Taro Leisure Centre

Negative experience: Very poor on every level. Dirty , old equipment at the gym. The stuff spends more time gossiping than looking after their clients. And the pool and health suit area is just disgusting.

Negative experience: Where do I begin? The facilities are sadly exceptionally run down/dated which I can accept is a financial issue for the council, however there are other things that really could be improved despite this larger and more tricky issue. I am not a fan of the unisex changing rooms (but that is personal preference). The changing rooms are also filthy which I see no excuse for frankly, plenty of staff swanning around doing sweet nothing when they could grab a mop and clean a floor! Sadly no rule on outside shoes either which really exacerbates this problem with the filthy floors in the changing rooms. The lockers are outdated, dirty and have keys that look like they have been there since 1996! On top of this they have a coin/token system to use lockers (which is fine but they do not mention that anywhere on the site so annoying when you don't show up with one - thankfully the receptionist kindly lent me a token). The water quality is poor and you can feel it which is really a shame, and worst of all they overbook! Meaning a super off peak lane swim on a Wednesday at 2pm was absolutely slammed and simply put not enjoyable as a result. The water is also really shallow even for the ;lane swimming and I would say it is at best an OK place to splash with a kid if you don't mind the filth and a probable ear infection and god knows what else. The showers are also all open (which is not uncommon sadly), again filthy, and with terrible water pressure and very short timers so no way encourage or enable anyone to take a proper shower after swimming. Also no rules on showering before entering the pool, which again is annoyingly common in the UK, but really needs to change in my opinion! A real shame as it is the only indoor public pool for quite some miles around and I think the town deserves better. I hope it will change for the better in coming years with some funding and in the meantime it would not hurt the staff to clean the floors regularly, clean the facilities more in general (eg: inside lockers, changing rooms, toilets, etc) impose a no outside shoes rule, put a notice up on the website to bring a coin/token for lockers and stop overbooking the lane swims!

Fantastic experience: First time using the gym very friendly atmosphere sauna and steam room fabulous

Fantastic experience: I have a membership which gives u all access it's good value for money .kind helpful staff always available .my granddaughter is in swimming lessons with Matt her trainer he is so good with her

Fantastic experience: The swimming lessons for the children are great. Many different teachers all have been great. Katy, Izzy and Marie are the current favourites all of whom have been very professional and friendly. Well done ☺️

Fantastic experience: The centre is well maintained with a good range of activities, reasonable prices and free parking. The sports hall needs to be regularly cleaned and possibly needs redecorating.

Positive experience: It's great , nice and friendly staff , buy I've just realised the steam room and jacuzzi need fixing again... really need some bubbles and steam in me life. AND THEY COULD DO WITH A BACK EXTENSION MACHINE PLEASE.

Negative experience: Old and outdated gym and pool all in need of much needed repairs and replacement.

Negative experience: Visited here today with my husband and step son and was so disappointed so please don’t waste your time! Pool water was freezing and even after being in there for a while it didn’t get any better. As you walked into the communal areas it smelt of urine and was so unpleasant The vortex was not opened at the start of our session and was very slow, the slide was only opened about 40 mins into our session so my step son couldn’t make the most of it and then when that was opened the vortex was then closed off Went into the jacuzzi and the water was not the temp it should be and the jets were not working either. Overall very very poor from everyone active and won’t be coming here again as there are far better swimming facilities elsewhere

Positive experience: I went here to go public swimming. The pool was great but the vortex I feel needs to be sped up as it was too slow. The staff were ok but the cafe staff looked like they couldn't be bothered

Fantastic experience: A rather splendid place, nice pool, great gym and the staff are really quite lovely too.

Negative experience: The website links to swimming timetables send you into an endless loop. After being on hold on the general phone number for 15 mins, the line goes dead. The only options that work are the sign up for membership links!

Fantastic experience: Just saw the loveliest staff member interaction with a family in the cafe. Love it here!

Fantastic experience: Great gym

Negative experience: The pool is nice and large but the fact that there are hourly sessions means that all the changing rooms are crowded and so are the showers and blow dryers. The pool water is EXTREMELY cold for almost everyone and even the jacuzzi isn't that warm. The water was so cold that my little sister was shivering and almost crying because of it.

Fantastic experience: I was a spectator for the first ever swimming gala!!! Everyone who participated seemed to be having so much fun and the camaraderie between them made the gala so special!!! A huge 'Thank You' to the staff at the Taro for organising the event and hope there will be many more!!

