Swim Fins Swim School Walnut Grove

I had TWO daughters in lessons this summer. I understand there were Covid restrictions in place so we couldn’t watch, but I received no updates throughout the classes on their progress. Then I had one days notice to pick up their final report card which was supposed to be picked up off the ground of where they were doing swimming lessons, and if we didn’t pick it up within 24 hours it would be discarded with no access to their final reports again. I guess unfortunately for me I was out of town so I obviously could not obtain the reports and I had no clue how they were even doing. Now unfortunately for them I will not be a repeat customer and I am leaving a negative review. I am super disappointed with the lack of progress reports throughout the course as well with how they dealt with final report cards given I had no progress reports. I do not recommend this company at all!

Very poor instruction, coaches don't even enter the water to teach new swimmers. My sons been signed up for 2 seasons and has had no improvement.

Hugest waste of money. My daughter learned basically nothing. The price is absolutely ridiculous for what you actually get. They won’t even email me back or give me my daughter’s end of lesson report card. Horrible and would not recommend

We would give ‘0’ stars if possible as there is such a long list of issues families have to deal with for this business. Half of the classes are canceled and you get an email couple of hours before the session. They blame a ‘mechanical issue’ for cancelation all the times. There is no contact to call anyone except for an email address to which they respond 24-48 hrs later. For the amount these lessons cost, you expect at least a courtesy call or a contact person you can talk to. At the time of signing up, sessions are advertised to last 45 minutes. Unfortunately, instructor starts the session 5-15 minutes late. Worse, sessions end early every single time and kids are out of building 5-10 minutes before the sessions’ end. Effectively, kids are in water for half the time you sign up for. When you try to contact the administrator, they blatantly refuse to believe that. Finally, Swimfins has a no cancelation policy. If for some reason you are not able to attend, there are no refunds or makeup classes. What other business does that? Imagine Costco or Apple doing that with zero warranty and zero refunds any any sales. Even for classes canceled by Swimfins, there are no makeup sessions nor any refunds. Apparently, the amount is credited back to your account and available only if you sign up with them again. Who is going to sign up a second time after a harrowing experience the first time? Stay away, sign up for private lessons elsewhere or better, sign up with local recreation centres. They do a far better job! Update: In response to the owner’s comment below - if Swimfins is aware there is instructor shortage, what is stopping you from offering makeup classes or refunds to your customers? Or your only focus is to enroll as many kids as possible and forget about after-care service? Do you think Apples and Costcos wait until they became multi-million dollar corporations before getting serious about customer service? If you are not able to manage your service offering at a much smaller level, what can we hope for the future? As for your comment about time spent in water, a clarification at the time of registration will help that kids will only spend half the time in water and not the full time they are registering for. These are young kids. They learn by practising their skill, not by standing outside listening to instructions as their attention span is probably only a few seconds.

We had a good experience a year ago but have recently had a terrible experience. Our new instructor does not even get in the pool to help teach our 3 year old how to float on his back. The instructor doesn't provide any feedback about the progress and parents are not permitted to view the swimming pool! No cancelation policy so this is a huge scam! We are continuing to finish this lesson but never again! Stay away!!!

Review from summer of 2021: Non-existent Customer Service, Too expensive and Non-impactful swimming lesson: My 6 year old started the 8w long weekly swimming lessons at one of the holiday inn express locations! We found the instructor to be not as experienced and knowledgeable, especially when they we’re explaining to us after each class. We barely got few mins of chat with them after the class as they always rush you before and after the class. My biggest pain point was that I couldn’t reach out to the customer service as easily as you expect. Only email support (no phone support) is available and that too is very very slow! I still have $500credit that’s leftover and the do not REFUND you even though my son did not even start the lessons, and I requested the cancellation weeks before the classes were supposed to start. So please don’t waste your money on th

These lessons outrageously expensive (as much as private lesson in a public pool.) There were 5 children in the class ranging from non-swimmer to level 5... this is a massive difference of skill set and NOT a small group class at all. We had no idea what was going on in the lesson as we weren't allowed to watch. My kids told me they spent much of their time in float belts and flippers and the hotel pool was very small. After 3 months my kids each passed one level (hardly learning to swim in 1/4 of the time) and my daughter is now completely panicking in standard lessons as the pool is 4x the size and she says she "can only do it with flippers like in the old lessons." She is literally the worst one in her level at public lessons. Don't even get me started on how they cancel lessons when the instructor is sick and you need to argue like crazy to get anything other than a credit. The customer service is horrible if you can actually reach someone. There is no phone number. As someone who previously taught swimming lessons for 10 years, I can tell you this was a massive waste of money. Worst. Money. I. Have. Ever. Spent.

We have loved our experience with Swim Fins and can't believe how far our children's skills have progressed. In just two weeks of lessons (last summer) our daughter went from never having had a formal swimming lesson to successfully completing Swim Level 6. Our son, who would barely put his head in the water due to fear, is now calm and confident in the water. This is due to the excellent instructors - Katie & Sydney (you both rock!), small class sizes, and the lack of distractions in the hotel pool setting. The cost is absolutely worth it and we highly recommend this program to others.