Hemel Hempstead Leisure Centre

Fantastic experience: A friendly well run leisure centre with many amenities. A great place to visit

Positive experience: It’s one of the better pools. The water is not too cold, the price is good and its not overly busy and seems to be managed well. Has good parking and is pretty central to everything.

Fantastic experience: Amazing cold water swimming in the outdoor pool.

Fantastic experience: Really friendly and helpful team on reception. Gym itself is fantastic. Huge, so much equipment and space. Great trampolining class for the kids too. Lovely experience all round

Fantastic experience: Nice and lots of activities available. Only problem is too crowded. And people doesn’t know how to park which is so rude

Negative experience: Not good, gym way too cold to even work out!!!! Not to mention the excessive price per visit, wasted £12.50. Risking injuries when muscles can’t even warm up a little

Positive experience: We went for the outdoor pool lane swim at 8am. This is a fairly large leisure centre with indoor pool. There is free parking for up to 2 hours on site, although spaces can be limited when the centre is busy. Many of the regulars warned us to scan the QR code to register parking (even though we were only staying for an hour) as apparently the council will charge if the car is not registered. We booked the session with the everyone active app, but couldn't scan in at the centre. Apart from a very jolly cleaner, there were no staff on/near reception, and when one staff member did arrive at just after 8am the queue of people that were waiting to access the outdoor pool were told to 'just go through' - no checking if we had paid or booked - surely there must be a better system? The changing village was clean and modern, serving both indoor and outdoor pools. Clean toilets (must be that jolly cleaner), hot showers, and well-maintained lockers (20p, non-returnable, so make sure you don't need to reopen the locker until you leave). The outdoor pool is 25m, is gently heated to around 23° when we visited, and is surrounded by a kids splash pad and what looked to be some sort of lazy river/jacuzzi (which were closed when we visited). Lifeguards are attentive. Pool is clean and unusual in design as it has shallow and deep sides (as opposed to ends). The shallow side (nearest the entrance) is slightly too shallow for lane swimming (I kept stubbing my toes on the floor of the pool), but must be fantastic for kids play. I ended up in the 'medium lane' at the deep side, which was full of regulars who all seemed to know each other and we're very welcoming of a newbie! This is obviously a very popular facility and a great pool, but the organisation slightly lets it down.

Fantastic experience: Nice and clean

Negative experience: Women on front desk was extremely rude and made me and my partner feel very uncomfortable being there. It’s a good thing other staff understood how rude she was being.

Negative experience: Absolutely awful, rude staff and all. I booked for swimming along with my partner and friend. When we showed up the staff member yelled and refused to let us in. She made us rebook for a later slot while letting others just wonder through. This is ridiculous considering it was everyone’s day off and we showed up early and we made to rebook for the evening.

Fantastic experience: Having tried and tested other local gyms, I find this centre to be the best value for money with modern/clean equipment and a much more lively atmosphere. Definitely recommend!

Positive experience: Whole bunch of meh.. They don't take cash in the restaurant, the teen on the counter for swimming looked like she'd been crying for 4 hours and was obviously miserable. 0/10 for customer service from her but I guess its illegal for teens to smile. They don't turn the fryers on till 3, so no chips for me. My child always enjoys the pool but I do not enjoy the diarrhoea afterwards.

Negative experience: I recently visited Hemel Leisure Centre and was quite disappointed. For the price (£7.30 a slot), I expected better maintenance. The pool bottom was noticeably dirty, which was off-putting. Additionally, only a few hair dryers were working, causing long waits. Overall, not a great experience.

Negative experience: Awful car parking. Avoid around 6pm

Fantastic experience: Lots of activities... Plenty to do.

Fantastic experience: Best car valet service the team are very polite excellent service to my daughters new car that was a little worse for wear

Negative experience: There’s a group of us that go and we share pictures to see who can find the grossest part of the gym. Some of these pictures are nearly 2 years old and the machines are in the exact same state. It’s actually impressive the amount of hair, dead skin, plasters and other gunk that has managed to accumulate without ever being cleaned. Attached some pics of some of the machines including the top of a vending machine in the canteen. 2 stars because it’s convenient, lots of equipment and fairly quiet. Great gym as long as you don’t look too closely at the decade of grime that has accumulated between the cracks

Positive experience: Staying in Hemel Hampstead on business. One off visit to use the gym. Friendly & helpful receptionist. Nice gym - all treadmills were in use so had to wait 10/15 mins before one became available. Showers and changing rooms were clean, but the water in the showers was very, very hot. I used a free gym pass, however a revisit would cost approx £12 per visit. Expensive for users who will only use 1-2 times a month, where a membership is not a viable option. Shame as I would have definitely used again but will look elsewhere due to price.