Negative experience: SOFT PLAY AREA IS UTTERLY FILTHY I brought my 2 year old and 5 month old, with my sister and her 2 year old, this morning and it was awful. We understand it is tricky to keep a soft play area completely clean and tidy with the number of children playing there but it was clear that it had not been properly cleaned for a very long time. I think the worst thing about it was the huge amount of hair hanging down from the netting in multiple areas, where it has obviously accumulated over time. There are cobwebs and dust everywhere, as well as rubbish strewn around the inside of the play area (wrappers, drinks bottles, bits of paper) even though the signs say that eating and drinking is not allowed on the equipment. I know soft play areas are not renowned for being the most hygienic of places but I honestly did not want to touch or go near anything, let alone bring my 5 month old baby in there! I would recommend avoiding!

Negative experience: Baby pool closed again, bigger pool is slightly too cold for babies. Paid 12.50 for 5 min swim as they kick you out on the hour and nobody told us this. Would have just waited for the next session.

Positive experience: I am using it and it is good. I am happy it Is there to service my needs for gim. There are some small negatives like management promises to fix something, but you may wait months for this to happen or to chase staff to add cleaning paper or liquid in the allocated areas.

Negative experience: After finding my local pool closed i checked online timetable at this pool and family swim was available... drove the 20+ miles to be told we "can't swim" so took 4 very disappointed kids the 20+ miles back home!! Place is a JOKE!!

Fantastic experience: Badminton Lesson Weekly + Free Swimming whenever £25

Negative experience: Very poor customer service, went to play tenia table, as soon as we got to the checking the lady just pulled the card payment machine to us for us to pay, not even a greeting or a thank you, as soon as we finished tenia table we went for a drink, the lady who was in there was very rude, this place is very depressing.

Negative experience: Dented the bottom of my car last night when getting in the parking due to a massive pothole. Manager and personnel are aware of it and have done nothing about it.

Fantastic experience: Amazing and have an awesome waterslide

Negative experience: We paid £28 for 2 adults & 2 children to swim for 1 hour during the family fun session. The lifeguard opened the pool late as they were waiting for another lifeguard to come on pool side. The waterfall ring feature in the small pool wasn’t turned on, the bubbles in the seating area and on the round sitting area up to were also off. They’ve removed a water shoot feature which was there and not replaced it with anything. Half of the shallow pool was closed off due to swimming lessons. The changing rooms were so dirty, it was disgusting. Overall, it was really bad value for money and I wouldn’t recommend.

Negative experience: Swimming pool is a shell of what it used to be. Only 1 hour sessions, greedy owner trying to squeeze every penny by using skeleton staff so slide is only open half a session, zero water features turned on. Such a shame how down hill it’s gone over the years.

Fantastic experience: I initially hesitated to join a gym due to the overwhelming atmosphere. However, upon signing up, I was fortunate to receive a complimentary personal training session with Andrea. His warm welcome instantly put me at ease. Without this session, I might not have continued with my gym membership. Working with Andrea has provided me with guidance, focus, and motivation for my fitness journey. He patiently introduced me to the gym equipment, addressing any questions no matter how small. I want to express my gratitude to Andrea at Everyone Active for boosting my self-confidence and assisting me in reaching my fitness objectives.

Positive experience: Ive been coming here for over 30 years my children and now my grand child its still good but in desperate need of a make over and up grade

Negative experience: Absolutely terrible, the fact that there is a time limit of 1 hour is bad enough but then not to be told that if you don't enter at the right time you have even less time which no one informed us of, we won't be coming back ever again

Positive experience: Either there have been improvements lately or I didn't experience some of the issues described in other reviews. I found lockers were clean, gym OK for a community gym.

Negative experience: First trip to Taro in 35 years. Took our grand children to use the pool. Didn’t realise it was only for an hour. It’s a shame that’s areas were off limits, while other things were going on. Though the water was quite chilly it was a surprise that we had to get out as the children would have loved to stay in longer. Should have read the small print. I had happy memories with my sons at Taro 35 years ago. It’s a shame this time around I don’t get the same feeling. I won’t be back x

Fantastic experience: Some of these reviewers need to get a grip. I travel from Midhurst to use this gym as the weights room is far superior, it’s more spacious and not full of spotty teenagers on their phones hogging kit.

