Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park — Attraction in City of Albany

Urban Air Albany - Not suitable for birthday party groups. I don’t think their staff is trained to organize and maintain a safe environment for kids at any age. STAFF WONDERS OFF AND IS CARELESS TO GUESTS. We’re told Hosts need to arrive at least 15mins before the reservation to make sure kids attending have waivers and guest check-ins wouldn’t get delayed. So I arrived about 20mins before the reservation to make sure we had more than enough time to set up our things in the party room and help arriving guests. We opted for the glow party from 6pm-8pm. By 6:10 our party room organizer, was still working on setting the table cover, table banner, plates and cups. I asked her if she would like some help, and I was told “no, she was in charge of getting the room set up”. She did not seem to care she wad running behind schedule, and that we had our guests arriving and waiting around. She seemed to be dragging her feet through the entire thing, and wanted things done on her time regardless of how much time was being wasted from our 2 hour reservation. Eventually our room organizer gave out bracelets so the guests could play. She then left the party room and disappeared for a while - not turning on glow lights and/or the tv on the wall, the room looked messy, plain, and undecorated, compared to the next room over which had been completely decorated and ready to receive their party guests for another glow party. I took it upon my self to find and switch on the glow lights in the room, but unfortunately I couldn’t turn on the tv or find the party room organizer to play the photo montage we had made for my daughter on the tv. I tried to ignore the lack of attention/service and at least it seemed like the guests were enjoying themselves around the games and park. Then suddenly, one of our guests (12yr old), walks up crying and scared because she got yelled by a man who was there with a younger child playing in the same trampoline. This was a grown man over 6ft tall who apparently told our 12yr old guest he would fight her and her parents. As my guest is telling me this, I asked her who saw this happening and she said none of the employees from that place was around to intervene, and this man had another women-bystander who pointed at the 12yr old saying she saw my guest being “mean” to his child. I then proceeded to find the man, and women to have an ADULT conversation about what had occurred and realized this man was upset because of what the woman/bystander had told him she saw, so really it was a “he said - she said” situation with no evidence. To defuse the situation I apologized to the man for any offensive actions that may have been done towards his son, and asked him to come directly to me and not my guests if any other issues were to arise during our time there because he approached a 12yr old girl who was there with a chaperone that was responsible for her” This man seemed to accept the apology, did not apologize back for intimidating my guest, but the situation seemed to have been resolved peacefully. I looked for an employee to let them know of this situation, and ask to please have surveillance on the kids, to make sure younger kids were not playing where my party guests were at the same time for safety purposes, and also pointed out that younger kids had their separate section to play in, but I felt like my concern was not taken seriously as for the rest of the evening I kept seeing very young kids playing around much older groups of kids. I then pulled my group of guests aside and asked them to please be mindful of little kids playing where they were so no one is getting feelings hurt or injured on the games and trampolines. There was no intervention of any of the employees, there was no one guiding the kids around the park, and I observed many of the employees sitting around looking bored and annoyed. One thing I will point out is our party room organizer was quick to start kicking us out of the room as soon as the clock turned 8pm - I guess for that part she gets kudos for her time...

Staff is lacking, making wait times much longer than they were in the summer. The updated hours make the membership not worth it. We signed up for a year membership, but can't even use it at this point. Waste of money. I kind of feel scammed. If you look at the rest of these 1 star reviews, you can see I'm not the only one who doesn't appreciate the lack of transparency. The owner really does not seem to care, and neither does corporate.

Update: we were told we could cancel the membership and get a refund for the month of October by a supervisor via the corporate number on Sunday. Today, I got an email from corporate claiming they could not cancel after I had been told just a few days prior that it could be. Now, my husband is on the phone AGAIN with corporate and they claim they don't have any record of anything on our account and that we are stuck in the contract for another 9 months even though I literally cannot use the membership because they changed their hours so drastically. This is a really shady business. Update #2: according to corporate, the Albany Park itself is refusing to honor the refund. Even though I was promised by corporate that I'd get a refund, this shady business is refusing it. More time on hold again. It's funny that albany urban air can't process the cancelation or refund (which is why we had to contact corporate), but they can deny it. Update #3: after almost an hour on the phone with corporate, they have finally canceled my membership. It's unclear whether or not they are going back on their agreement to give me a refund for the month of October, though. Update #4: the owner of this park is refusing the refund even though corporate promised a refund for October this past Sunday. This whole situation has caused way more stress than necessary and left an awful taste in my mouth. I shouldn't have even been charged for October had (the manager or owner) Lindsay done her job in September... when these concerns were brought up to her and the request for cancelation was made. She dropped the ball, claimed she could not contact us (even though she definitely could have if she had kept proper records), and said she could not process the cancelation, but that corporate could. On Sunday, a supervisor from corporate said Lindsay was new and therefore didn't know how to process a refund and cancelation. Now, Lindsay, or the owner, or whomever is in charge at this location has denied the refund request. Hopefully my last update: the owner has now decided to give me a full refund for everything. I'm apparently now supposed to get a check in the mail in 4-6 weeks. I was asked to consider changing or deleting my review due to their "act of good faith." I didn't demand a full refund, but only what I was promised to begin with. While a full refund is appreciated, it does not change how much of a pain in the neck this whole ordeal has been. This whole situation, including the bad review, could have been prevented had the owner or manager actually taken this seriously to begin with...as well as corporate. I don't think it's fair to delete a review when everything I've stated is the truth. I also left a review with the BBB, as it's important to warn future customers of possible issues they may encounter.

Moral of the story: if you want to go to this park, just pay for the times you go. Don't deal with the headache of their "great value" of a membership, as the business is not as transparent as...

Staff is overworked and underpaid resulting in a poor experience every time we went, which was all of three times. Furthermore, unless I'm blind, nowhere is it mentioned that the business changes its hours during the school year to open after school hours. When we got a membership the location was open something like 10-8, now it's 4-8, without notice. My wife home schools, so it's pretty rude of a business to completely overlook situations where people's schedules don't align with schools. I have since talked with corporate and will be obtaining a refund(currently pending, will update once refund is confirmed) for a month of membership that was unused. Also canceled my membership after two hours of back and forth with them and getting hung up on twice, first by the automated system as I had not opted to receive a callback and the second time when a callback did come just to ring once and then hang up.

Don't waste your money supporting Urban Air, they do not care about you. (Not pointed at the staff of the location, but the entire business.)

UPDATE:

I have just received an email stating that I will not be receiving a refund and my membership will not be canceled. I am on the phone with corporate who have stated that the location denied my cancellation and refund request. Interesting that they have that kind of power since corporate is who told me I would be getting the refund and membership cancellation. I am currently awaiting a response from corporate as this is interesting since I was also told by a supervisor at the location that they COULDN'T process the refund and that I had to talk to Corporate.

Corporate has just confirmed that they are reviewing my account and the calls that I've made and will be calling me back shortly.

UPDATE 2 (10/24/24): I have just received an email from Corporate confirming my membership has been canceled. Refund for October, still pending.

UPDATE 3 (2/24/25) : I have just now received my refund check in the mail after calling and chasing down an update from Corporate a few days ago after waiting since October 24th, 2024.

It's a shame I had a poor experience with Corporate and Management at this location as it genuinely is a good place for kids to go in Albany. Have not been back since so I cannot speak towards the working conditions for the employees but I hope they...