I was a bit apprehensive given the prior bad reviews, but I had a great experience overall. They are very responsive over email, as I had a ton of questions to make sure I understood the fine print (please do before signing up because there are!). Our fave teacher was Brandon. He's so great with kids! I docked one star because: the "pools" (basins?) aren't very deep so might be better suited for younger kids but I'm told the water is also very warm so the younger ones will love it. Another thing is the swim pass on the private lessons only works on a calendar month basis and don't get prorated , so you should only sign up for your lesson plans at the beginning of the month. read more

HORRIBLE customer service and I mean BAD. When you purchase a package of swim lessons, they will continue to charge you for that package every month unless you just happen to think to check. When I reached out about this misunderstanding (or theft) I was met with combativeness and was basically told to get lost. I have now been charged for over $600 worth of swim lessons but only received 4. GREAT customer service guys. read more

I don't see any improvement on my kid swimming skills. Better to go with regular private poll swimming lesson for similar price. Also, Worst management, i have cancelled my account 2 years ago, still they are charging every year annual fee for last 2 years, they don't response to email or phone call regarding any charge. it ir-responsible company. Better save your money and looks for better place. read more

My daughter took a month of swim classes here. She wasn't happy about the way the teacher talked to her and told her she didn't belong in that class even though she was in it for a month and they never mentioned anything to me. When I went to cancel lessons, it turns out I was automatically charged for another month of classes. They would not refund this money, event though I was not satisfied and hadn't even taken the classes yet. Citing their terms and conditions as to why they couldn't refund me. Don't take your kids here and don't trust this place with your credit card information they will charge you for clssses you do not want and refuse to refund. read more

I have mixed feelings about this place. Pros: We LOVE our instructor Cami. She is great with my 4 year old and seems to know what she is doing. The location is conveniently located close to my daughters dance studio. Cons: Crowded pool. My daughter and her friend take semi-private lessons and a lot of times there is also a group lesson happen in the same pool. I paid a lot more $ and hope my daughter can have a private lesson, but with 6 kids and 2 instructors in the same tiny pool just don't work well. The facility is clearly not being taken care of. The locker room has only one shower, a broken shower head, and crappy watery shampoo and body wash. There is always a long line of kids wait to shower. Sometimes my daughter gets cold and bored waiting for the shower and we had to leave and shower at home after. The one and only unisex bathroom is dirty and has a constant odor in it, we try to avoid change in there, again not seemed to be taken care of at all. The booking system is extremely hard to use. Till today I still cannot book class and cancel class by myself without being directed to a payment page. Nobody seems to know how to fix my profile. I have to call the front desk everytime to make changes and a lot of times nobody answers the phone and I have to call multiple times. I really like the pools and the concept of Swimlabs. I am just disappointed with management as they seem to be getting worse lately. read more

I would not recommend SwimLabs Swim School to others. In our year taking lessons there, we encountered a number of management issues including: -Continuing to charge for lessons after cancelation (canceled in March, got billed in May) -Failure to refund charges even after stating in writing that it was an error and agreeing to refund the charges - and sadly others have noted this in their reviews as well -Inconsistent or no response to calls and emails -Unstable teacher roster, including multiple days where they had to cancel half of their classes because they didn't have enough staff. We were not notified in advance either, so we only found out after we got to the school with our kids -Inconsistent teaching quality. Some instructors are fantastic but others are very inexperienced, particularly if the kids have any fear or extenuating issues My kids love swimming but we decided to find another facility because we couldn't depend on SwimLabs to be well-staffed and don't trust them to bill ethically. read more