Negative experience: Your website is diabolical.... you'd get more sense out of a comatosed individual. Very irritating

Negative experience: The swimming pool was cold so after our swim with a 4 year old and 18 month old we thought we would warm them up in a warm shower. No the showers were cold too. The children’s pools were all closed and only one of them being used for swimming lessons so we had to take them in the main pool. Everywhere is grubby and the guy that was in charge was sitting at the membership desk. We asked him for a refund and he said he was unable to do that as there were no managers there that day. Disgusting service.

Negative experience: You get a 1 hour swimming slot which is ridiculous! So make sure you arrive on time and ready to get straight in! Especially if you have multiple children to get ready. If it's busy and you want to use the flume, you can easily spend 20 minutes in queue, then it's time to get out! Life guards blew whistle to get out 5 minutes early (clearly wanted they're boredom to end!). Then everyone gets out at same time and dashes to the showers and changing rooms. So again if it's busy, you can't get a cubicle! Ridiculous! Go to Horizon Havant, you can arrive when you want, and stay as long as you want!

Fantastic experience: Went to give blood, Tarot being venue , all worked really well, shout out for the blood donation staff , always brilliant, so professional and friendly, I would encourage everyone who can to sign up , they will look after you.

Negative experience: It's obscenely expensive if you only want to use the gym, like I do. And there is no option to only use the gym, you have include pool, sauna etc etc. One broken piece of equipment for a week now. This could still be forgivable and Taro could still attain at least a 4 star, but the fact that this gym from a company that apparently cares about fitness - their website saying: "It’s our mission to get everybody doing at least 30 minutes of activity five times a week." - and they only open at 6:30 most mornings...sorry but that alone gives you a 1 star. People live busy lives and having such a late opening time is a clear indication of a company that does not care so much about fitness at all and more about what's convenient for them.

Fantastic experience: Good timed there, always. Clean, plenty of parking space, great temperature pool, good staff. Definitely recommend!

Positive experience: Went swimming with the family today. 1st time at Taro. The receptionist was very friendly and helpful. The centre is nice although it's a typical EA site and is a bit grubby in places with only 2 of the showers working for the whole pool.

Negative experience: Good gym, just a shame they have nothing for returning students as they are loosing out on money and customers. The offer for students coming back is £45 for 2 weeks… I think this is a crazy amount of money for 2 weeks especially for a student. I spoke to a lady called Lucinda who is very rude to be every time I come in and was not very helpful at all. These people are meant to be the face of the company and they are setting a very bad example for the company.

Positive experience: Great fun swimming session with little ones.

Negative experience: Terrible website, I cannot book swimming, when did this get so hard...

Fantastic experience: Gym is really good. Plenty of equipment, perfect for heavy weight lifters also. Can be quite busy in the early week evenings.

Fantastic experience: A very clean facility, popular but not too overcrowded, nice café with only healthy snacks and fresh coffee dispensed from expensive looking machine, friendly staff.

Negative experience: Feel regret that sign up for a year membership without actually try the facilities before. Very, very limited pool time, dirty floor, the changing room seem never wipe down, received tons of email every day, whole building only have one sad little drinking machine available in gym room

Positive experience: Great pool fun for the kids. Still have to book an hour slot which is annoying when kids want to stay longer. Also think it's unfair that they close the Vortex to open the slide. They have enough staff to man both and then the little ones who can't go on the slide get more that 20 minutes of fun in the vortex. Should be an hour on both.

Negative experience: I booked this up for me and my son as he has never been here before. What mistake that was. We booked it for 12:00. They let us in at 5 past. My son had to wait half an hour for the slide only to be cut short by 20 minutes. There's a woman video in her kids behind the lifeguard. lifeguard done nothing. Then she went into the restaurant after I reported her .and film from there and no one still said nothing. Then they kicked us out 5 minutes before our time so I lost 10 minutes out of this. I will not be coming back here in the near future.

Negative experience: Who designed this website? It is the worst website I’ve ever used, impossible to navigate, a horrid user experience, you cannot find any information you want in a simple way. Everyone I speak to thinks it’s appalling too. How did this get past any design team?? Awful.

Fantastic experience: Lots of activities to choose from, very clean, very polite and helpful staff

Negative experience: The booking system is a money grabbing device and the pool is literally filthy. Utterly disgusting with large areas of visible filth all over the pool floor. Needs shutting down before someone gets sick.