Negative experience: Absolutely terrible, cold showers, ridiculously rude staff at the cafe. A disgrace, my girlfriend came back in tears after I pushed her to go swimming on her day off to relax and spend a nice day while I was working, lucky I wasn’t there!!!

Fantastic experience: Despite cold weather, booked a swim, in medium lane. Good swim.

Negative experience: Please whoever wants to register their children for swimming classes don't send them with FAITH ،she is very very unprofessional and the way she treated to my child was the worst that you can never imagine,she did not let my child to get in the water as her swimming costume was irritating her so they sent the police to my house because of her sick mind, and once she didn't give my child the swimming hat and her hair got soaked in water she treated to my husband like a recist such a shame for this company

Fantastic experience: Great evenings out spent over at Hemel Leisure centre supporting Hemel storm. Great to take the kids with weekend match ups against top teams from the NBL! Leisure centre has good facilities but arrive early as gets busy!

Positive experience: Good for after school swimming with kids. Reasonable prices. It's best to book your session as they have a limit on numbers.

Negative experience: Very poor lacking good shops which we used to have

Negative experience: Going as a tourist, told for pool swim tickets had to be registered with address, phone nbr, etc etc to be able to buy a ticket, no description of pool facilities to choose indoor or outdoor swimming but had to choose to get tickets. We chose indoor only to find only 2 swim lanes, cold water, no shallow end, no pool noodles or other floatables, only shallow kiddie pool area closed, only open 1hr/ day as per life guard. Outdoor area had a shallow area, a kiddie pool... the front desk lady saw it was a family with a young child & did not provide an info to choose indoor or outdoor. Disappointing, not tourist friendly in any way.

Positive experience: Great gym, all facilities including swimming pool, great selection of classes but parking could be a bit of an issue at busy times

Positive experience: my daughter takes swimming lessons. I am satisfied with the teachers. Water so cold . What is important to me is that the lessons are very expensive £43.75 and it is only 30 minutes. you don't have time to leave your child at class, you go upstairs to look and you already have to go pick it up. the number of children in the class is large and not everyone can get extra time. in the best case, the lessons would be 45 minutes. or fewer children in the class. Otherwise, if you have 2 or 3 children or more, there are no discounts for children to take swimming lessons at a lower price. to pay the full amount for all children and this is only swimming. I still have a question. Outside there is a basketball court. I do not understand whether it is free and who is responsible for it. there is a lot of rubbish I have pictures if needed.

Negative experience: Totally ridiculous parking facilities, My son has now missed two swimming session due to no parking, people are parking and walking into the shopping centre, I drove around four or five times looking for a space, people were double parking just to get in, all car parks were full ready to cancel my subscription and take my son swimming somewhere else, so disappointed that the facilities are just not up to it

Negative experience: Hard to say much positive about this Leisure Centre. The numerous carparks are regularly choc-a-bloc which means finding space to park can be a nightmare and make you late for sessions even when you arrive early; the water in the swimming pools is unpleasantly cold; the showers in the changing rooms are frequently cold and don't run unless constantly pressing the buttons down; the changing rooms are dark, dingy and frequently unclean; many of the staff are unfriendly, bordering on rude; and they don't respond to queries. Frankly the only good thing about the centre is the cafe is reasonably pleasant.

Fantastic experience: Large sport centre. Great facilities. Classes for so many different activities.

