Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre - (Near Hounslow, UK)

4 /5 George B. Zachary: Place looks as though its under new management and looks much improved. Building is reminiscent of when it first opened but its clean and the gym has state of the art Egym equipment which looks the business. Thanks to Mirosz for signing us up and Harry for the welcome goody bags for the kids.

1 /5 K S “Speedy”: Horrible experience being a member here. Certain staff members are awful. I was sold on the benefit of being able to book a court as part of the membership. I wasnt told that additional players need to pay. Took my kids , who cant be members had to pay which was almost the price of booking as a non member. Awful experience not what you expect from a community centre. HOUNSLOW COUNCIL AT ITS FINEST

4 /5 Laura Carolina: The lane-swimming pool has three double lanes, shallow water. Separate gender changing rooms and cubicles are available; and mixed and separate gender showers. Lockers (1-pound coin), hooks, benches, hair dryers. The lane pool needs a wall clock on the far wall or else a bigger clock on the near wall. Ladies changeroom needs some maintenance work on cubicle latches, door hooks and shower taps. The café offers two vegan hot meals and Magnum vegan choc-covered almond ice cream bars. (Good to see a fitness facility with veg’n food!)

2 /5 A Canadian in London: Okay facilities (a bit old and the pool is constantly closed for repair). Good selection of classes, decent gym facilities (although poor gym etiquette is a common problem here), plus kids classes and racquet courts, etc. But the systems and management are really poor. Ive had loads of issues with their computer systems, right from how difficult it was to initially take out a membership (took weeks or trying and phone calls to get their computer to recognise my membership, and having to try with multiple email addresses). And even once I was finally setup, I found more problems trying to use my membership. I paid extra for a multi-site membership (so I could use any facility at any of their centres) but their systems wouldnt fully recognise me as a member at the other sites, meaning I couldnt actually use the bits of them I wanted to use. And when I complained that I wasnt getting what Id been paying extra for (that theyre charging me extra for a service they arent actually delivering) they initially gave me attitude and tried to insist that I was getting the service (because their computer said I was entitled to it). I know Im supposed to be entitled to it - the problem is Im not getting it! So i had to deliver proof that their system wasnt supplying the paid-for service. But then they didnt seem to have any idea how to fix the issue. So I asked them to change my membership to the cheaper single site option, as thats the only one their system will recognise my entitlement for. I didnt ask them to refund the extra theyd been overcharging me for months, just stop overcharging me going forward. Not unreasonable, I think. Unfortunately they insisted theyd only stop over-charging me if paid an extra admin fee. They seriously wanted to charge a "please stop cheating me" fee. Unbelievable. But its just so indicative of how poor the systems are, and how poor the customer service is, that this nonsense happens.

5 /5 Natalie Pound: I saw reviews and was sceptical as so low! Not sure if they have upped their game recently but signed up for 2x kids swim lessons. 36 per month each for 30 mins per week and unlimited access to swimming. Really good value and my kids love it, as both over 8 can go in on their own while i have a coffee. We did lessons in Acton - the staff and quality of teaching is miles better here. Its much less chaotic for showers, changing and fewer children per instructor. And it has a little cafe and easier parking - Acton doesnt.