Positive experience: Friendly staff...even though they're short staffed sometimes, they do their best

Negative experience: I feel sad for having to write this review, we had many years of great times with the kids at Taro before the pandemic. After many disappointing visits in the last year, mainly due to sessions being cut short or the vortex and slide either not being open or only open for a short period of time. During our recent visit, although lifeguards were around, we were let in nearly 5 minutes late. Our session was also ended 5 mins early. Not only that, the vortex was only open for 15 minutes and opened and shut early. The same happened with the slide, 15 minutes, it closed 45 mins past the hour, with only about 10-15 people left on it. There were also plenty of staff available. The receptionist was shocked when I told them about it and when I mentioned about the booking system and amount of time in the pool (50 mins), they explained that the management like the booking system as it allows them to get more people in through the door each day! While I appreciate their honesty, I feel disgusted that the people managing the pool are more concerned with money than giving customers what they want. We used to spend a few hours at a time, pre-pandemic, but 50-60 minutes pool time is pathetic value for money. Considering it takes us 40 minutes to get there, it's no longer an option and my kids and I are very upset about not visiting again. Coupled with all of this, trying to get a changing room while up to 100 people all change at once is a nightmare, especially with limited family changing facilities. This was never an issue before as visits were more evenly spread. There is also a complete lack of covid safe procedures as everyone is crammed in to the showers and changing rooms, all at the same time. Ridiculous. I had always led to believe that the booking system was in place to restrict numbers due to covid, but now understanding that it is to make more money, we cannot support this venue any more, especially as there are better value fun pools elsewhere. What a shame.

Negative experience: I took my daughter, son and two friends swimming this afternoon only to be told at reception that there is no space and I should have booked, despite me ringing in the morning to confirm swimming times i was not told I needed to register and book. The lady at reception was rude and not very helpful. Having four children come out of the session after waiting an hour hungry I was then told the cafe kitchen was closed, this was at 3.30 which I think is very early especially in the holidays.

Positive experience: You only get an hour in the pool which is a bit disappointing. The jacuzzi wasn't working either.

Fantastic experience: Hi quality squash courts and changing rooms. Really enjoyed meeting people at the squash club social on Tuesdays from 6.30

Positive experience: Value for money fitness

Negative experience: The receptionist took 15 minutes to find our name and booking

Fantastic experience: Great pool and gym membership cost is really good value, always clean and has done amazingly throughout coronavirus!

Negative experience: Tried calling with an enquiry. 12 minutes on hold, then the hold music stopped and the line went silent. Unable to speak to a member of the team during normal working hours. Poor communication which is a shame because the facility has potential.

Fantastic experience: Great first experience. Helpful and friendly staff. Nice and clean.

Negative experience: Can only base this review on the fact that I’ve spent the last half an hour on hold trying to speak to someone. Will go elsewhere!

Fantastic experience: Well laid out Sports and Leisure activity centre. Helpful, cheerful staff with useful online booking system shows availability of classes and choices,well worth exploring. Aquarobics held four times a week with different experts putting mixed ability enthusiasts through fitness routines! Highly recommended for general fitness and mobility.

Positive experience: Always nice to come to the taro, customer service is definitely not a problem and the whirlpool and slide is good fun. The main floor at the moment is the session time for the price for only 1 hour is not very fulfilling as other places in Petersfeild have better value for time such as the open air pool. Overall nice to go to just disappointing when your time is cut short.

Positive experience: Not sure of the need for a 50 minutes time slot anymore. Just means that everyone leaving the pool and everyone entering the pool is changing at the same time. But its good enough I suppose.

Positive experience: Went swimming on Tuesday, booked online no mention to say that the majority of the pools were closed apparently they are reopening on the 8th but there was no indication when we got there no sign, nothing a little disappointing

Positive experience: Well run considering the covid situation. Very quiet during the day everything is very clean with cleaning supplies, supplied.

Fantastic experience: Busy but fun

Negative experience: Leisure pool closed on wet afternoon in school holidays due to 'staff shortages' not on website luckily I phoned to check. Get your act together taro and stop concentrating on your new gym - you are meant to be there for the general public

Negative experience: Baby changing is a joke. New soft play area built next to reception desk. Baby changing in the female toilets next to soft play, but not in the males??? So you would think possibly there are some baby changing units in the newly refurbished male changing right??? Nope. I asked reception about this to which I was told the maintenance man had not fitted one yet. Really??? Come on Taro this is the 21st century now

Negative experience: Very unclean and too busy, it's a shame as I used to love coming here when I was younger:(

Negative experience: Very disappointing.The slide was closed,the vortex wasn't working and the jacuzzi was switched off leaving just the small kids area and half the pool available.Wish I'd checked before paying.

Negative experience: Filthy, dirty and dangerous! AVOID!!!

