H2O Adventure + Fitness Centre — Attraction in Kelowna

In November I decided to sign up for a membership, I got a deal on it and I was planning on signing up my daughter as well in January for swim classes. They lady at the front desk was very helpful, she even saved my daughter details so I wouldn't need to come in to separately to sign her up when the class registration starts - I could just call she said. I downloaded the app, of course you need to call to activate but I was excited so I didn't think of it as hassle. Then I found out I was pregnant and I was feeling sick, so I couldn't make it to any classes in November and judging by my first pregnancy I assumed my sickness will last at least another month - so I called to take advantage of the " on hold" option for the month of December, hoping that I can start classes in January and I can take my daughter to swimming classes. I talked to a person on the phone and she asked the details to put my membership on hold and told me it was set. Then I asked if I can register my daughter for her swim class, she told me that for registration I would need to go in to h2o in person. At that point I was getting upset. I thought to myself "what kind of facility is this.. they have apps, and phones but you'd need to go in person if you want to get things done - especially when I was told that I wouldn't need to" . Anyway since I couldn't get this done, I was like whatever I will get it done in January. Couple days after the phone-call I have noticed they charged me for December - but I was like, maybe it was already processed before my call so probably they will just put it towards January or something. It did bug me a bit so I tried to call 2 more times during December but no luck, so I just gave up. I shouldn't have! When in December 31st I noticed a new charge from H2O on my card I was furious. So today 2nd of January I went in person to find out whats happening. The lady at the front desk (older lady with glasses-sorry forgot to look for a name tag) told me that my membership was never on hold and they don't do holds over the phone. I was shocked. I told her what happened, I even explained the reason why I put it on hold rather than cancelling. At this point I was already charged about $150 by H20 and not once have I been in the gym. I wasn't complaining as I know that November was fully on me and I thought I was on hold for December, so I am happy to be charged for January when I was gonna start attending. She said "Sorry about that, but there is no phone records or anything to prove that"- I was very very disappointed and upset, not just about the fact that I was mislead and charged for something I shouldn't have been, but for the fact that apart from the lame " sorry about that" there was zero effort to compensate or try to make me want to stay a member. Let alone the fact that my earlier thought on useless phone-calls and apps became on point with the fact that you do need to go and get everything done in person otherwise it won't get done and you might pay the price. Very middle age and not at all customer friendly service. I asked them to refund me for January and cancel my membership. The lady acted like she is doing me a favour by issuing a refund "at least I can get your money back" - lol I was like" It is the first day of the month you open of course you issuing a refund as I won't use minute of the facility in this month.. The month of December is the problem which I have paid for unknowingly")- I don't want to support a facility and be a member where members are nothing else but money in their eyes. I wonder if after all this will they smack me with a cancellation fee as well?! I wish I had a different experience and it is very frustrating, but because of this poor customer service experience I would not...

I have previously left a one-star review for this facility on an old email account and wanted to update based on the current experience I've had. I am a mom of 2 children 2 and under, so my priorities at this facility are adequate childminding and programming for kids, as well as cleanliness and staff demeanor.

I am happy to report in September 2023 that childminding appears to have undergone a huge overhaul, which was a pleasant surprise. We had cancelled our memberships for almost a year, due to personal reasons and were really excited to see more staff in the childminding room to care for the littles. They no longer change diapers, which is unfortunate, but I get it, and would rather my workout be interrupted to tend to my kid than an adult be pulled from the room and mess with the ratios, so this is a good change to me. The adults in the room provide an information package to new parents now, as well as an emergency information sheet. This is important to me, as one of my children has multiple food allergies and I rely on competent, quick actions in the case of an emergency. They let me know if my child is upset and needs me - they don't just let him cry indefinitely. This comforts me as a mom leaving a child under a year old.

Gym is clean and non-competitive.

We start asking lessons again in October, so I will update this review and include a section on lesson efficacy, cleanliness of change rooms etc. once I have more information. We haven't done lessons since winter 2022, so I'm uncomfortable commenting on this for...

Decent price for a pool and gym membership in one place. However, there is a scheduling and overcrowding issue! I'll start with the pool. You have water slides, lazy river, a surfing pool, and a wave pool (kid section as well). You also have a huge olympic style pool with diving boards. The issue comes when the pools are so overcrowded you can't do much. And the worst is they have so many clubs using up the olympic pool. This pool is giant and divided into 3/4 sections and sometimes all of them are taken for clubs. These arent 1hr sessions either. Expect for the pool to be out of use until 12pm-8/9pm some days. Now the gym part of the review. The gym is a decent size with a lot of variety. However, the downfall is the amount of people. I have never seen so many children using a gym before. They fill up every corner and stay there for hours. It is like they go here instead of the mall or other hangout spots. A lot of very young children who shouldn't be there are there. The popular workouts/machines will always be taken (looking at the ONE bench and the two squat racks, and the rope machines). This leaves me walking in and just throwing my hands up most days. Ive mostly been able to do what I need, but some days are too busy. Kick the kids out and it would not be as crazy. A lot of cardio machines as well if that is your jam (never seen 50% of them used, so hopefully they sell half the cardio to add more weightlifting). Thank you for...