Update: changed review from 1 star to 5 stars, previous review at the bottom. I have to acknowledge the sincere effort to fix the problems I mentioned below by the management. After agreeing to retrial lessons we have had a really good experience. Contact and bookings are easier, and interaction is much smoother. Our new coach Cami is amazing and has done a fantastic job with our 5 year old. We can see the improvement with each lesson. The cost is still expensive, but I feel like it is a bit more justified. Old review: Pros: I'll start by saying that the facilities and pools are good. Cons: Unfortunately a lot more in this department: 1. Communication/ Contact: It is nearly impossible to speak to anyone outside of driving to the place and hoping whoever is on duty can help you. Weeks of unanswered emails and phone calls prior to enrolling before we heard anything. 2. Management: As has been mentioned in other reviews, it seems management policies at this Swimlabs leave much to be desired. They are fine with last minute cancellations of our lessons, but when we try to cancel because our son is sick, they force us to forfeit our very expensive lesson fees or make him swim while sick. When pressed they said they will only allow it with a doctors note which is a ridiculous requirement. As a parent I'm not going to take my kid to the doctor for every cold, but I am certainly not going to risk pneumonia by making him swim while sick. 3. Price. They charge an extremely exorbitant rate compared to other schools and for that premium we expect an absolutely premium experience which we have definitely not seen. read more

Our twins love Swim Labs and their sessions with Cami. Her training approach is awesome!

As you can tell from all the posts management is nowhere to be seen. They don't bother with a designated front desk staff and they are constantly subbing the front desk in as a swim instructor on last minutes notice leaving no customer service. Many of the instructors have little to no experience and there is no dedicated maintenance, the 'pools' are glorified hottubs with a current control flow. They do not properly clean pool filters and the water is always improperly balanced and always has a CSI of +/- 0.5 and many of the instructors had body rashes from the lack of water maintenance. They literally just dump the bromine water by sump pump into the back parking lot every week because the water is so nasty. Andy the manager just doesn't care about the company's image. read more

Good experience with instructors but management disappointing. Manager at would not even consider rescheduling my daughters pricey private lesson when unsafe weather conditions made it impossible to get there. If local schools are closed, local businesses should be aware and be more considerate of its patrons and long time customers. read more

Warning: this is going to be a long post but I encourage both parents and the business owner to read it as it has to do with serious safety concerns. I want to start off by saying that I'm not one to jump online and post a negative review. With that said, I feel it's necessary to relay my experience with SwimLabs for other parents to see AND in the hopes that the owner takes the time to read this since he was completely unresponsive to voicemail messages I left after our first (and only) experience. I enrolled my 2 year old daughter in a small group lesson because I was told by whoever schedules lessons that it would be an appropriate class for her. I was very up front in letting her know that while my daughter loves the water, her only other previous "lessons" were parent involved classes last summer (very limited, no dunking underwater yet, etc). The scheduler assured me that this particular class would be fine for her and that there would be a max of 3-4 kids total. It turned out that there was only one other little girl in the class but she was 4 -5 years old and her ability clearly far exceeded my daughters. I thought it was odd that they would be paired together but I wasn't overly concerned at first because I figured with only two of them in the class they would each get instruction. The instructor seemed very young to me (I'm guessing high school) and from the get go I wasn't very impressed. She seemed uncomfortable and wasn't particularly warm with the kids. Maybe she was particularly awkward because I sat on the bench near the pool. There's a sign on the door that encourages parents to sit out in the waiting room but because this was our first time and I was a little apprehensive about the age / skill difference of the girls, I felt more comfortable sitting inside closer to the pool. I'm SO glad I did. The instructor spent very little time with my daughter but the thing that became increasingly alarming was that she spent the majority of the time with her back to her. The kids weren't wearing any sort of flotation devices at that point and my daughter could have stepped off the ledge she was standing on at any moment and the instructor would have had no clue. I'm not exaggerating when I say the instructor held my daughter on her back and floated her around the pool twice. The rest of the lesson was spent working with the older girl. Now here comes the EXTREMELY concerning part. Towards the end of the lesson, she put flotation devices around both girls waists (not the ones that go around their arms too, just their waist). After she put my daughter's on, she turned her back once again and went to the side of the pool to get something. My daughter FLIPPED OVER in the water and was face down (again, she doesn't yet know how to swim or right herself)! I jumped up as the girl turned around and grabbed her. My daughter started crying hysterically and was understandably terrified. Needless to say, we had a pretty awful experience at SwimLabs and won't be returning. I'm sure there are good instructors there but they CLEARLY need to do a better job of screening and / or training their employees. I would think not turning your back on toddlers who can't yet swim would be common sense for most people, let alone an instructor. My review has nothing to do with the fact that my daughter didn't receive any instruction, it has to do with child safety (or lack of). Kids drowning quickly and silently is far too common...you would hope you wouldn't have to worry about that at a swimming lesson. read more