Negative experience: Should have known better than to sign up to a membership without trying facilities first. Changing rooms stink of pee and the pool is too crowded. I phoned up to complain / cancel my membership and i was simply told that ''the pool isn't too crowded'' and that there is no refund of prepaid membership. Attitude of the sales manager is very very poor and she basically just told me ''we have your money...gutted''! The ability of an organisation to evolve through receiving and acting on customer feedback is is vital for survival. Its not a wonder you have a rating of only 3.4 and the facilities look like they are in desperate need of renovation. Nice one Taro..i'll watch for the day that you file for administration due to lack of customers :)

Negative experience: Drove 15 miles to be told pool was closed for swimming lessons, nothing on the website

Positive experience: Been here a few times and we get there early and have a little while but it gets so busy and there's hardly any space to swim.... half the big pool constantly shut off for people to swim in the lanes means less space for family ... the kids love the whirlpool but we probably won't go anymore due to how busy it gets.

Negative experience: My eyes ache from the clorien

Negative experience: My phone and purse were stolen from the changing rooms, spoke to reception staff who did not want to help at all. Reported to the police, real shame as ruined our family day out!

Positive experience: Nice pool when it's all open.

Fantastic experience: Excellent

Positive experience: Great fun was had

Positive experience: Took my godaughter for her swimming lesson.

Positive experience: Great slides and main pool, vortex is fun and is a nice clean pool, just a touch cold the last couple of times I’ve been!

Positive experience: Pool needs a refurb

Fantastic experience: Great value for money

Positive experience: not the best of pools, small and not the cleanest either. The pool has an amount of black areas around where there is mould growing outside of the pool. Failing that, there is a refurbishment going on there so I will withhold on any further comments.

Negative experience: No Outdoor Shoes (for customers only it seems) and still grubby Really good to see some money invested in the Taro Centre as it was starting to look rather run down. The changing rooms and lockers all look good. Unfortunately, the cleanliness of the poolside areas is still well below par. I'm not sure what cleaning and COSHH training the staff receive but there was a bucket presumably with some kind of cleaning fluid left on a ledge near the pool and mops and squeegees just left lying around. None of them seemed to be getting any use. With money invested and before the work is even complete the poolside areas are already looking unkempt. When do they clean? At the start and end of the day? However often it is, it is not enough. Furthermore and just as importantly, why is it that the poolside staff all wander around in grubby trainers?! There are signs instructing customers to remove their shoes yet the staff walk around in dirty outdoor footwear. Give them some flip flops!! Fundamentally, it comes down to training and hiring staff who care. When I asked at reception for a comments leaflet I was told they'd run out and offered a till receipt to leave a note on. Had I take up the offer and written on it, it would probably have found its way very quickly into the bin. The company and the centre management near to encourage people to go. So many local people complain about the poor state of cleanliness that they really need to act.

Positive experience: Facilities are looking tired and not all the pools are open all the time so limited for beginner swimmers.

Fantastic experience: Great pool, not too busy and a good temperature for babies

Fantastic experience: Love Monday spin

Positive experience: They need to improve on the sports hall. In my honest opinion they haven't considered enough on that part, and was disappointed when I went there to find it to be worse than where I came from.

Negative experience: Have been coming for years but after today, never again. Website is awful to navigate and isn't clear on Information for swimming and the receptionists, well, after I so obviously interrupted their conversations with friends I ws made to feel incredibly stupid for not understanding their website by a rise of the eyebrows and sarcastic comment from the woman who's thfere to greet people, therefore implying she actually has some level of customer service skills. I have to say she doesn't.

Positive experience: Will be better when the building work is finished

Positive experience: It is like most things in Petersfield. The pool has become a bit small for the amount of people wanting to use it.

Positive experience: Short on lifeguards a lot so the slide isn't always open when it's supposed to be. The never ending refurb is frustrating - changing facilities aren't particularly nice.

Negative experience: Absolute dump

Negative experience: Trochę malutka pływalnia parę osób się pojawi i już jest ciasno. Dodatkowo aktualnie więc trakcie przebudowy.

Fantastic experience: My daughter loved the vortex.Also I found it quite fun but only problem was it was too busy ! We had a fantastic time at this place. I recommend going here.

Fantastic experience: Great early morning swim.

Positive experience: Expanding the facilities.. No tennis though

Positive experience: Excellent facilities, but ashame that the steps to the hot tub in the health suite are so steep that older people can not get into the hot tub. These steps need to be not so steep, put them more of a slant, you would get older people using the hot tub, and then your revenue would go up.