Advice needed - Soft play centres

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Sorry to be a bit cheeky but OH and myself are thinking about setting up a soft play / indoor adventure play centre as we don't think our local ones are much good.
I just thought I'd try to use (and abuse) the collected wisdom on here to tell us what you like in existing places, what you hate, and what you wish there was. Examples of places are also welcome if possible!
Simple really!
Our DD in coming up to 1 year now and so we've started taking her out and just found our local ones depressing and thought we could do better. Saying that, neither of us has any experience so all advice is welcome too!
We'd be truely grateful for all your help and advice.

Thanks!

I don't like not being able to go on the equipment myself with my children.

Nice food (cheese sandwich being real cheese etc)

I will keep thinking! Good luck! Where abouts are you?

Fun clean bright equipment,

LOTS of comfy seating and tables.

Somewhere safe to leave handbags etc. Its not easy climbing through ball pools with a bag or purse.

Clean loos and baby change rooms.

Healthy good value snacks and meals.

Some of the ones near us have PS2 areas for the older ones. Thats good for us whan I have older children with me.

Friendly staff. Some actually in/on the equipment keeping an eye out etc.

Def nice clean loos and changing areas and small children sized toilets is nice but not essential.

In one I used to go to in York there was a "disco" room with flashing lights and music and they also had a mini footabll pitch for a kick/run around.

Seperate baby area.

Lots of high chairs that are easy to clean.

have a look at this one, it's my local

It's brilliant.

The food is cheap (children's plate for £1, which is a tablespoon of fruit, a tablespoon of crisps, cucumber, tomatoes, and half a sandwich - perfect for toddlers)

It's clean

It's not too big

You can have a months free pass for £20 per child

It has tables and chairs around the edges of the room.

Big things, like bouncy castle, ball pit, throwing games, etc, are in another room entirely, so not around tinies.

They sell fruit and it's cheaper than the crisps

they have a piano, tuned, for the CHILDREN to play with

they have a book corner, a home corner, a BRILLIANT dressing up box, a car mat the size of my living room will squillions of cars, a squishy mat for big babies, a very safe pen in a corner for little sleeping babies, bouncy chairs, high chairs, and a high table with pens, glue, ready chopped pages of magazines and catalogues, playdough

it's a very very good place. £5 for 2 kids, from 10 til 3. Bargain.

have a look at this one
its fairly new in our area. its been open 3 or 4 years.
my dp and i also looked in to starting up a playpark, got as far as requesting all play equip brochures and talking to companies about it and then this one opened at the very time we were starting to think about it. so were going to leave it 10 years or so when the novelty has gone and a new place is needed !!!

Actually, it probably doesn't cou7nt as soft play, but i prefer it.

I love the look of these, I'm off to our local (and a little bit sad) one now. I will take notes on what I think is lacking, and post when I get back.

I think they're all unspeakably vile and should be made illegal.

Both the ones shown on here look great.

I forgot to say that our local one is free to under 1s which is fab.
You can go and use it as a coffee shop/meeting place whilst your babies play, then when they are older, hopefully (for the owners) you keep going and pay.

one of the less goood ones round here always smells of chip fat which puts me off somewhat.

The nicer one has a Costa Coffee franchise and serve homemade cakes which makes it more welcoming for the parents!

Also would second nice loos and changing facilities, nice place for parents to sit down, staff that actually go on the equipment and a good choice of food.

I haven't read the whole thread but just in response to the OP:

1. Supervision - I prefer places where the staff make an effort to keep the bigger ones out of the under-5s play area, stop children climbing on the walls of the bouncy castle etc.

1. Cleanliness - out of the ones near me, one is absolutely filthy, and the others could both do with being cleaner, especially the loos and baby change facilities.

1. Food - don't just have deep-fried everything.

1. And from DS2 - his favourite place has Funky Footprints (whatever they are).

Ooh, and a hidden ball-pit (that's DS2 again).

I don't like my local one at all. It is scruffy and the food is terrible. They have an under 4's play area which ds is already bored with (he is 2.5) and an over 4's play area.

My faveourite soft play area is topsyturveyworld in Brent Cross, it feels safe you can go on the equipment with the children and the food is really nice all organic, home made cakes and they sell wine which is a bonus!

Many thanks for the advice so far!

So far we have:
Clean loos / baby changing
Supervision of some sort
Decent food and coffee(that's actually what inspired us!)
Better seperation of ages if possible.
A place to keep things safe.
Able to keep the kids interested for longer.

All sounds great so far and needs to be done in our local area. I'm not saying where we are yet as I don't want our possible competitors to know what's coming!

Worleygig, I'd love to know who you spoke to and what you made of them etc.

PS Needless to say, I'm sure we can arrange some sort of mumsnet event once launched!

Definitely definitely keep the bigger ones out of the 'toddler' section - that drives me nuts at the local one I go to - after asking one of the older kids to leave the baby bit and getting a dirty look from it's mother.

How about a proper 'baby' area, very small but perhaps a few playgyms, donut ring for pre-crawlers so mums could put them down safely and they won't get bored?

Now I'm back, I can only re-iterate what's been said really.

1. Good food. Keep it simple with enough, but not too much, choice. Have a 'no-junk' policy! And dont forget the parents...maybe good snacks, drinks and magazines or newspapers for them to pass the time.

1. Good, clean toilet/changing facilities, clearly signed.

1. Perhaps a couple of party rooms which could be used as a base for the parties being held. At our one the children get ushered into a room when it's time to eat, but all their stuff/gifts etc are just left at tables in the main hall. It's nice too if the rooms are well-decorated and celebratory-looking, IYKWIM.

1. Maybe a theme to the interior - castles and dragons (Fairy tales for boys and girls) or a pirate ship or treasure island/tropical rainforest complete with sound effects/appropriate music. Coloured mood lighting with the equipment illuminated for easy spotting of offspring. Set it apart from the other run-of-the mill centres, and yours will be the more appealing.

1. Supervision with 'whistle blowers' to prevent abuse of the equipment or dangerous behaviour.

1. If it would be feasible, how about offering a complete party package with everything from the invitations to the food to the party bags taken care of for a fee per-head?

Out of interest, how much do people think themes make a difference?

Also love the party rooms /service idea!

Keep them coming....

Hi sorry to gate crash but has anyone got some advice about light weight buggies. We want one for travelling. seen the new silver cross pop. Is it any good?

I think themes create a good ambience, and not many centres seem to pay much attention to the ambience. I know it's on a different scale, but just think of how lacking Disneyworld would be without the themes - it would just be a fairground. That's the difference between utilitarian and creative.

haven't read thread but

essential:

• clean
• gated bit for toddlers
• staff who show an interest! don't have to be actively involved in monitoring the kids, but should be keeping an eye open, and be available when needed
• cafe selling basics (sandwiches, fruit, juice, coffee, muffins)
• storage for buggies
• secure access
• baby changing
• parking

nice to have:

• lockers for valuables
• colourful equipment
• organised activities, e.g. craft time

ladyclaret - start a thread in 'products'.

Tutter... what do you mean by secure access?

Also parking! You're right in that all my local places have next to no parking which is a pain!
What kind of simple activities would you all like to see? My local ones don't offer anything beyond parties etc .

I agree to an extent about ambience, was hoping to make it nicer by being clean and haveing comfy seats etc. Non-flurescent lighting would also be in our plans. I've been looking at a few suppliers and a well done theme thing looks great, but would it make you more likely to go there?

what i mean is any system that stops someone from just walking in from the street and which prevents children from walking out on their own

so - an electronic entry gate activated by staff, and an exit button mounted high on the wall

Aha! Good idea!

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