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.

Clean and plentiful loos
Clean tables for eating
Staff to intervene when swearing 8 year-olds invade toddler area
No cars as they are hijacked by older children who then run everyone else over
cctv cameras in the playframe making it easier to locate your child (thus reducing the chances of it escaping to the most teeny-tiny, mummy-proof area of the playframe and rendering efforts to take it home utterly futile).
Keep a magnet for extracting car keys from the ball pool! (yes, it really did happen - I had to bribe a party of school children to find them).
Lockers so that you can lock your handbag (with carkeys) away safely so that you can go and play with dd in ballpool without losing keys

I would really like a comfortable armchair to collapse in with my baby while I watch my toddler play! That and a pleasant ambience. Too much to ask perhaps that a soft play centre should be somewhere pleasant for adults to hang out too? I hope not...

Plenty of chairs for the adults to sit down.

No rides/sweet machines that LO's will be asking for money for as soon as you get in.

Decent coffee.

I'd like somewhere that sells wine. At 4pm...

I think some of the ideas for seperating older and younger children are unworkable really for people with children of different ages.

cafe junior is great and totally different to anywhere else I've seen.

I'd check it out. The only adaptation I'd make is climbing equipment.

Its run by a couple with young kids themselves, and does parties.

It also has natural light, which improves my mood no end.

I think they might have franchise opportunities?

I have only ever been to one of these places once (on a mumsnet meet up funnily enough!). My DS was very young

*I think under 12 months should be free

Although a play area for babies and toddlers was provided, it was directly adjacent to the main play area - this lead to overspill from boisterous older children and DS nearly got squashed on a number of occaisions (he's very robust - he survived!)

*I would certainly be in favour of staffing for this reason (but I imagine this could have too many implications in this culture of sueing?)

but would also be in favour of the babies area being seperated from the main play area, perhaps discouraging the overspill. Being so close to the play area also meant that I could not see the whole play area - I was supposed to be keeping an eye on my neighbours DD I brought with me but couldn't physically see her half of the time.

There is a soft play area opened recently by me, i have been a couple of times and the BAD things about the place is...

1)Not secure enough, the toilet is easily accesible by toddlers, a simple safetly latched gate would solve this problem and still allow easy access by lo's.Also there is no gate/door into or out of the play area therefore toddlers can reach the main door,and get into party rooms.

2. The food, and tea coffee etc is a complete rip off, and awful cheap and nasty stuff!

3)There is never any staff watching for older kids in the baby area, walking up the slides the wrong way etc, i konw it is down to parents to supervise thier child/children but there should be a couple of members of staff keeping a eye on things too i feel.

This sounds like a moan, i suppose it is but hopefully will help you with your new business venture...

I also think simple activities would be nice, like certain times of the day have painting, sticking leaves on paper that sort of thing.

Hope this helps

I also agree with the comments made about the parents running all over the place, i end up out of breath trying to find my dd, she legs it and i end up franticly running around panicking...not good! even though it does me good then i do find her and by the time i get back to my cup of tea its cold lol, then it starts all over again...my dd loves soft play but i hate it!! lol

Don't know if you are still looking for tips but we have a local soft play called "Its a kids thing" it isn't big but the place is fantastic. They have won lots of awards and haveonly been open 2 years. I think it is so good because the staff are so great they all talk and interact with the kids it islikethey all love their jobs. thefood is also better than a lot of supposed trendy London cafes I have been in. They also run a lot of their own in house activities so it makes a visit great value for money. I have a friend moving to the area with a 2 year old and a new born and she says its a kids thing is one of the main reasons. Oh yeh its in Earlsfield London a long way i know but worth the trip if you're looking for someone doing things brilliantly.

did you open up your play centre?really interested in the outcome!!(hope you did!)

like the football area in our soft play area
like the little cars/bikes to play on
like the extra toys available for babies like play gyms and peep a boo toys
like the bumpy slides
like sep party areas
like parents area
like menu and prices for lunch

dont like prices for tea/coffee
dont like price increase in hols
dont like no staff supervision
dont like heat
dont like cold
dont like broken toys
dont like dirty highchairs
dont like unhappy staff

If you have a big slide try to have more than one way to get to it, maybe with steps as the difference between a 5 year old and a 10 year old is quite a lot. It does not matter how well behaved a 10 year old is if they are racing to get to the top with their friends the 5 year olds get knocked.

