Swimtime UK Avis 

SCAM! Would not recommend. They include a welcome pack when you sign up which they state is FREE. They also don’t give you an option to remove the welcome pack when signing up. When I decided to cancel, because we didn’t feel like the lessons were that great, they then charged me £30 for this supposedly free welcome pack. They say it’s in the T&Cs but then make it optional and clearly state that when signing up, this is very misleading! Now they have yaken the money from my account without permission.

Many thanks to Dionne Garner for a fantastic swimming lesson for my son. While my son can already swim, he was looking for guidance on how to increase his speed and stamina. Dionne quickly identified areas for improvement and created a training plan to build his endurance. By the end of the first lesson, he had already achieved his target time and is now working on bettering it and increasing his stamina. Thank you, Dionne Garner. We look forward to seeing you again.

Absolute SCAM!! I booked a lesson for my very reluctant son who needed persuaded to go, first lesson & money taken upfront only to be left poolside for 20 minutes and no lesson. The instructor Andrew Darlington did not arrive!! No answer on phone and no response to email. First lesson!!! Appalling!!!!

My daughter has been swimming with Swimtime for around 5 years at first we had a really positive experience and over all she has come on lots. We have recently left and I am taking her elsewhere though as since Emily left the lessons are cancelled very regularly at short notice causing upset as my daughter relies on routine it a real shame we have had to move but around 6 lessons in the last 2/3 months have been cancelled which has caused lots of upset.

My grandson started lessons in December 2024 and, although he has made progress, there has been numerous problems with communication.
After we raised an issue with the franchise owner, the instructor gathered all the adults together and insisted that nobody should contact the office.
We have turned up at our designated lesson time and been told that we should have attended a different session. This is despite receiving a confirmation from the franchise owner that we were attending the correct session.
Following the latest claim by the instructor that my grandson's session time had changed, I complained to Swimtime's head office. They referred my complaint back to Cheshire Swimtime to deal with, despite me clearly saying that I wanted an independent person to look at the ongoing problems. The franchise owner told me that the instructor denied that the conversation had taken place.
When we took him for his lesson this week, the instructor came over to us and I asked if we were at the right session, after the conversation the previous week. She confirmed what had been said the previous week but told me that everything was now sorted. I then politely asked why she had told the owner that the conversation had not taken place. She became flustered and changed her story, denying that it had taken place, despite having just admitting it had.
When collecting my grandson from the pool, the instructor was overheard discussing the matter with a member of the venue staff, who does not work for Swimtime, and was showing them paperwork.
So, not only have I discovered that the instructor is a liar but I'm appalled at their disregard for GDPR, especially when it comes to young children.
The following day, I received an email from the owner of the franchise, accusing me of approaching the instructor at the poolside (when it was her that had approached me) and also shouting and intimidating the instructor. It was also said that I had been asked to leave the poolside by a member of the venue staff (the same one that was being shown my grandson's details) which was a blatant lie.
All in all, I strongly advise against using this company to teach your children to swim.
It's sad to see but comforting to know I'm not alone in having really negative experiences with Swimtime.
It appears from the reviews that adult swimmers seem to have a much more positive experience than the parents of the children. I wonder why that is.

We’ve had 4 out of last 6 lessons cancelled. This is bad enough but most recent cancellation they didn’t even inform us. I’ve sent two emails and they’ve failed to respond to both. They happy to take money out of account though. I honestly can’t believe how poor this company is run from main office down to local offices.

I'm surprised at the low score Swimtime has on Trustpilot.

My 6 year old grandson started learning with Swimtime about 2 months ago and absolutely loves it. He was a complete non-swimmer and has made good progress in the short time he's been going to Swimtime at Brandon Hall Spa. My grandson is really confident with his teacher and it's always the same teacher who takes the class. Me and my son believe that always having the same instructor helps with confidence and progress.

The facilities at the venue are excellent. The Swimtime web site provides information on the classes, and it all seems well structured.

Obviously there is long way to go yet, but my son & I are more than pleased with what we've seen so far. My grandson just looks forward to going to the class every week, which is confirmation enough that he's enjoying it.

Swimtime St David's Ewloe. The swimming Teacher is fantastic I cannot fault her. The franchisee is incredibly unprofessional. She charges £2.00 more per month than any of the other local swimtimes. We are advised with very little notice that lessons have been cancelled with no explanation. Also incredibly difficult to get your child to be moved up a swim grade despite the teacher advising child is ready. Money grabbing franchisee only concerned with her pocket than actually providing a service to help children learn an important life skill. I am so incredibly disappointed.

awful management, very rude and do the most to let others lose jobs just because they don’t like something , experience with Fiona , nasty , rude , controlling and manipulating into getting her own way and talks to people with no respect, preach what you speak on your values instead of bringing customers and surrounding colleagues down and end up making them lose their jobs because you didn’t get your own way.

Swimtime are a disgrace, they let little boys over the age of 6 get changed in the womens changing room in the village hotel.