Fantastic experience: A very nice club had a darts match there tonight. The club is modern and also been there for cricket matches a good place to have a beer and relax for the afternoon

Negative experience: Pool floor under the water filthy toilets blocked and dirty changing rooms filthy baby changing room filthy and sink had vomit in it

Fantastic experience: Mariela in memberships offered absolute 5 star customer service she really goes above and beyond! So grateful thank you

Negative experience: Absolutely terrible experience! The water for the pool is freezing cold, even though it is the middle of winter. The floats that were not being used on the side were not allowed to be used even for 4 year old. The staff member was rude about being asked a simple question about using one. To top it all off, when going back to the very outdated lockers in the changing rooms, you are out rightly robbed of money as the coin you use is taken and not refunded. Anyone looking for a swimming pool should just go to Harpenden, where all of these issues do not exist!

Negative experience: Would not reccomend for swimming classes, class size (9)while under their maximum (10)is too many for a class, I think today, during a 30 minute class, my child dream for about 5 mins max, with about the same in visual tuition.

Fantastic experience: Best place to workout and swim, well maintained

Positive experience: The leisure center's changing rooms are outdated and need attention cosmetically. Although there's an effort with cleaning, there's a problem with the smell of urine. Since a private company took over from local authority in running the taxpayers center, the prices for activities have increased by a staggering 75%.

Positive experience: Always a friendly welcome and hygiene standards have improved. Pool staff need to be more proactive to enforce swimming etiquette. The big disappointment was that the pool side showers were freezing cold............not great at this time of the year.

Positive experience: Nice place. Could be better maintained but I enjoy being there. For some reason there are no lights on after dark at the parking area and that is very dangerous as you can't even see where you walking

Fantastic experience: Great customer service and great gym to attend to Also a big thank you to carolina. She is just amazing when comes to customer service

Negative experience: I have been a gym member for over 5 years. Everything was pretty much alright until yesterday. So I tried getting a guest pass for my girlfriend who wanted to try the gym. I tried to claim it online through the website but we could not get the pass sent to our email so we went there to get the pass from the reception. There was a lady with a name tag "Flavia" who was completely unprofessional and she seemed that she didn't want to help us at all. We explained the situation and she insisted that my girlfriend could not join the gym until she had the guest pass emailed to her. So we tried to do the procedure again but we explained we couldn't get the pass emailed to her email address. At that point we asked if we could just pay the single day entry because half an hour has passed and my girlfriend was still denied a entry to the gym. She tried creating a new account for my girlfriend but it seemed that she did not know exactly what she was doing as none of her instructions worked. She instructed us to download the everyone active app and login so my girlfriend does the induction video. However, everytime we tried to login there was a message of "No member found" Finally, after one hour of just standing there and explaining to her that we couldn't access her newly created account she called someone else (sorry I don't remember his name, he was a kind instructor working as PT) God bless him, he took care of everything and we entered the gym in less than 5 minutes. That lady should not be at the reception as she has 0 communication skills and she seems thst she doesn't like her job.

Fantastic experience: I really enjoyed swimming in the outdoor pool. I went on a very hot days with my children and it was really lovely. Can't wait to go back on my own next time. I really liked it.

Positive experience: Good place to leisure during summer, enjoy the sunlight

Positive experience: Visited to use the outside pool with our young daughter. The pool was good, with a shallow splash pool next to it although the fountains were too strong for small children. The area around the pool needed a good sweep though. There are sticks and tree debris everywhere which isn’t great for bare feet. It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to tidy up. This space could be so much better with just a little bit of care and attention.

Negative experience: I cancelled my membership with them for which they have the evidence on the system, but they carried on billing me for two months afterwards. I asked for a refund and they have refused as ' I should have cancelled my direct debit'. Not happy.

Negative experience: Took my daughter here and signed in with the car reg on the system, been doing it a while so no wha I am doing, a few weeks later get a parking enforcement letter. Called the centre and advised to contact civil enforcement which I did an appealed it, also sent my booking confirmation of the day we attended which had times dates etc. advised had to pay it but reduced rate as car ref put in wrong or not at all. Called centre and after about the 10th time go someone to actually pick the phone up and advised nothing they can do. Even though they have proof in the app of my booking, dates times etc. Awful service won’t be attending again here or elsewhere.

Negative experience: Once upon a time you could turn up to a swimming pool, pay to go swimming and enjoy, not at this place, it's crap. In addendum to my review 2 years ago the pool is dirty (scum round the pool sides and bits in the pool floor), the bins are overflowing and no hot showers. Think we will use the canal next week

Positive experience: Good classes, the swimming pool is bit too cold for my liking but OK for quick swim. Not too busy.

