through 2 sets of gates to get into the venue.

Our one has got playstations and a dance floor for the older ones. Which helps to cut down on the groups of 10 yr olds that just run around chasing each other because they are relly too old for ball pools. It has got a giant screen too.

They have got a chill out room for parents, personally I would never use this as I am to paranoid to be sitting away in a quite room.

Another idea is toddler clubs 2 times aweek where you offer free jucie and biscuits and reduced price coffe and cakes to get the mums in through the day. By putting the juice out on a couple of tables near the 2-5 area entrance you encourage them to chat and sit together therefore more likely to return.

If going for mini cars etc. don't allow them to be driven around tables etc. I have been to one where there are no clear boundries and equipment tends to be dragged out and around the tables.

Sturdy round tables so you don't have to worry about kids shooglin the coffee all over them or bashing into corners.

I get the feeling a lot of venues concentrate on the food too much, its like they build the thing and don't worry about the upkeep or use of the equipment as long as they make as much money as possible from selling loads of chips and cheap juice. They seem to only employ 18 yr old kitchen assistants who occasionaly venture into the soft play if forced.

i tried out a new one that had opened here recently, and i definitely won't be going back. It was upstairs in a mill type place and was badly signposted on the stairs so we weren't sure where we were going, and we got in there it was freezing This put a real damper on it because I didn't want to sit there in the cold.
It felt strangely atmosphere-less.
We have two excellent ones near us- large and airy and clean and warm enough to be comfy.Good snacks and coffee .A seperate area for littlies that isn't too tame and very good imo-the equipment is big enough and strong enough for parents to go on so supervision is easier and it's fun!
I hate it when places say you can't take your own drinks in 'cos they have a cafe.
My boys get so hot and sweaty they need to keep topping up with water and at a pound a bottle it would add a lot on to the price of a trip out.

clean tables and chairs, its awful when you sit down to find it sticky from ten smeared meals before you.

on that subject, more comfortable seats for adults. i know its a childrens play area but i hate being stuck on a hard, bumpy poor excuse for a seat thats too low to the ground!

all highchairs should have straps (i know it sounds so obvious but ive been to places where they havent had any and dd loves to climb)

as you said, decent food to cater for all the age ranges. when dd was 1 1/2 our food choice was either A: a jar of baby food or B:salty chips, the poor little mite was starving as i bought her nothing and had taken nothing, expecting food for her age range to be available.

tables and chairs not too close together. A: because there's always some kids rushing past to knock over the chairs/tables/drinks and B: for easy access with the buggy...even better, a seperate area to leave buggies in.

enclosed toddler areas, near enough to the big kids area to keep an eye on them but with barriers/gates so the little ones cant run into the other area.

staff keeping an eye out. someone did a HUGE wee once in the toddler area and the staff hadnt a clue, neither would i have if another mum hadnt told me...mad rush to grab dd as she was heading straight for the puddle! also obviously to control dangerous behaviour in the bigger kids.

Decent food / drink (like orange juice, not squash) rasins as well as sweets etc.

Bouncy castle. One of my local ones has got one and its great!

For the toddler area to be sectioned off with a gate, to stop the older children just coming in, and the toddlers from escaping!

Shallow slides in the toddler area that they can do alone, without me having to go down them all the time!

That's it for the mo.... will have a think!

has anyone ever thought that you go to these places to play with your child and to watch them play...why should someone else look after your child when you have only paid to use their facilities..its not a creche..also they are business people,they would serve healthy food if lots asked..but i suspect the masses want chips so they sell it to them...an the lady that holds business meetings there?try a child minder...

i can take it then that loads agree with me!!tell me ...if you were to name a place like this what would it be called?and where would it be?