However the main things are to keep it clean and the attitude of the staff. There is one near me we went to recently which has never been that good on cleaning. We went for a birthday and it was dreadful, two toilets in the ladies were sort of working (with dodgy loo seats) and as usual there was water on the floor, which is really nice in your socks! My mother was appalled and you get to the point where you think this really is not acceptable even if it is cheeper than anywhere else.
After that I went to somewhere else for a birthday party and while the children were eating birthday lunch I ordered some food for me. When it arrived I asked the young lad where to get the knives and forks and he said by the till. I said fine and continued chatting and the next thing I knew he appeared with the cutlery. I know this is a small thing but I was impressed as it was obviously his saturday job and he treated me like a human being instead of grunting at me like they do in most places where you go with children and they know you will pay out regardless.

I would like staff supervision inside the soft play - to tell older kids not to climb up the slides and frighten the little children!

It all comes back to the same area tho dosnt it?iknow your suposed to supervise your own kids at these places but do you tell off another kid?or do the staff do it?i suspect if the staff do it they will spend all day arguing with the parents also that means places will have to add extra members of staff and the prices will go up.
and if it should be one of our own kids that someone is telling off how would we feel?as said it all comes back to the same area..watch your own kids,cos i dont feel its the facilities job to as you have only paid to use their equipment not their child care.

open a posh one in a nice part of town and charge a hefty entrance price.

I'm sick of soft play centres with parents swearing, big kids acting like idiots in the baby pool, nobody supervising them, fruit shoots, shit coffee, dirty toilets, sticky tables.

So what...I expect better than this. So shoot me.

I don't care what it costs, if it's clean and it doesn't smell of wee and the parents have the manners to keep their older children from standing on the babies then I'm in.

(yeah, I am Margo Leadbetter)

agree mog standards have to be maintained....(love margot!)

OMGIAMAMUM, have you opened your soft play yet?

WE have thingamajigz near us whihc is definetly better than wacky wharehouse but is still not perfect

1. I agree about party rooms with natural light.
2. Better staff rather than 16 year olds who ahve no interest in what they are doing
3. Healthier food
4. Comfy seating area
5. Art and craft room
6. Much better little kids area - althugh thingamagiz one is better than most - so the little ones don't feel the need to go into the bigger area
7. Perhaps an area for kids that are 9+ as well so they are not charging into my 5 year old
8. Not hvaing the play area so deep and compact that you can't see your kids or you spend your time sorting out other people's kids as they can't see them 9.Perhaps open in the evenings and serve decent food not wacky wharehouse Brewsters tripe so we can go out of an evening eat good food and dd is entertained.
9. I know you are a business but be a bit more community minded, perhaps a breastfeeding cafe one day a week for example, information for parents of local services etc. I know ours runs baby yoga and massage classes which is a fab idea and the mums all stop afterwards to ahve coffee which is momey on your till.

And if you have a party room perhaps provide options for more imaginative parties than half an hour in a ball pit, half an hour playing dancing games that don't really work as the cd player is manned by a 16 year old who spends her time staring at the wall or texting her fella and then half an hour for awful uninspiring party food.

had a look twinset do you think that if they charged a bit more than 3.50 to get in they would get higher standard of staff?not being funny,seems a bit low tbh

tbh, the majority of people who want to work in these places are going to be younger, they cant employ older people if they dont apply for the jobs.

i would like video screens of each floor really, local one has three floors, its hard work trying to locate all the kids to get them out.

video screnes are great an good for parents/carers but open up a horrible area of veiwing that i dont want to go into as you have to aks for permission, as you charge an entrance fee, did try to enquire about just having the video "at that moment" rather than stored for a day but tbh the law in this area is really grey and insurence companies arent there to advise as they tell me...so have to be guided by customers!!i personally prefer to charge more
pay more an that way have more staff
mobiles banned for staff
also i try to employ older staff

cowmad you may be right, as I am not a fan of soft play I thought that was the going rate, I also assumed that they made their money not really from admission but on the food and drinks once people were throught the door and the parties which I think are overpriced for what is on offer.