Negative experience: The worse staff ever. This “lady” Flavia is so unprofessional, I had a fight with her due to her unprofessional way of work . After I left the desk she was gossiping with her colleague about me. Can you believe that? Its not the first time when this lady doesn’t know how to do her job!!! Someone needs to come in and inspect how she is doing her job. I never made a complaint in all my life but this is outrageous.

Negative experience: Gym always “booked” and always on the waiting list when some people don’t even show up to the gym who have booked already

Positive experience: Swimming lessons are good and very reasonably priced. The down side are the showers need upgrading half don't work properly and are cold.

Positive experience: I've used this sports centre for years and although there is nothing wrong with the venue it could be a whole lot better, the swimming pool is very cold and the showers run hot and cold after your swim which is painful in the winter. Overall its a great place to keep fit and stay healthy. Will continue to go here as its local to family.

Fantastic experience: I was totally confused by this place. It says it's a leisure centre but I couldn't find anyone doing any leisurely pursuits. Instead they were using gym equipment, swimming, spinning and various other sporting activities. I think it should probably change its name to sports centre!

Positive experience: 20p non refundable lockers.... come on guys.

Positive experience: Love this place, however there is always something not working there, like changing cubicles , showers.

Negative experience: On arriving by the pool on Monday morning at 10 the access steps into the pool had been removed. It made using the wall steps was difficult for my friend who is 86 to access the pool. The lifeguard informed me they were short staffed but the steps will definitely be back for next monday. Disappointing.

Positive experience: Small pool, toddlers swim class. Water cold (again) and all participants agreed. Management, I'm not interested in what your thermometer reads, just raise the temperature! If need be refer to colleagues at Aqua Vale, Aylesbury - a really warm pool.

Positive experience: Always good to enjoy a swim in the outdoor pool in Hemel. The indoor changing areas have always been a bit smelly here, and our visit was no exception. It's a problem that has beset this Sports Centre since it was built in the 1970s. Other places do not have this problem. It lets Hemel down, and it is a great shame that it has never been dealt with.

Fantastic experience: Just used outside pool great grandchildren lovely it

Fantastic experience: The baby pool was freezing today Tues 17th Aug, and the showers too.

Positive experience: Some machines are dated, damaged and needs updating. Decent size and atmosphere

Positive experience: Awesome gym with good range of equipment. Wish it was 24hrs, although I understand why it is not.

Negative experience: Nearly 10 minute wait to get attention on the desk. The single receptionist was chatting on the phone for the whole time as the queue built up. Sadly this is normal here.

Positive experience: Great place to swim, clean and staff are always helpful

Negative experience: Spent all morning phoning the centre to book swimming with no-one answering the phone. Tried the app and the website which were impossible to use as kept crashing and not functioning. In the end, after 5 hours trying to get through on the phone and work the app, we drove to the centre and were told we should have called or used the website/app to book as fully booked. Terrible.

Negative experience: When cancelling... Unfortunate turn of events despite this club having great staff members, gym floor PT's and the facilities are great. My poor rating is due to the customer service, or lack of, from more senior staff. I'll explain that I cancelled my membership directly with EA in November 2020 and unfortunately, whilst admittedly my fault, I failed to cancel my Direct Debit with my bank at that time. In all fairness, this was the first time I'd ever had to do this with a subscription as every other time before I'd cancelled directly with the provider and that was the end of it. Not with Everyone Active. Lesson learnt. Cancelled the membership, all confirmed with email proof in November 2020. Charged £52.89 in May 2021 which covered the remaining time after lockdown was eased in April and then for the following month of May. After noticing this, I contact EA to raise my query only to be told that it's my fault for not cancelling the Direct Debit, which in fairness is true in this case. I appealed with senior staff members that this was an honest and innocent mistake and asked for a refund, which didn't seem to make any difference to them. I'd have thought that as I cancelled my membership in November 2020, which was 6 months prior to being charged that it would have been fairly obvious that I no longer intended to be a member of EA, and they would understand the mistake and issue the refund. Sadly, I was mistaken. After a few days of back and forth with EA they refuse the refund, I was then ignored for 13 days. Today, 02/06/21 I finally receive a reply after having to follow up my multiple ignored messages with a call in to the Hemel Hempstead branch in person. My response again, refund refused. It's clear to me that Everyone Active and their business ethics lack consideration and fail to sympathise for simple and innocent mistakes such as this. I'm 23 years old, been a member at Everyone Active for roughly 12 months and enjoyed my time whilst there, I've just moved out and an unexpected bill of £52.89 is the last thing I needed. Unfortunately EA doesn't care about this. It's a shame that there's now have a bitter taste in the mouth regarding EA as I liked the gym, but the business as a whole I now think very differently. Writing this review as a reminder to anyone cancelling their membership, do remember to cancel it directly with your bank as no matter what your situation EA will not sympathise with you. Given the current climate of the world, particularly financially, I'd have thought they could have made a gesture of goodwill and sympathised with a member on this occasion. I look forward to EA's reply about their terms and conditions of membership on this review which I won't be allowed to answer.

