Wayside Athletic Club

Very outdated, old and moldy smelling. The tennis courts have undulations on them that are quite dangerous. They have tried to re-surface them and get rid of the ridges over the years, but every year more pop up. After Covid they have done nothing to revive the tennis program or bring back social tennis. The Friday night Yoga class was always well attended and they haven't bothered bringing that back either. I have been a member at Wayside for 13 years having a contract tennis court with friends on Wednesday nights. When this current year ends in May, I am leaving Wayside and will join a tennis club with social tennis and professionals who are interested in teaching.

Really expensive membership for what you get. The building is outdated and smells like cigarette smoke and mold. The locker rooms are a mess. Also, there's no family locker room which means the women's locker room is regularly filled with screaming, unattended children running everywhere. The hours are also terrible and inconvenient, especially considering how much the membership costs. The only reason I joined was because I needed access to a pool for rehab reasons. Access to dedicated lap swim lanes in the summer is horrible, and children running all over and jumping into lanes actually makes it dangerous. As soon as I no longer need a pool for my rehab I'm terminating my membership.

Old and outdated facilities. Weights and machines are rusted over. Treadmills are at least 15 years old. Most members are retired and very few people younger than 50. Over priced and worse than big public gyms about cancellations. Would not recommend to anyone

Little outdated, but a new renovation is in the works. Great place for learning tennis,swim and other activities. The tennis part has been taken over by a more experienced management.

They have six courts which are covered. Three of them are open to the air during the warmer months.

Coffee, vending machine, pool table, bar area, glass partitions with common seating area is present which is a relaxing spot. One can watch the on going games from the glass partitions. This is my favorite spot. Very cozy.

Indoor pool is 75 ft long (3-6 feet deep). There is a hot tub for adults.
Heated Outdoor pool is 3ft to 12 ft deep with diving area. Not sure how long. There is also a wading pool for toddlers (0-2ft). There is also a small enclosed playground.
Snack bar is present for the summer times.

4 racquet ball courts.

Yoga/zumba rooms & Fitness center are also present.

Pro shop - where you can purchase swim, tennis, racquet ball related items. Tennis re-stringing is also performed here.

They have full memberships as well as tennis only memberships.

There is a sizable senior population in this club so keep your manners and courtesy at high levels - As they don't tolerate any BS.

It is so outdated and dirty its not funny. But the people are wonderful, and you can't beat Jorge for Zumba. I'd give it 5 stars for the people, but the facility is so run down, its a pity.

They had me pay an increased membership fee with the understanding that it was non-committed. When I had to quit for health reasons, they insisted they had the right to continue charging me a monthly fee because the fine print had changed the wording to a yearly commitment. They should be ashamed.

Pool is ok but don't ask the front desk ANY questions. They do not know and just answer what they think. They need training on the club and manners when there is an issue.

Pros:
Locally owned business
Gym & pool in Marlborough
Reasonably good hours for working professionals
Weekend & weekdays swim lessons

Cons:
Dated decor
Poor parking lot situation
Very expensive for amenities & current market.

This isn't sounding like a 1 star review?

Why we left Wayside:
1st off we weren't members, we did the free trial but couldn't justify the price vs what we would recieve.
We did do the kids swim program. Every weekend for almost 3 years (5 if you include the program Wayside offered via the Cottage Children's Center, which wasn't worth the price.)
Overall the coaches are above average: Bill, Cassy, Gwen (no longer there) all great. Others not so much, but they tend to fade away.
However as previously mentioned, we aren't members so we get the "give us your money, keep your mouth shut we'll do the bare minimum we can."
No suggested improvements ever been implemented. Kids are often held in the same level a session or 2 longer than needed aka Revenue stream.
Note, please don't waste your money on the baby and me classes IF you're thinking you're going to help your child learn to swim. The parent gets trained not the child.
Last straw, if you're a member your kid can do whatever they want. Teenagers playing pass with a tennis ball in a lane and almost hitting a special needs kid with your bad throw or throwing to your friends standing on the side throwing OVER little kids in their lessons not cool.
The lifeguard not saying something, let alone stopping it, Not cool. The lifeguard Giving the ball to the girls to throw around Not Cool.
The manager Michael being made aware of what's happening, and the first question asked was "are you members?"


Forget you and your dying business. I'll go to: Goldfish, Bosse Sports, Teamworks, Atkinson's, or Memorial beach over the summer.

Wayside is not worth the aggravation.

Probably not Sudbury Swim & Tennis club due to a 6 year wait period instead of desperate 'membership drives' Wayside has weekly.

Blech for old decor and even older front desk staff with bad attitudes.

Go to Longfellow!

I would agree the place is outdated, regarding the decor, however I'm there to go work out. They have an indoor and outdoor pool and jacuzzi so I'm a happy camper.

My two big complaints - the cleaning staff should be fired. They appear to be lazy and just go through the motions. A little elbow grease would go such a long way at this club.

Complaint two is the outdoor pool in the summer. In an effort to be kid friendly they just don't set enough rules. I lost count of the number of times I would try to do laps in the lap lane and while coming up for a breath almost ending up with some kid jumping on me. Extremely annoying and dangerous. I would have to place the blame on the guards and parents who seem not to care what their kids are doing.

Again, where was the cleaning crew for the outside bathrooms? I had to speak to the front desk about this as they were in gross condition on a few occasions. I was told they were straightening out "whose responsibility" it was. Quite frankly, that shouldn't take 3 days to figure out.

To the management - hire a cleaning who staff who cares and can do a good job.

In summer - PLEASE dedicate the lap lane. No entering from the side of the lap lane, no adults milling about keeping cool at the end wall, no throwing balls from the side to someone in the pool - a pure dedicated lap lane. Even on a busy day, this is a fair request.