Bannatyne Health Club and Spa

Having had spa days twice here (bear in mind the price of the spa day reflects what you actually get! A spa day in a proper spa is hundreds of pounds) I decided I wanted to join their gym.
The spa days are fine, nice massage, pool facilities are OK,the spa itself lovely.
The gym is big and plenty of equipment to use depending on what time of day you go you may have to wait to use a specific piece of equipment, like most gyms!
The cleaners are always cleaning and keep areas nice.
Be nice if members would re-rack their weights after use! Unloading 200kgs off leg press etc etc etc and so on becomes really frustrating. Tidy up after yourself!
Staff are always lovely!

The staff here are absolutely amazing, super friendly and ever helpful! The facilities are very well maintained and the general environment is always very clean. It is busiest on weekday evenings, however; with the amount of equipment provided there is always something available for you to work out on while you wait for any machine you were hoping to use. Weekends are a joy! The smart path program they provide is excellent, Luke my trainer has been brilliant in crafting a program that suits my goals and cadence perfectly. Highly recommended for both seasoned professionals and those looking to start from scratch. The people who work out here are also super respectful, welcoming and encouraging too, which for an egg like me has been highly welcome! Thanks everyone for helping to make the experience joyful. I look forward to every session! 🥰

Shared a birthday spa treat. It was okay, should have been 45 mins but I only got 35. Head massage wasn't very good but facial and back massage great.

This is not the place to go if you want the full, relaxing, luxurious spa experience. There's no beautifully scented rooms, cucumber water and plush robes here. You get a plastic cup of water and everywhere smells a bit chlorinated.

Additionally, you share all the spaces (except treatment rooms) with the regular gym clients so the changing rooms and showers are a bit ick (drains clogged with inch of hair, snot on inside of shower door, no loo roll) and there are sweaty gym patrons in the steam room, sauna, jacuzzi. It's all just a bit tired and shabby round the edges. Felt like a community centre not a spa.

The café service is slow and the staff seem tired. The food was mediocre. Although the fruit smoothies were delicious.

We weren't very impressed that we had to pay extra for the use of a thin, slightly dog-eared towel, slippers and robe. Other spa days we've been on give you these as standard. Even my very basic gym gives out free towels! Plus, only being given one towel means you have to use the same towel you sit and sweat on in the sauna after your shower. Yuk.

Having said that, the back, scalp and foot massages my friend and I had were good and we felt very relaxed afterwards.

I think maybe just go for the treatments and then go home! If you want to feel truly pampered and decadent, go elsewhere.

Massage experience

My partner and I went here for a couple’s massage recently and it was the most awful experience.

First of all, our booking was cancelled twice last minute due to staff shortages, after we had taken time off work twice! And each time we had to postpone by more than a month to find a suitable time. When we finally went in, the staff at the reception and cafe acted like they were doing a favour talking to us. Poor customer service from the start. They ask you to fill in a pre-appointment questionnaire and take lots of personal details but they don’t refer to this and ask all the same questions again during the treatment.
When we went in, we were asked to wait in the relaxation room, which frankly smelled of BO. There was no water to drink and the toilet in the spa area had no hand soap or toilet roll. The therapists came and called us in 5 mins late and asked us to lay down. Then they asked all the questions again and went out to chat and came back another 5 mins late. Already 10 mins into our treatment time when we arrived 30 mins early so this won’t happen.
We had two young ladies who came in for our massages. Both my partner and I had the worst massages we’ve ever had. Not sure if we can even call them a massage. The lady who massaged me had long nails and was literally scratching my back! I mean, you can’t be a masseuse if you want to have long nails! We both asked for hard pressure but all we got was them running their fingers over our skin! We were both constantly thinking about how bad it was that we couldn’t relax at all. I would have rather had Ross with his wooden spoons massaging me lol
Our treatment was also finished 15 mins before the hour saying that we have some more bed time before we get dressed. So in total, we only got a 35 min massage when we booked 1 hour.
I’ve had a massage at Bannatynes Leicester and it was amazing, which is why we booked here, hoping that all staff would have the same training, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Safe to say that we will never return and wouldn’t recommend anyone going there.

I've been going to Bannatynes for years and it is the best value for all the gyms in Norwich, which include a pool, sauna, steam and jacuzzi. The only downside is the maintenance. There always seems to be something that needs fixing. The steam room has been closed a few times lately and the temperature of the jacuzzi is not as hot as it was, sometimes it's too cold to sit in. The stairs going down to the pool need repair, and the ceiling to the pool also needs repair.

Slowly going to ruin, machines broken for weeks on end, hot tub always luke warm, the whole place poorly cleaned, Manager doesn't seem bothered about trying to keep customers, maintenance is terrible, when asked about urinals that had been blocked for a few weeks, the maintenance man (who was currently just chatting in reception) said he'd get round to it at some point, tiles on stairs to pool always falling off, instead of fixing them all properly they just slap some more adhesive on so steps are all crooked, showers are terrible, only seems to be one with decent water pressure, ceiling tiles all over look rotten, also if you want a day ticket, be prepared to spend half an hour filling in online forms every time, even if it's just to take your kids swimming! Which will cost £10 per child even if you're a member!! £3.50 if you forget your towel, as mentioned earlier no attempt to look after members and now the membership is going up again, a lot of people moving to new gyms, premium rate price for not a premium gym.

Pool & hot tub temperatures turned down considerably to save multi millionaire Duncan some money! Now you’ve a very cold pool, lukewarm hot tub, along with often freezing cold poolside showers! Apparently instructed from head office & no reduction given at all in membership fees for the privilege! There’s always something that gets broken/out of action here & often takes a while to get fixed, usually to go again later (no on-sight maintenance personnel)? For instance, steam room, changing room shower issues etc! Poor poor customer experience, punishing loyal customers over the greedy hikes in energy bills, along with poor maintenance!