Fantastic experience: Great gym, lot's of equipment/space, most of the staff are lovely and helpful, for the low cost of the membership you can't get much better. Thumbs up

Negative experience: Worst place ever. I joined the membership and cancelled in less than a week. They failed to cancel it from their end and deducted 100£ from my account. On questioning, they were rude,shouted at me and provided no proper explanation.

Positive experience: Good, however, when i tried calling them, it took several phone calls and still no one picked up. I called on 27/04/2021 at 3:40pm - very unusual. Redialled many times and gave up after a while

Fantastic experience: Very well organised. Staff are always professional and polite. Well managed and glad to be back.

Fantastic experience: Open again after lockdown 3.0 - hopefully for good now!

Positive experience: Excellent facilities sadly the Squash courts require urgent treatment

Positive experience: Called today and spoke with Sarah (hope I spell the name correctly). The lady was very friendly, helpfull and patience answering my questions. I have visited the gym few weeks ago inquiry about joing in and the membership, however no one has ever come back to me about it. I have decided to join in today and taking on the introductory off of 25% off your 1st 3 months, because this gyms offers what I am looking for, gym equipment, various classes and swimming pool. Let's hope I will enjoy it! Update; 5th October 2020 Can you make sure you have staff available to answer the phones. Called three times this morning and no one answers the phones?

Fantastic experience: Been coming to Hemel everyone active since it relaunched. Great classes fab teachers and the gym has been updated and extended.

Fantastic experience: Nice and quiet so plenty of room on the equipment. Sanitiser spray available for weights

Fantastic experience: Excellent visit. Can't fault the place. Helpful staff. Brilliant gym equipment. Had problems signing into my phone app but a member of staff helped me finally log on to the app so that I can make bookings to use the gym or swimming pool from the app. The gym is spacious and comfortable. The lockers are good. You pay a refundable £1 to lock up your belongings in the gym. There are clear directions on the floor of how to get to the gym or swimming pool. On the whole a nice friendly helpful leisure centre.

Fantastic experience: They have reopened with a great distance measurements. Amazing place for the whole family.

Fantastic experience: Just reopened and very well set up for Covid19. Reduced numbers in classes and the gym. Very well marked out spaces in classes. Hand sanitizer everywhere and lots of spray cleaner for equipment. 15 min gaps between classes and one way system in the building.

Negative experience: Not happy with Everyone Active, offered a special rate during lock down for re new my membership had trouble accessing this special rate on my App. Emailed customer services several times during during lockdown but no one replied. Called today to renew to be told, I now have to pay more than a new member applying as i have now missed this offer. Not happy as I feel this was everyone's Active technical problem and not mine. Has any one else had this issue?

Positive experience: Nice staff. Nice gym. Pool is good but the kids pool could use to be checked more often for the temperature. One time i went the water was good and the other it was quite cold. Changing rooms could use cleaning a bit more often and it can be hard to change a baby in the family rooms as they still are a bit small. On a busy day its very hard to get one of these family rooms too.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic service, very helpful and welcoming staff. Willing to accommodate to what ever your needs are. As young blind woman who likes to keep active and healthy this was music to my ears and they take great care of my guide dog when I am in the pool.

Fantastic experience: Great classes and fantastic instructors. Body attack class is the best.