Stay away. Now that I read the reviews of others I should have listened to them. There are a few positives of a flexible private lesson with a few decent instructors but beware of the business as a whole. I should have recognized these red flags because I wanted to like this place. First, when you call to ask questions, etc you will be waiting for hell to freeze over because no one will call you. So, to sign up you have to email them. You email a faceless, nameless less person and they copy and paste things from their website so they sorta address your question. Next, you sign up (it's pricey) but you think, hey, it's for kids, it's expensive, they sound professional so you wade thru their very confusing wording about billing, missed lessons, etc. Next you arrive at your first lesson and there is no one to greet you at the reception desk so you stand there confused and lost attempting to figure out where the locker room is etc. Finally a door opens, the instructor comes out, kids swim you think okay maybe this place isn't so bad. You go along and one day show up to your lesson that was confirmed to happen and no instructor. You attempt to find out what happened but all the other instructors behind the glass ignore you. So you call and leave a message. No return phone call. So then you email the nameless, faceless person and They tell you the instructor had to leave but you won't know this prior to arriving because they have no receptionist. point out to them it would've been nice to know before you left your house. They will not give you and money back for that $100 lesson even though it was their fault. No apology and they probably will never tell you about what happened unless you email the nameless faceless email address. You become more confused about what kind of business they are actually running. So you email them to have someone call you. Once again, they will ignore you. Finally you bring up a concern regarding an instructor to the nameless faceless email address and then they accuse you of harassing them and being aggressive and suspend your account. They flag your email, send you a ridiculous response to stay away from their swim school, take zero accountability and so you cancel your monthly pass. Oh! But be sure to make sure it is the 15th of the month, not before, not after, but the 15th exactly or you will be charged again for the next month. Proceed with caution doing business with "them" whoever "they" are. I'm still waiting for the nameless faceless email address to call me. Good luck. read more

I can't believe this place is still business? I called 10 times to try to reach someone and no one answered the phone even if I left a voice mail. I emailed them to complain about it and they said they will reach me if I leave a voicemail which I already did. Guess what, nobody called me back! I found somewhere else to sign up class for my kid. Can't believe this place has positive reviews! read more

I cannot say enough good for this place! Swim Labs has reasonable prices & excellent staff and trainers. They offer one on one training, or group training. They range in Beginner 1, to advanced (probably more). They're awesome! read more

Horrible experience with management. Promised to refund $251 and received confirmation email but never got money back. Sent multiple emails and left voice messages. Absolutely no contact or response. During this tough times this kind of behaviour is pathetic and shameful. Have some decency and kindly contact me back read more

I like the friendliness of the instructors and dedication, our sons got comfortable with the water very fast and within few months started swimming on their own. read more

We have been attending SwimLabs for the last couple of years. We canceled once due to the way a scheduling miscommunication was handled by the staff. A few months later we decided to give it another chance since they revamped their scheduling process and guidelines. Things have been OK for a while and most of the teachers have been great with our kiddo. Recently they hired some new front desk staff who are creating a toxic environment in the viewing/waiting room. We have not had any bad interactions with the new staff. However, the way they speak to other customers is disrespectful. We don't want to listen to that kind of drama and certainly don't want our child being around such inconsiderate behavior. Naturally, we've made friends with parents whose kids attend lessons and several have had awful experiences with the owner. As such, we have canceled our membership and will not be back again. We will not recommend this establishment to others. Parents have enough to manage without having to deal with argumentative college students and business owners who care more about owning a business than they do running a business. read more

