Bay Club Carmel Valley

"Cant give sports club less than stars"

3 years ago

Can't give a sports club less than 5 stars really:) this one is quite nice, two pools, four tennis courts, squash and racket all courts as well as other amenities.

"Ok here the rub based"

11 months ago

Ok, here’s the rub based on my personal experiences, observations and views. Price: When I joined, for main member $300 per month plus nonrefundable $300 deposit for basic membership, around $100 for every additional adult and around $89 per child irrespective of age. No flexibility on pausing membership (I heard people on the phone saying they are taking long vacation or illness…no flexibility whatsoever). Extra if you want to use tennis courts. Extra still if you want to use golf at Fairbanks. Not worth it if you cannot go 2-3x per week religiously. Also, see facilities below for more detail. Only when I went to cancel membership I was told they were actually going to increase the membership price to $320 per month next month. Otherwise would have been a surprise bill. Another time there was an open day, brought my family to be told it was cancelled. The online registration was not clear and there is no newsletter or email to indicate events are cancelled. I guess transparency is not a thing here. To their credit, they gave family complimentary pass for the day. Facilities: Good parking space, although not terribly reassuring to see signs that if you get carjacked or robbed, not their responsibility! Restaurant ok for quick grub, breakfast nice (but make it yourself for $4). Free coffee until 11 am, but no coffee anywhere any other time! Business suite room useful a couple of times. Common business area ok, except someone loudly decides to take call yet is less happy when you counter loudly play Beyonce. C’mon people, please tell me you weren’t dragged up! Childcare very limited availability even ahead of time and cancellation fees. Outdoor pickle ball courts have cracks all over and some very territorial individuals and/or some really low class garbage behavior all obviously not happy in their lives. Guessing they were raised by wild boars. Changing rooms are nice with sauna/steam room and shaving foam provided, but I prefer not to live there. Especially as the carpets can get smelly sometimes. The small couch and TV are nice touches. There is a games room with old school arcades, pool and ping pong, but mostly kids use. Gym and classes are nothing special. Pool nothing special. Hot tub is nice, but if you really love, install at home and don’t have to share with strangers even with the chlorine! Also, not fun being forced to listen to strong political views aired very loudly (I had to wrap towel around my head so I couldn’t hear it in the end!). Tennis courts good, but if you love tennis there are better clubs with better courts. Fairbanks: no one picks up phone and therefore impossible to get bookings. Even then site is nothing special. People: This was the hardest part for me to leave. Overall, staff are very nice and helpful. The members overall seem like they are from educated and high level professional backgrounds. Consistent with this, you can see the greater diversity at this club of people from all over the world, including East and South Asia. THIS network is the club’s MAIN asset by far. I am also lucky to have access to a world class network, including the pioneers in their field on speed dial from my industry and Ivy League alumni social clubs. Having said that I believe I have exchanged details with the people who seem most interesting at this club, common ground and industries of interest. Having said that a Hispanic club member physically threatened me with violence in car park. When I complained about it, staff were dismissive. In the end above reasons and not getting enough free time to use limited facilities for extortionate price was enough in end for me to quit. Still I don’t regret, x100 better than YMCA in terms of staff and people in my opinion. I might have stayed if membership closer to $200 pcm; charge the tennis and especially golf members more, they are mostly retired anyway, the rest of us don’t need to subsidize them! Plus you don’t need all those towels everywhere etc., an example of an unnecessary cash burn without much added experiential benefit in terms of ROI.

"Im now disgruntled soon to be former"

1 year ago

I'm now a disgruntled, soon to be former member. I joined the Bay Club originally in San Francisco where I felt like I was getting good value and liked having access to multiple bay area clubs in one membership. I moved to San Diego 2.2 years ago and paid the same membership fee for access to this single club and didn't even get the option to visit other clubs in California when traveling, so that was strike 1. Strike 2 - prices have gone up almost a third in this time but no discernible improvements in some of the key features I use at the club (changing rooms and showers need a desperate overhaul but it feels like I'm just subsidizing the construction of new pickleball courts!). Strike 3 - the huge summer camps make this club almost unusable and totally unenjoyable for large parts of the day for 2 months out of the year. So while this is a nice location and the personal trainers have always been great, I'm going to leave and make do with public pools. Might still be worth joining for families but as a single member you get screwed over.

"Friendly staff good equipment the locker rooms"

8 years ago

Friendly staff. Good equipment. The locker rooms are nice with a lounge, stream room, and dry soma. The child care is fine, accept they have a large screen TV which can be a negative for parents who are trying to limit screen time. There is a nice play structure outside.