Do not bother! We have attended the St David's Park Hotel Swimtime lessons. Firstly, St David's Park Hotel changing rooms are filthy! Secondly, Swimtime are absolutely diabolical with customer service and admin. We got turned away from a class, despite payment being taken and email confirmation. My child wasnt on the teacher's list! There is also always a problem with children getting moved up a class. Never straight forward.
Find somewhere else if you can, the experience end-to-end is poor at best.

I've been learning to swim with swimtime for a few months now, and I couldn't be happier! I was kinda embarrassed to start lessons as a twenty something year old, but my instructor gave me so much reassurance and listened to my needs (not to mention I can acc swim now!)

Just had my kids lessons cancelled due to no staff and un able to hire new ones. Tried to take my deposits and charge a cancellation fee till I emailed them and they re looked into it. Overall my kids enjoyed their lessons and got more water confident so it's a shame they couldn't find new staff. There is a high turn over of staff we would often turn up to lesson's and teacher have no clue which children are enrolled or levels she is to be teaching. This wasnt instructors fault i felt bad for them as they were lovely and seemed to be a management issue.

This company is an absolute joke. They never answer the phone and don’t return calls. Repeatedly cancelling lessons as others have said. They don’t give any consideration to the way this impacts on the children.

Please do not swim with Swimtime!

Cancelled lessons all the time! Over charged, pool customer services.
Told multiple times that the invoice is correct when I know that it isn’t and refuse to refund.

AVOID

This organisation has failed to deliver on its promise to support children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). They initially enticed us with assurances of support, only to consistently cancel scheduled sessions, causing disruption and wasting our time. The situation became unacceptable when we were informed that lessons for an SEN child would cost double the rate charged for a neuro-typical child. This discriminatory pricing, coupled with unreliable service, is truly disappointing and financially exploitative. I would strongly advise parents of SEN children to seek support elsewhere.

Had our daughter swimming at blackburn, ive got to say this review in no way is a reflection on the teacher as he was great.

Management is another story. The pool closed for a refurb (which is fine as out of their control) we got an email as soon as the holidays started giving other pool options and advising us to email the request to avoid charges. Well we moved to bury then got an increase of £10 DD and no warning! Emailed with very slow responses to be told thats the cost of that location.

Took ages to get a resolution and refunded on a 'goodwil'. After outlining the facts I was told they would honor the price ...guess what, they took the higher amount again! And again long delayed responses to my emails.

After agreeing an immediate termination of contract the online form gave the closing date of the last lesson and I'd just paid £39.40 before this.

Now this is where the fun began. They refunded the immediate holding deposit but nothing else.

They avoid emails, block you into only speaking to the franchise owner and ignore you in a hope you will go away. After 3 months of arguing I finally got back the equivalent of 3 lessons back.

The way this business is ran I'd be shocked if its still running in a year!

Swimtime feels like a rogue or scam company. Our negative experience with Swimtime includes:

• Money grabbing. They took over at our old swim school, asked for a month’s deposit to stay there and for us to pay them again for the month, despite having already paid. This totalled over £400 for one month's swimming lessons for x3 children.

• Terrible communication. Slow to respond and when they finally do, they do not adequately answer your questions

• Difficult to register your children, despite already being taught for years at the same pool. This resulted in weeks of non-swimming and many unhappy parents

• They put our child in a class with much younger and less experienced swimmers. This was raised with Swimtime but they repeatedly refused to accept this. I believe this is because they don’t have enough swimmers to put them in the right class and don’t want to pay their instructors to teach students at the correct level

• Swimtime are not recognised by, or affiliated with any official UK swimming body or organisation

•Fictitious swimming bands that make no logical sense

• Completely understaffed, both in the office and in the pool

• Stressed and unhappy freelance instructor, who ended up being the face of the company in the absence of a competent management team

• We were due a refund but Swimtime claimed they didn’t have our money, despite previous emails from them confirming they did

• Frequent cancellations, with little or no notice.

Swimtime appear to be a company that puts extorting money from parents ahead of the wellbeing of the children in their care. I can say without hesitation that Swimtime should not be working with children. Swimtime behaves like a rogue trader and the many reviews on Trust Pilot show other parents have had very similar experiences.

Had our child in lessons but then didn't hear anything about continuation or start after the summer holidays. The communication has been poor throughout. We have tried to email, phone and message on social media without getting proper replies.

The teacher was really nice and patient, but the ones running this seem incredibly disorganised. They are advertising for lessons when there are none available on the website and we've not had a refund for a lesson we were promised would be as we had a free trial and were told our account is in credit. We've given up on this company in trying to get lessons for our child.

We've been with Swimtime for nearly 2 years, Kayleigh being our child's main teacher - she is calm and has a clear teaching method, always friendly, positive and encouraging. The venues are fine and staff are helpful. The swimtime price structure, website and emails are all clear to understand once your sessions begin. Other teachers have been good, too, especially Deepak who is very enthusiastic. Huge thank you to Kayleigh, though, who has remained my child's favourite teacher.