The worst customer service I met in my whole life. at the beginning my daughter was so excited to the swimming lessons but because they don't know how to deal with toddlers or kids after few classes she hated the class and said I am afraid. Also the class is 30min and they spend most of the time talking instead of practicing. When I asked to talk to a manager the receptionist said I am the manager. She has no experience in managing this business. You can't find any person to talk with or to raise a complain read more

You get class cancellation notices 10mins before the class begins. Unprofessional place. Don't spoil your family weekend mornings. Going to find a place with more professional practices. It's interesting how customers get charged the full fee for cancellations 24hrs before class but we are notified 10mins before when you are already on your way. read more

Class experiences vary a lot due to the changing instructors - it was very difficult for the student to progress because of this. I wish there was a way to choose the teacher and stay with him/her throughout the session. The video monitors they point out as selling points didn't work half the time we were there, and even when they worked they weren't very clear. read more

I like the individual attention to swim stroke technique in the small class sizes. The infinity pool design is not intimidating for distance of swimming. My 10-year-old daughter needed to improve her technique on all four strokes and after taking lessons over the summer and this fall she has improved immensely. I'm very satisfied.I gave four stars because the payment system changed this summer I didn't always understand their new policies. However we worked everything out with them. read more

This place (franchise) is hands down the worst I've dealt with in a while. IT DESERVES ZERO STARS. If you ever try calling, you get a call service that can take a message (that never goes anywhere) or you can email them. If you email them and ask for a call back, they will email you back saying they feel that their email will suffice. I did a drop in (prior to signing up) for the Parent Tot class and was charged the normal $35 drop in fee. I then signed my son and I up for the Parent Tot classes for the month. When my son and husband woke up sick amidst flu/coronavirus season and I tried to inform them, they said they would still charge me. They then emailed again and said they had a record of the drop in class we attended, but no record of payment and they would charge me again for it--even though it was on my bank statement. When I finally got a call back from the owner, Andy (who clearly has no business acumen or a clue when it comes to customer service,) he was rude and abrasive and said that he would refund me back from the classes I haven't attended, but was still planning on charging for the no show and first class I paid for... he then hung up on me and would not answer again. This place, customer service and frankly the class (which was 30 minutes of holding your kid in a pool and walking around with them, nothing more) is a joke. Find anywhere else you can and don't waste your money here. In addition to that, their bathroom has one shower, one sink (neither function well) and looks like it's from a third world country. The pools smelled so strongly of chlorine and made my skin feel itchy and gross--and as someone who swam competitively for 20 years, that is almost a first. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY WITH THIS PLACE... IT'S A JOKE. read more

While staff does change often I am hopeful they will figure out long term instructors soon. The owner has been helpful addressing my concerns and my kid is looking forward to getting back in the pool! read more

I can't recommendation SwimLabs strong enough to triathletes. In anticipation of my first Half Ironman, I needed to learn how to swim. I was in great shape as a biker and runner, and was safe in the water ...but didn't have the breathing and form efficiency to do it for 1.2 miles. The SwimLabs model is brilliant with video capture, realtime coaching, and posting the video with annotations, coaching and clips from pros has been an invaluable tool in my scaling towards the Half Ironman. My coach Blaise may be young, but she is amazingly insightful and motivational. The price isn't cheap for the competitive lessons, but the value greatly overshadows the cost. read more

