SPORTS FACILITIES

I called into the booking today to ask about charges for tennis etc as I'd heard they had reduced the charges from the over inflated new rates they had imposed.  YES, rates have come down from what they were proposing but NO it is only a special offer available to the end of March.  At the moment they are charging:

Tennis - 6 Euros/hour/court
Paddle Tennis - 10 Euros/hour/court
Squash - 4 Euros/hour/court                and 3 Euros for lights

After March the charges will increase to:
Tennis - 10 Euros
Paddle - 12 Euros 

The man on the desk showed me around where the new gym will be.  They have just finished painting it and are putting a new floor in next week then the equipment is going in.   He said the gym should be up and running in 2/3 weeks.  As this stage he said you could not pay a one-off fee for using the gym.

What he wanted to do was to push a complete membership.  It would appear they are hoping residents will take up complete membership so they are able to use all facilities.  The prices for this are currently:

Single membership:
6 months    40,50 Euros/month
12 months  36 Euros/month

Family membership:
6 months   67,50 Euros/month
12 months 63 Euros/month

I said I thought it was a little expensive and he quoted rates from other centres in Murcia, Totana and Mazarron saying they were more expensive.  I also said it was a little unfair expecting property owners to buy memberships when the majority were only able to use the facilities for a few weeks a year and therefore the one-off rates seemed high and did not encourage regular use.

Is this something that could be put on the agenda of the next Presidents Meeting to try to bring some pressure on this company to reduce the charges (I believe it is now run by an independent company and not by PW).  My family were looking forward to using the facilities in the good weather but not very often at those rates!

Anne Marie
(Los Naranjos - Block 14)

Thanks for the update Anne Marie

Was there any news on whether or not the Manzano bar would be re opening shortly. Do you know if it is now operated by the new company or still Polaris World?

Hello

If you compare the costs for the court arears to the UK  I think these are reasonable.

A question squash / tennis players what do you pay in the UK for an hour?

They have maintenace, lights, rent, salaries to pay. etc.

Maybe as I live in London I am use to paying these sort of costs, yet really are they so expensive.

I found the driving range so very resonable.

I welcome your comments.

Martin

Hi all, thanks for keeping everyone up to date.

I just wanted to put my two penneth in as I have been looking forward to seeing the gym up and running but after Anne Marie's post regarding 'full membership' only I wont be using it and I really hope everyone else takes this stance until they allow us to pay for a one off use or at least something more reasonable!

At over E430 for the year which if I took 6 weeks holiday (unlikely) at Condado a year and spent every other day in the gym it would account to approx E24+ for every visit! Thats just crazy! For a couple it would be almost E50 for every visit to the gym....

Also, even if I did join (which I'm not going to) if I had friends over, how would that work - would they be covered under my membership? Surely they are missing the point regarding the tourism of Condado? We want renters to be able to access all the facilities surely?

The rest of the prices are fine but not impressed with mandatory full gym membership! lets hope this guy sees sense!

Grumpy Gym Goer....

This message was last edited by WanderingWoman on 05/02/2010.

Wondering Woman, yr right, prices are crazy and a daily/weekly charge would be much more appropriate for owners on condado. However this seems to be how Gyms operate.

My gym in Bolton is the same, I asked if I could bring a guest one day and they wouldnt allow it, you have to be a member or you cant come in.

The ways they aggressivily market my gym I imagine there are over 20,000 member all paying £40 per month, the gyms know that 80% of member will never or rarly go (I went twice last year) yet you cant stop your direct debit. Its genius really, but a complete swindle!

considering the majority of guests will be renting, this plan is completely floored!

The court fees aren't too bad if you are playing as a four on the odd occassion.  But I suppose if you happened to have kids who used it regularly the cost would mount up pretty quickly.

The gym charges are quite amusing.  I could only imagine fulltime residents or those that can't have a week off from the gym will be considering joining.  I had personally hoped they might do a session type membership.  Where you could pay for 20,40 etc visits up front and use them anytime in the calendar year. 

The most dissapointing thing is that again something (communal sports area) that was talked up by Polaris hasn't turned out as expected (certainly not as I expected). 

