Cost of a swim at your pool?

Kat73

Hello,

How much does a swim at your local pool costs? Would love to know what you get for the price you pay.

Mine is £6.90. It is part of a Better centre, located in the suburbs of London. For that I have access to a decent pool but crowded with limited swimming lanes, poor changing facilities- half of the lockers at least broken, some with missing doors and dirty floors. Staff couldn’t care less and my emails asking how they justify the cost have not been answered either. I thought I would do a bit of research before contacting them again. Thanks for your replies.

scubaangel

I'm in a military area although a civilian, my local council run pools are about £5 (two different councils) one a 25m pool the other 33m, in reasonable condition although a little tired due to age, cleanliness seems to vary depending on how busy they are but there are usually staff around attempting to keep the changing areas clean.

The alternative is the local garrison sport centre which has a 50m pool, £20 a year joining fee then £3 a swim - it was refurbished about 7 years ago, the pool area is still fine but the changing rooms are getting worn and the lockers are pretty much all unusable poolside, again at the times I swim it tends to be in need of a clean but I'm there at the latest swim sessions so a full clean is done after closing.

MallyGirl

The council have shut most of our pools. The nearest one in the next borough is dirty and heavily used for swimming lessons - I wouldn't go even if it was free. The one that is left is a leisure one with waves on the hour - you have to be a member to use it.

hugheskevi

My nearest swimming pool is also part of a Better leisure centre, in south London. You might want to see what the cost is using a Pay and Play membership.

For a one-off swim it is £4.60. If swimming regularly, an option is to pay a £39 annual fee and reduce the cost of individual visits to £3.45 peak and £2.55 off-peak. Although it isn't ever obvious when peak and off-peak are exactly - despite usually visiting late in evenings and weekends only, I mostly pay £3.45, especially weekdays.

The pool is okay. It could be kept a lot cleaner, in particular there is no enforcement of not wearing outdoor shoes in changing area.

I work normal office hours. The pool is far too busy to do any serious lane swimming until at least 7pm weekdays, although weekends are okay. However, the pool does open quite late which is a big positive - until 7pm on weekends and until 10pm on several weekdays. Between 9pm and 10pm there will only be a handful of people swimming and it is common to have your own lane.

Staff have been exceptionally rude on one memorable occasion, but are usually fine.

Annoyingly, if using the £39 annual fee option, the only way to enter is to pay a member of staff on arrival. It is common to only have one member of staff on reception, who can often be taken up with a lengthy transaction or two. I've commonly had to wait 5+ minutes whilst something is explained to a customer before I am served - frustrating as it only takes 20 seconds to pay and go in.

I consider the pool overall as average. I like swimming, but only go to the pool when I am injured and can't run. If there was a nicer and less busy pool I would swim regularly. But when I am going regularly it is quite nice as long as you visit at the quiet times.

wavelets

Kat73 wrote: »

Hello,

How much does a swim at your local pool costs? Would love to know what you get for the price you pay.

Mine is £6.90. It is part of a Better centre, located in the suburbs of London. For that I have access to a decent pool but crowded with limited swimming lanes, poor changing facilities- half of the lockers at least broken, some with missing doors and dirty floors. Staff couldn’t care less and my emails asking how they justify the cost have not been answered either. I thought I would do a bit of research before contacting them again. Thanks for your replies.

You can see the prices here
https://www.better.org.uk/

Most locations there within London appear to charge £6.05 for an adult, although I did see one location that was just over a fiver :money:

If you are going to be a regular, consider a pay & play membership that seems to cost about £5.40 pa for local residents, and gives you prices about 30% less (e.g. about £4.35 based on a £6.05 usual price)


Where I live (not in London), we have 2 local authority service providers.
One charges about £5 off peak, or £6 peak times
(peak times are after 5pm weekdays and all day weekends)
- on par with the local private pools that offer a pay & swim option
But local residents can get an annual membership for £10 that discount these prices by £1

The other service provider charges £4.60 at all times
But having gone there a few times, I was asked if I was interested in becoming a member. When I asked how much, they said it was free, but would effectively give me 10% off as it allowed every 10th swim free after paying for 9.
What they didn't tell me, but came as welcome surprise, was that the free membership also discounted prices by 30% too, so £3.20 a swim, and still get the 10th swim free. :money::money::money:

(I checked their website to discover if it was an error, but no it is there .... but extremely difficult to find. Sometimes it indicates its for concessions such as those on benefits or with a medical certificate, but it's actually open to all)

I guess the lesson to learn here is if you are planning on using a facility often, have a friendly chat with the receptionist or lifeguards when they are having a quiet moment, and see what deals they can offer you.
Many places around here will also offer a free day pass on request for your first visit to see if you like the facility.

Shooting off what could be considered impolite emails asking how they can justify the prices they charge are very likely to go unanswered.. and if they find out who you are, don't expect too much help when you apply in person either.

The reality is that most pools lose money on recreational swimming sessions by occassional swimmers, but make their money from organised swim schools, swimming clubs, etc where they have huge number of paricipants ... as well as monthly/annual membership subscriptions that are paid when people often never use them.
Like shops & pubs, you know when there are more staff than customers they are losing money (and that is often the case at our local pools this time of year during recreational swimming sessions, school holidays excepted)

But it sounds like you are not too keen to use the one you describe, so look for another local one. There's plenty to choose from, especially in and around London.

GreenQueen

These all seem expensive. Pool near my work is £3.90 - leisure centre associated with a large secondary school. Really good pool, although the changing rooms/showers could do with a bit of attention.

spadoosh

GreenQueen wrote: »

These all seem expensive. Pool near my work is £3.90 - leisure centre associated with a large secondary school. Really good pool, although the changing rooms/showers could do with a bit of attention.

Exactly the same here.

All the leisure centres round here are more or less exactly the same design. Lanes dont exist as the pool is a weird shape.

CarolynRach

It's £5.10 at my local pool (for an adult without a discount card or membership) but go a mile or so down the road there is a pool which is in another council and it costs £4.60 so I tend to go there.

Mr_Singleton

wavelets wrote: »

The reality is that most pools lose money on recreational swimming sessions by occassional swimmers

They’re occasional swimmers in my view because of the prices and general hassle of pools.

Had a ‘Better’ monthly swim membership in North London but gave it up as it was a rip off.

hugheskevi

They’re occasional swimmers in my view because of the prices and general hassle of pools.

Had a ‘Better’ monthly swim membership in North London but gave it up as it was a rip off.

I find the Better membership costs for swimming puzzling. At my local pool, if you swim twice a week it costs about the same over a year using Pay and Play with pay-as-you-go as it would cost for membership and unlimited visits.

Taking into account not attending when on holiday (which would reduce cost of pay-as-you-go but not monthly membership) and any off-peak cheaper visits which may be made, you need to be swimming nearly 3 times a week on average before membership becomes the financially best option. That is a pretty committed swimmer.

bertiewhite

I don't know how much full price is but I get to swim for £1 due to a military discount