I formerly have given SwimLabs a 5 star review - I am changing that now to a 1. The facility is nice, the class sizes are excellent and the teachers are decent. My kids have enjoyed learning to swim here. However, recent policy and business changes have lost me as a customer. Do NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SWIMLABS. 1) They no longer offer make up lessons - which means unsafe and unsanitary conditions, as parents will let their kids go to lessons even if they are not feeling well because the cost per lesson is so high. (What business charging on a per-lesson basis that centers on kids doesn't do make ups? Sure, private lessons are one thing, but group lessons? And changing policy in the middle of a session? Totally irresponsible) 2) They lack integrity - you can follow their rules regarding formal withdrawal from classes - even pay for an extra month you don't want in order to be in compliance (which we did through the month of January) - and they will still charge your credit card in the mistaken assumption that you want to continue rather than communicating. NEVER GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED. 3) Their total lack of customer service is astounding. The manager is beyond incompetent. The owners have built a solid business and it's being ruined by their terrible office staff. You cannot leave a voicemail - it goes to an answering service that has no knowledge or real communication with SwimLabs. So if you have a problem or question, it's done through email that may or may not be ignored. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY. Again, you cannot call this company and speak to a knowledgable employee. It's inefficient and ridiculous. 4) For being the most expensive game in town, you do NOT get what you pay for. They even used my kid and my former positive review in their advertising. I have never been so angry or betrayed by a business. DO NOT GO HERE. read more

We used swim labs for a very long time. Over a year ago it was great and we recommended it to others. Overtime everything starting going downhill. Pricing is outrageous. Group classes are 4:1 and often there is another class in the same small pool as you. So the kids are distracted with a total of 10 bodies in the water. Scheduling became a nightmare. You will never get ahold of someone on the phone. And in person half of them seem so annoyed to have to stop what they are doing to schedule more lessons for you. We did semiprivate lessons with my son and daughter for a while. For how much we were paying you would think we would get better customer service. At least 1-2 of our 4 lessons a month got cancelled by swim labs. They didn't even bother to call...they would email 30-45minutes before the lesson to cancel. And this wasn't just a single instance...this was month after month. So we showed up not knowing they cancelled us. What a waste of an hour and a half on a Saturday. It was impossible to have a consistent teacher who knew your kids, high turn over rate. The teachers are getting younger and the prices are getting higher. I think one of the things that got to me the most was when my 2 young kids begged not to go because they thought certain instructors weren't very nice. We did have 3 amazing instructors...unfortunately they all left. I hate to give a negative review but we left unhappy. And yes I did voice my frustrations with management multiple times. read more

Very disappointed with their customer service and some of their coaches. I had to call so many times just to get a refund and then too it wasn't what I expected. When will customer service not become after thought... read more

Loved the positive reinforcement, encouragement and up beat learning style of our coach. We previously did group lessons, but truly believe we got so much more out of a private lesson and are excited do more. My daughter was nervous about getting back to swim after taking two seasons off and our coach made it fun all while making huge strides in her water confidence and swimming skills. read more

Staff is all very friendly. My kids love coming. My son was afraid to get his ears wet previously, since we started lessons all he does is talk about how much he loves swimming read more

The lessons are decent, the problem is there is a new teacher almost every week because someone quits or calls off. You never really get any feedback on how your kid is doing because of this. Also they are terrible about billing. We cancelled future classes the last week in January for my daughter and because they had just processed the February payment they denied giving us a refund. So now we are paying for a month of swim lessons that we aren't using. What other service or product doesn't let you cancel something before it even begins? Not many, just terrible customer service. read more

Do not go here. Horrible customer service. Signed up for a lesson, was charged twice. Family came down with covid day before lesson and contacted SwimQwik to cancel session. Called to reschedule and only responses were via email saying to do so on their site. When I attempted to reschedule, the site was going to charge me again. I reached out again for assistance as I was informed my purchases would soon expire. Asked for someone to call and help but all responses said schedule on the site which was attempting to charge me again. So I was charged twice and received no lessons and my purchases have since expired. Terrible company that don't seem to know how to run a business. Complaint filed with the BBB and there are similar issues reported by other consumers on the BBB site. Go here before signing up: https://www.bbb.org/us/wa/issaquah/profile/swimming-lessons/swimqwik-1296-1000083937. Stay far away! read more

