Pump It Up of Belmont Kids Birthdays & More — Attraction in San Carlos

We had two parties here. The play time is great, and staff is friendly. Their website states "Party Pros prep the party area before the birthday child enters it. Watch as your child's face lights up as they see all of the decorations, food, cake, and gifts for the first time, while the entire room sings their name for their Grand Party Entrance!" After the first party we held there left us disappointed that our room was not set up prior to entering (only 1 out of 6 table clothes were set up, and none of the decorations were put out - very simple decorations that just needed to be plopped onto the tables.) Therefore we were reluctant but decided to give them a second chance after our younger child expressed that they wanted a party at a "jumpy house place". We also brought this reluctance up to their attention when discussing the party, and was assured that this time there would be no issues with the party room set up. Even with this assurance, we were left disappointed once again. Our party required 6 table cloths, party hats (placed where the children would sit), small size character decorations placed on various tables. Cake, cupcakes, and party favors placed on one table (these were supermarket cupcakes that come in a plastic container, and a 8" round - not fancy cakes.) This should be a straightforward request. Yet, they did not set up the items as we had asked. (1) Party favors were on a different table across the room from the cake and cupcakes, and the table cloth for that table was never put on. (2) Party hats were not put out. (3) Only half of the 12 character decorations (very simple 6 x 6 stand up decoration) were placed on the table. (4) The table for the kids had large plates all over the table like a polka-dot pattern. Normally one would expect plates to be placed where the child would sit. But, instead haphazardly placed. Disorderly causing crowding in certain areas, and unused sets in the other half of the room. (5) The promised 30 minutes set up time was not delivered. Rather, a frantic 5 minutes were allocated to the staff. More than half of this 5 minute period was spent cleaning up from the prior party, leaving very little time to properly sanitize to meet Covid safety best practices. (6) They invited guests to enter the room when the room wasn't set up all the way. The "Party Pros" inside the room had to inform the play area staff "wait outside!" till they are done setting up, yet the guests were still allowed to enter with the half set up. No one asked "does the room look ready?" before letting guests in. We had requested in advance to see if we could assist in set up, but were denied the opportunity to help. This I was told was to allow the parents to "relax". Is it example of overpromising and under delivering. When contacted by the franchisee, she gave various excuses to why this happened, even saying she assigned an extra person to our party, because of the set up. She informed me that the prior party didn't vacate on time, and staff were reluctant to ask them to leave. No management was on site to properly supervise and mitigate issues. She also informed me that their staff were young and therefore "immature" and couldn't handle quick turn around situations. Proper training of employees is the responsibility of the business operator and should not be the excuse for poor delivery of promised services. We paid close to $1000 for the party and tipped the poorly trained staff 20%. I fault the management for setting up the staff for failure. 5 minute turn around time to set up our party. Does this seem...

FANTASTIC experience!!! I used to take my nieces and nephews to open play at PIU Belmont 10 years ago. Out of nostalgia, we booked my niece's 19th birthday here this past weekend. Turns out PIU is just as fun as an adult!!! Here are the cons and pros:

As other reviews here and on Yelp have mentioned, the food sucks. The pizza comes from Marvin Gardens. The crust was super thin and the cheese wasn't melted all the way. I remembered that the food wasn't great, so I didn't order any extra. We ate (some of) the pizza that was included in the party package, and I brought ice cream for floats. After the party, we went to an In-N-Out that's less than a mile away and was way less expensive than ordering food through PIU.

Like some reviews have noted, parking is extremely limited. Fortunately, there was ample space during our party because we booked a later time slot (8:05 pm) during the slow season (summer).

The party was expensive: $800 plus the tip for 15 kids. However, for us it was worth the expense. We are going to make this a yearly tradition, for the following reasons:

The inflatables are SO fun!!! Some reviews here and on Yelp say that the inflatables are run-down and/or don't fully inflate, which was not our experience. We had a great time having obstacle-course races in the first room (Arena A) and jousting in the second room (Arena B). And the slides in both rooms are epic! The inflatables turned us all into kids again.

The Glow experience was awesome! It was totally worth the extra fee to have what one of my nephews referred to as "rave lights" in Arena B. We had a great time dancing and playing hide-and-seek in the club-like atmosphere.

The customer service was incredible!! I was very grateful to receive a text from Kary, who made sure I got my food order and request for add-ons in on time, after I hadn't realized I had missed a couple of calls and the deadline was fast-approaching. Samanta was the manager on duty at the time of the party, and was SO kind and accommodating. Georgia was our Party Attendant in the play arenas and the Party Coordinator in the party room. Georgia was really sweet and helpful, especially with the rock wall in Arena B and with the party room set up and cleanup. Thank you Kary, Samantha, and Georgia for a super memorable...

The structure consists of a lobby, where people checks-in and is given instructions and rules. Then everybody in the party enters the first room with several inflatable attractions. It's quite good but I believe they should clean the carpet, the odor of sweaty kids was noticeable. My wife had to get out several times to get some fresh air. After 40 minutes people are sent in a room with black lights and more games, it's really beautiful and kids had a real blast. There is also a climbing wall that was challenging but kids loved. They have annoyimg music that is too loud for parents to chat comfortably, I would eliminate that. After 40 more minutes, that is an ideal time for kids to play on a given environment, we were brought into the party room with tables, cared food, cupcakes etc. The floor was very sticky, they needed to wash it. Thorough the party personnel take pictures that are displayed on the monitors and sent to the party host. All in all a perfectly engineered party experience tailored specifically to young kids, but they definitely need to wash carpet and floors. Toilets...