Guildford Lido — Local services in Guildford

In a nutshell the front of house customer care is horrendous but the pool itself is good.

We are first time customers and booked online for entry on 13 July 18. On arrival I noted that there were two booths, one for pre booked tickets and general admission - only the general admission side was open and there were no signs to indicate that all customers had to go there. We gave some details at the counter to obtain our ticket and went in.

Deck chair saga:

Once inside I enquired about getting deck chairs, only to be directed back to the main ticket office. After having to queue AGAIN to pay for the deckchairs I was the told to get the chairs from a lifeguard. The lifeguard then directed me to his manger who was running the snack bar, again I had to queue for a number of minutes.

Locker saga:

I then needed to use the lockers only to find that they only take 20p's (not £1 coins like most). I then needed to go back to reception to queue change up my £1 coin. A was surprised to see that you lose your 20p piece every time you open your locker again, therefore paying a tax everytime you go to your locker to get your phone or wallet - the pool operator is clearly scraping the barrel to empty its customers pockets this should be free 😞.

Water slide saga:

On going to use the water slides I was told that we needed a wrist band - I wasn't given mine on arrival. So off I went to back to reception to queue for a third time. Note that the slides cost an extra £2.50 per person and can be pre booked in advance. I would say that the slides are fun for kids under 12 but are rather uninspiring and I wished I hadn't bothered paying the extra cost.

The pool and facilities

We travelled from South London to come to the pool. Overall it's nice big pool and we were happy with that aspect of it. We chose to come to this pool because it's heated - while it's not evident that it is, I won't dispute it, I imagine it takes the edge off the cold water and it was perfectly comfortable to swim in.

The changing rooms were a bit tired and the toilets are old and univiting. The changing rooms and toilets do need attention and investment. The cafe was closed, but there was a small snack bar with ice creams and drinks. Luckily we took a picnic but we noticed other users buying take away pizza from Domino's.

Our experience would have been greatly improved if there was better care on arrival. Would you like to use the lockers - yes well you will need 20p coins. Would you like to use the slides - yes we have pre-booked this. Would you like a deck chair? And so on. What this place needs is more people on hand to run the ticket booths to allow for better customer care - the girl at the front of house was clearly on her own and trying to clear the queue.

I have to say that unfortunately I will not be returning to this venue. But I hope that this comment will inspire the operator to invest in the customer experience for first time visitors so that people don't have to spend their precious leisure time by making multiple trips to the...

Arrived about midday,I literally took the last parking spot which was in a very tight car park. Made our way to the gates, proceeded to buy tickets. 2 adults 3 children, was charged £7.20 per person, no family ticket stated?? Anyway we made our way to find a bit of grass. The pool looked great the grass looked nice the slides looked fun. We went for a dip in the pool for 20 mins then I decided to get some food for my family and I. After queuing at the food hut by the pool I was told there was hardly anything left on the menu, I settled for 2x ham&cheese panini's and a pain au Chocolat. Not really a lunch but none the less... Oh I also asked for a croissant but was denied as they were frozen, the last ones went out in the morning (I'd take more out of the freezer personally to defrost in 3 mins but.... Yeah.) so I got my food and went back to my plot of grass, opened the panini's and both were burned black, I immediately felt angry after waiting for the food for 25 minutes after I ordered, I went back where I found multiple people having issues with their food, or not receiving any at all, drinks included. So I queue again not wanting to cause a scene, not really my thing, 15 mins later I asked for 2 new ones. And was told there were no panini's left, staring at a bin full of burned ones!!! so I got a refund with a bit of hassle on the side. So my youngest daughter had a pain au Chocolat for the day, and the rest of us nothing, so after all the drama of ordering food we decided to hit up the slides. We walked to the stairs to be met by someone shutting the slides off, we were turned around with no explanation. By this point I felt very angry and a whole lot more!!!! I went to find the manager. She has long dark curly hair probably in her 20s. I explained everything that's been happening at the lido today to be told "there is nothing i can do, sorry" I wasn't expecting her to do much for me but maybe sort the family ticket price issue out or tell me why they have no food or staff for the slides?? Just nothing. Worst day in a long time, the pool really looked great though, started to get really over crowded when the slides were shut...

I took my 5 and 8 year old in the school holidays. There was no parking available on site which we had anticipated and we went at parked at Guildford spectrum. The walk itself was not bad (took 20 min not 10!) but it was not signposted. We followed some other people walking over a grass field who looked like they might be heading the same place as us. The signs in the carpark said you could only park for 4 hours when we had paid for a whole day at the Lido. When we arrived we were barked at by the man on the gate to stand to one side and then abruptly told we needed our bags checked. The site was heaving with people and you could barely move. We made our way up the hill to the right to have a picnic. It was very muddy on the steps and I was worried we might slip. It was a pleasant place to sit once we had found an empty spot. Lots of shade from the trees which was needed in the hot weather. After some lunch we headed to swim. It was extremely crowded at each end of the pool. When we got in we realised why. The pool was extremely deep. You could barely move for people at the ‘shallow end’ which came up to my shoulders. Most of the pool was well out of my depth at 2m. It was not ideal for swimming with two children! If I had known before we wouldn’t have come. The kids could not swim as I didn’t want them out of my depth and in the small shallow area you could hardly move for people and there was no space for swimming. The kids wanted to play and not have me holding on to the for dear life so we ended up in the splash pool which really was for toddlers. The children quickly got bored and we ended up heading home after a few hours. The slides were closed while we were there. They were just opening up when we left and the queue was huge. It would be an ideal place for teenagers to come who are very confident in swimming out of their depth and for some distance but not for...