I LOVE this place. My son is 4 and has taken swim classes during the summer since he was just over 6 months old. We were at Bellevue Aquatic for most of the last 2.5 yrs and he didn't advance much at all. His first class here, he was blowing bubbles, by his third class he was putting his head under water willingly and by his 5th class he was blowing bubbles and putting his head under water together. That's amazing for a kid who has refused this for years. He has also been practicing swim strokes. The instructors have been very friendly and patient with him and his fears (he ended up underwater for a few seconds with no instructors right next to him at Bellevue Aquatic this summer). I also appreciate that if I don't get the chance to talk to the instructor after the class, I get an email update on how he did. The class size is fairly small - upto 4 kids and there have been times where there were just 2 kids. And I like that the pools are small shallow pools so you don't have multiple large groups sharing the space. There are also above water and underwater video cameras that allow you to watch what's going on from the comfort of their lobby on their TV screens rather than sitting in the warm humid pool area. read more

I'm a triathlete looking to increase efficiency in my swim stroke. After a 30 minute session I saw a significant improvement in my 100yd pace. read more

I used to be terrified of water since I couldn't swim and I was not comfortable in pools deeper than 4 ft.. I decided to enroll here so I would be able to go snorkeling on my next trip to Hawaii. After only 3 lessons, I was able to swim against the current. My swim instructor did a great job at making me feel safe in the pool. I highly recommend this place. read more

I signed my son up for competitive private lessons and am very happy with the experience. The instructor was knowledgeable about what corrections were needed and was able to articulate adjustments so that my son could understand. My only lesson learned is that I wish I took notes during the lesson since there was so much info. The cameras were a huge plus, they both could see what he was doing underwater and that made the advise more meaningful. Watching the videos at home helps reminds him of the things to think about before his regular club practice. Great place and I am looking forward to going back. read more

It was an awful experience. Be careful on this provider! They have traps in their policy. When we purchased the private lesson service, no one told us the service would be auto-renewed. Even after the service was renewed, no one contacted us and reminder us to use it. In their words, as long as we purchase the service, we agree to the policy (they did not show me the policy when we purchased it). Providing good service is not their business. Their business is just to charge you. read more

My 2 daughters started going to swim labs over a month ago and I am very happy with their progress..I love the small group class and the focus and attention they get from their instructors.. read more

I am so disappointed by this business. My family has been members for years. While we took lessons, there were things to complain about, but we were flexible despite last minute cancellations, frequent changes in instructors, and sometimes dirty facilities. When SwimLabs closed in March, they continued to charge us monthly lessons until I finally inquired how we were all supposed to make up so many lessons with them being closed. Then in June they sent emails telling everyone they could convert their monthly group lessons to a small number of private lessons or wait until group lessons were available. Then within a few days they sent another notice saying the private lesson option would expire within 30 days. There was no mention that group lesson credits would expire. They hold the line that there are no refunds, I was told my credits would expire, and I should have contacted them earlier. Their terms provide 1 year of credit, but they ignore that and have changed the terms unilaterally. At the end of the day, they have my money and won't refund me or give me credit for group lessons. All our years of using this business mean nothing and they have no flexibility. There are many families that we started with and all have left this place disappointed. I can't ever recommend this business to anyone given how they have treated me and many others. I'm sure they will respond saying how they did everything right and I'm wrong. Obviously we disagree. But look at all the negative reviews they have received and most complaints are about payment disputes. I may continue my attempts to get credit or refunds, but this situation has caused me a lot of grief and stress during a time that is already difficult for all. read more

Service is great, and the classes are awesome, but seriously, work on the scheduling issue, because I don't want to pay for phone calls and sitting on the couch while they tell me I can't reschedule. read more

When we first started lessons last spring, it was great. Yes, instructors do change often and they do seem to have a high turnover rate which at first wasn't a problem for us, but if your child does like consistency this may not be the right fit. Within the past few months however, the quality of the instructors has really gone downhill. Most are teenagers/college students which isn't necessarily a problem but here the quality just isn't there. My daughter was blatantly struggling with her freestyle and the instructor just ignored it and didn't bother to correct her. It got to the point where she just wasn't progressing and even at times regressing. I considered private lessons, but at $70 for a half hr with mediocre teachers no way. read more