Hitchin Swimming Centre — Attraction in North Hertfordshire

Bit of a shambles tbh. Not been in a while and decided to go yesterday for the bank holiday Monday. Booked prior to going. On arrival it took us about 30 minutes trying to find a car parking space as it was rammed. Also the overflow car park near the football ground was full. Such a tiny car park and annoyingly if it wasn’t for it being a bank holiday they charge. Personally if your paying to swim don’t think you should then have to pay to park. Finally parked and walked round to entrance to find a massive queue. Which I found odd as we was booked in for our session at 2 and this was 2:15 ish. Found it odd as the pool was RAMMED. With such a big queue and also the pool being rammed and it’s booked session times I can only assume their was people still staying from the morning session or it’s just not managed as the morning session finishes at 1:30 so was surprised to see it so full with it being only 15 mins into the afternoon session and such a big queue to enter? Didn’t make sense to me. Their was a employee managing the queue and asked if we prior booked and I said yes so he said you got to wait in this queue, and didn’t think much else of it. Got closer and I noticed a family gathering to the left hand side doors and they was clearly meeting people. Once we got in to the door theres another employee wanting to see your booking and allowing you to enter. We didn’t have any email booking as I had rang and made the booking over the phone so he was like oh you need to go to the reception then to the left. So there was no point in us waiting in that queue that whole time at all. Once at the reception the family who was gathering at the start had basically pushed their way in. The worker behind the desk was basically having a go at them saying they should’ve waited in the queue but still allowed them to take payment and go through. Why not make them go back in the queue and wait like everyone else?? Next time I will just go to the reception doors as the online booking makes it slower. Like I said once in the pool it was rammed and I mean rammed like over capacity rammed it felt. Some parents just let their kids do as they please and I mean young kids and the life guards had to keep telling kids off. At one point there was a like 4 year old with a baby/toddler smaller than him in the pool alone with no parents in sight. I mean the lifeguards where on the ball and spotted this. I had a kid dive straight into my head and basically head butted me and bent my glasses, and then we was told to get out of the smaller outdoor pool as a kid took a poo in it. It was a mess. The bigger outdoor pool was packed and had two lanes for swimming in it with only a hand full of people using the lanes. Why on a bank holiday block half the pool off with lanes. They should’ve been taken down. We had enough and decided to go into the indoor pool as it was dead and so much calmer. I will be back but it...

Lack of transparent customer service. Sunny day, turned up with kids without booking, full, not a problem. Unable to give me a time would be free. Didn't inform me, only another customer that outdoor pool had closed, moved all into indoor pool and were over full. I've not a problem with this and even though it was a Monday evening, why they hadn't taken the weather into consideration to get more staff on. Can fully appreciate the consumer does not understand the business p&l, rota, risk assessments etc but a lot of revenue turned down.

I asked if I had booked in advance would that help, told depends on spaces available and to go online, no help. Struggled to find booking online, told to download an app. Downloaded app and booked a session, was strictly told it would be at that time and not before. Left to get drinks with my girls, my son contacted me saying him and his mate (part of my booking and in town) were allowed in 25 mins early. I know there could have been plenty of people leave or classes finished, but was told couldn't go in early and then allowed in early. Staff should be singing off the same hymn sheet.

Finally in, pool rules says no jumping in, plenty of people doing so (including mine) without being told to stop. Boys bring a soft football in to play with, had to tell them to be mindful of others, at the end told we couldn't play with it. Not a problem, removed ball. Checked several signs and couldn't see this as a rule. Inconsistent with rules, I don't mind being told not to do something but must be in line with rules.

Went back next day, sunny weather, outside pool open later with staff, but only for those wishing to swim lengths. A great improvement from the day before to manage customer service, safety and revenue. Made sense this day to do that, was only told outdoors was for length swimming when got to it though. Good to have been told, but customer service as a whole could be improved like being told at reception, could have been proactive to manager customer expectation earlier on.

Will go back as customer service wasn't terrible, just disappointing with lack of consistent, transparent and proactive customer service from staff as a...

Booked in 3 weeks ago for a family session for today with my partner and 3 month old baby & we was so excited to take him for his first fun swim and had been waiting ages for this day.

However.. what a HUGE let down it turned out to be. We get there, get all ready and go down to the pool area, we get into the baby pool to then be told we can not use the baby pool due to there being a swimming lesson next to it and you cant mix bubbles with different members of the public due to covid and cross contamination, and that only the big pool was in use. No one told me on this on the phone when I booked that the baby pool couldn't be used on weekends nor did they tell us when we got there and signed in to our booking as we arrived.

The big pool was freezing cold for a newborn baby, he was shivering as soon as we dipped him in and started screaming therefore we couldn't use it, The staff told us if we had a problem, to go upstairs and talk to manager as he couldn't come down to us.. but we were soaked through with a new born baby.. this was completely unacceptable. We ended up not using any of the pools at all and going back into the changing rooms to get dressed and try warm up our baby.

This was a massively wasted trip for and done nothing but infuriated me & my partner, but even worse traumatised and upset our baby, in which the staff had no sympathy for.

The manager refunded us as a result, I told him what had happened and that it was up to him what he done with the information we gave him as he didn't seem overly bothered either.

To be honest, we won't be returning and I know the staff wouldn't be bothered and I really couldn't care about that either, but I wanted to leave a review up about our awful awful experience for any other parents with new born babies wanting to take them swimming for the first time - don't go to Hitchin swimming pool. Swimming is meant to be a relaxing time for you as a family and especially for your babies, your young staff that work down in the pool area need an attitude check and re training on how to be more professional when dealing with the...