Presumably, the gym and sports facility company/operator should be charged for using all the facilities of the resort:- the security, roads, etc? Then we can start to negotiate sensible rates for residents. 

Ian

The gym charges are really funny, what percentage of residents are full time, I would guess that its less than 20%, so they will only be marketing to that percentage of residents, and then how many of them would use the gym, even less of a percentage, its doomed to failure. I am member of a gym here where there is no joining fee, and you can pay for one session, pay weekly, monthly, and so on. They are taking loads of business off the yearly contract gyms, so it proves that it can and does work. Lets see in 6 months time what they will do, I bet you will be able to pay as you go.

Can the Presidents 'process' not influence the choice of contractor or is it because it is not part of the com charge. Surely when the important stuff like the resort management is on its way it can be progressed with PM?.

Depending if you have a car or not but you could use the gym at the Sen Sol hotel at Camposol. Had a price list and they charge per vist i think it was 10euros. They also offer weekly, monthly and yearly memberships. Im back over in a few weeks will pop in and get up to date info on prices.

Sensol do charge a 10 Euros one-off fee and the hotel is beautiful.  I have used the spa facilties and they are as good as any I have ever used back in the UK.  They also have special offers from time to time.   I can also recommend the beauty treatments, again one of the best back massages ever by a guy called Peter (I think he was from Poland).

I can understand people thinking the fees for the sports facilties are reasonable if you are treating it as a holiday extra, but those of us that live here the prices are a little high, particularly when we expected these, and were told at the time of purchasing the apartment, to be a lot more reasonable.  During the school holidays it will be really expensive if the children want to have a game of tennis a few times a week.

If the Presidents can take it on board and try to negotiate a more reasonable fee, and a one off gym fee surely this would be in the management company's benefit as more of us will use the facilities.

Anne Marie

Not Smooth,

Unfortunately the Sports Zone is owned by Polaris and the communinty contribite nothing to it, none of our community charge goes to its upkeep.

PW have sub let or franchised  leased whatever it to a sports company so we have no control over it.

The Presidents myself included are well aware of the inconvienence and the costs and it will be raised at the appropriate moment once we have sorted out other priorities.

More of concern is the security issue with outsiders joining and using our roads and other facilities that we pay for.

Not sure what we can do? but the matter will be addressed.

Mick

Glad to see everyone is on the same page with this!

For those that live there surely that yearly  membership fee would include use of the courts too?

Yes, full membership does include use of the courts.  However, just because you might live here, as I do, I don't necessarily want full family membership.  My children don't get home from school until 5.30pm with 2 hours of homework ahead of them.  We would like to be able to use the courts at weekends and during the school holidays at a reasonable cost. 

Looks like we'll have to stick to cycling and rollerblading with the occasional tennis treat!

Anne Marie

Just picking up on the comment that the gym might have members outside the complex.  Are there existing parking facilities for this? From memory I used someones allocated car space when I stopped in to pick up mail but have to admit didn't look around to see if there was general parking.

Parking spots are on the other side of the courts, on Jardin 5 side.

There is also going to be a charity paddle & tennis tournament this weekend

 http://condadodealhamaservices.com/blog/2010/02/07/red-cross-benefit-for-haiti-to-be-held-at-the-sport-zone-condado-de-alhama/

Does anyone know what gym facilities will be on offer?....are the rates reflective of the amount of equipment available? i.e.

running machines, steppers, ski machines, force plates, bikes, multigym, free weights, classes available, jacuzzi, steam/sauna etc....all of which i dont mind paying a little extra for.....

Hi All,

This companies business plan is flawed  and when they  realise they are not making any money they will change tack and we will get our weekly memeberships and pay- as you-go fees but at the moment we  have to sit this one out and be patient, no one will run a business at a loss for very long. 

Ali

A WORD OF WARNING

Anyone considering joining the gym and other facilites,  a gym opened up at camposol a couple of years ago, everyone joined up on a yearly reduced fee of about 800euros, within about 3 months it went bust and they did a moonlight flit with the equipment and left everyone out of pocket.  BE WARY pay monthly till your happy they are there for the longtime.

Barbara