Negative experience: The management team should be ashamed. Parking is as absolute joke - no priority given to paying members. Don't even bother on a Saturday as all the leisure centre clients clog the entire place. Oversubscribed for all classes - impossible to get a space on any group exercise class, even as soon as they open the bookings they are fully booked with waiting lists. And yet they're still accepting new members, but they aren't putting on any extra classes. It's a shame because if they could sort themselves out it's a good space with good equipment and PTs, but just run so terribly it is embarrassing. Have submitted a complaint to them directly and will be finding another gym if not resolved promptly.

Negative experience: UPDATE: Once a week now I'm unable to find a parking space in any of their 4 car parks. Looking for other gyms. // Fed up of them oversubscribing with members. The car park can be an absolute nightmare in general, and it only gets worse if there's an event on.

Negative experience: Signed up for membership on 2nd Jan. I clearly told the person that I have had heart surgery in the past and this was duly noted. I was asked to attend an induction session on the following Friday. I turned up and when I informed the instructor of my medical history he told me that I should contact my GP and get on to the GP referral scheme. Once i had that form i should contact the gym again and make an appointment with one of the specialist instructors who would design a specific training regime for me. So off I went, took time off work (unpaid) to see the doc. The following day I picked up the form that had a few boxes ticked to indicate my medical condition,medication etc. I contacted the centre again to set up the much delayed induction. Turned up for the session yesterday and sat down with the instructor. She told me that all the other instructors were fully trained to deal with heart condition victims ! So after about 10 minutes , during which time she informed me about modifications to my diet that I might make - I didn't have the heart to tell her that as a type 2 diabetic I was fully aware of dietary constraints, she took me thru to the equipment hall. That was it. No follow up nothing, to say that I was distinctly underwhelmed is an understatement

Fantastic experience: Nice sport complex and has everything you might need!

Positive experience: Great classes and instructors but difficult to get booked on in the first few months of the year.

Positive experience: Ok...lockers in swimming facilities are temperamental in trying to lock them and then not returning change. Changing facilities clean. Pool area clean. Though lots of kids jumping in near where people are trying to lane swim and crossing the lanes. All be it the lifeguards do their jobs by telling them to stop.

Fantastic experience: We were at a dance competition here. Loved the venue. The staff were friendly and the little cafe was efficient and the food was nice.

Positive experience: Nice pool. Changing facilities and worn and tried.

Positive experience: Quite good size sports hall that can cater badminton, basketball and table tennis. Swimming pool is also there as well the gym. And if you want to cover the loss of calories, there is a cafe, too. Off peak prices for sports hall are very reasonable but peak times go more than double. And the parking is free on site, just register the number plate at kiosks and that's it.

Positive experience: Great Place Nice Ladies and the water is a bit cold sometimes but fairly good

Negative experience: I dropped my son for a party, did not realize I needed to log my registration number on my car. Got a £60 fine. A kid's party, I ask you

Negative experience: Water is too hot to swim in line. There are at most 2 lines available for confident swimming (aim for 1). Half the pool is chilling like it is a beach pool and they're waiting for their tequila. Lockers require 40p coin to use them and changing rooms' locks are broken in at least 50% cases. It's not permitted to use starting blocks. Not reccomending for confident swimming in lines. Maybe good for chilling if they build a pool bar.

Fantastic experience: Clean and tidy sports centre with helpful staff. The facilities are good; pool is well maintained. Small but good fitness suite. Coping pretty well with Covid-19 arrangements.

Negative experience: Maybe there are a slightly changes made at the centre since everyone active took over but in general no major changes are made that need it. Swimming pool and it’s changing rooms crying for a refurbishment it is so unpleasant to go there and so unhygienic, no proper places for a baby change, some of the toilets still not refurbished and of course parking, registration machines most of the time out of order and if you register it never gives you a ticket so you do not have an evidence that you registered the car and expect to pay at least £60 fine. plus car park space to find is an impossible mission. The money that they charge is not worth for the service they provide.

Positive experience: Attended for a trampoline competition. The venue had a lack of seating for the number of spectators that attended. However, the venue was suitably large enough to hold such a competition.

Positive experience: Good gym, good price, better than some of the other branches.

Fantastic experience: Great gym, friendly atmosphere, enjoying training

Negative experience: Wish it was warmer and all showers worked and it was a lot cleaner