Cannot say I'm afraid Cowmad until I'm ready to open for business on either the name or location - top secret! If I told you, would then have to kill you! Will let you all know nearer the time when we are ready to rock and roll. In the meantime thank you all so very much for your comments and feedback, as I've said before this is very, very useful and valuable. Cheers everyone.

xx

The three things I really don't like about my local playcentre are:

• that the lighting is very dim
• that no-one really enforces the rule about kids having to keep their socks on when playing
• there's always a musty smell, bit of ventilation would be good

Not read all the posts but here are my views :

Toilets that are easy to get to in a hurry!
Well lit & always clean
Plenty of room to store shoes
Nice comfy chairs positioned where you can see what is going on & good coffee !
No areas where kids can get stuck (ie caught in cargo nets)
No hidden areas where you can't see or get to easily
Decent food freshly made - not just nuggets & chips
How about different opening days or hours for kids 0-6 and 6-12 ?

Don't have a huge scary big headed mascot person/animal.

As, ime, the scare most of the children at parties or when they do a walk around!

I think you really do have to have staff that are their to supervise the safe use of play equipment, not all children play nicely and some parents seem happy to let their kids run about knocking over other children.

Helps to have somebody that knows how to navigate through the place to rescue stuck or upset children, rather than parents trying to crawl through the thing while trying to keep an eye on the other their other child too.

Yes parents should be responsible for there kids at all times but the management has to ensure rules are being followed and kids are getting to boisterous.

A pushchair park! The place I go to you can hardly move in because the seating area is rammed full of people's pushchairs.

Message withdrawn

I have to admit I haven't read the whole thread, but I recently took DD (4.5) and DS (2.5) to a soft play/activity centre while we were on holiday in NY because it poured for the first week we were there. It was a bit different from the usual soft play places here adn I have to say I was hugely impressed.

First of all it was laid out with a big open central aisle with benches for seating and all the different play areas laid out down either side. This meant it was really easy to see the kids from one end to the other even if they were in different areas. The other thing I loved was that in addition to the usual soft play areas with ball pools and things to climb on, there were different play "stations". There was one set up like a pizza place where the kids could make their own (plastic) pizzas and put them in the ovens. there was a nursery/kitchen with baby dolls, high chairs, play food etc. There was a supermarket with trolleys and shelves of play food. There lots of those little ride on cars and a petrol station. (DS drove up and asked a little girl for petrol and she just stared at him blankly until I told him to ask for gas -then she smiled and very politely filled up his car!)

It was also nice that the whole place was bright and well-lit with clean, child-friendly toilets. The other thing I liked was that for a small joining fee you then got discounted rates on your regular visits.

The two things I didn't like was that the food & drink area was completely separate from the play area. So although I did bring my kids juice cups in with me I couldn't sit and have a coffee and watch them play at the same time. The other serious drawback was that the staff were less than useless. There was a big indoor sandbox and my daughter (inevitably I suppose - I don't recommend a sandbox!) got sand in her eye. So I asked one of the staff if she could help. She just stared blankly and said 'uh, would you like a paper towel?' I ended up taking dd to the toilet and just flushing her eye with water.

Where in Scotland are you OMG?

as long as it scotland!!!im about to open a large facility in the west midlands,very central, thats why i got a bit ticked off with lady holding meetings at one!!!also i really do belive that the staff are not there to "mind"children,enforce rules certainly,but the local council dont provide staff for outside playgrounds so neither will i.parents should comment to the manager if they would like healthier foods on the menu,but once again i stand by my original comments, all the indications are(and i have researched) it is nuggets an chips 80%of the time!!!,the other 20%are i belive catered for with other options.your the customers ask for what youd like.your right to keep the secret for now but there will be someone else looking at your area.get in first an get in big...thats what we are doing,we are not messing about with this,we want all other operators off our patch cos as you know this costs alot of money!!!good luck

ooh, also, OMG I remember when ds was a baby and I used to go with dd it was very difficult to heat bottles/babyfood in some of these places. In one place the only option was to leave your food/bottle in a jug of a hot water up at the counter where food orders were taken. It would be so much easier if there was one of these little food warming stations set up with a microwave and a couple of bottle warmers. I know places say they are not allowed to heat food in a microwave for you but I believe it is allowed if parents heat the food themselves. Not a problem for me anymore but at the time this was a big, big pet peeve of mine.