Bethlehem YMCA

This was our go to children's programming but since merging with rivers crossing, prices have increased substantially. Staff is generally good, except for a couple people who struggle, but the prices and the chaos surrounding billing is making this unsustainable for me.

Great and friendly people , they have a pool ,steam room , sauna , which is very good for me , no private showers 🥴 (I’m not that confident lol) , you can get lost easily if you are not familiar with this facility . Some people use the sauna to dry their sweaty clothes 🤮. I have to say that this location needs some Work . The jacuzzi seems to have been broke for a long time, it looks disgusting and many rooms have a bad snell .

I have been attending here for several years. I want to love the place- decent members, good location, helps community, etc. I enjoy the gym for the most part. The pool has declined in it's overall care and management in last few years. The water has become colder, dirtier, and the ladies shower needs work and proper cleaning. Also some of the lifeguards in evenings alook miserable, nor do they keep to the pool schedule. The pool is pretty much a free-for-all most nights after 6pm. Families and teens and youg adults infiltrate lap lanes. Lifeguards have friends come by. If there are no lap lanes due to a bunch if kids playing it it, many lifeguards tell you "you can talk to them about it if you want." I have been in there when kids are screaming for long periods on end and nothing is done. Shrill, piercing screams...not just kids playing. I wrote the director about this; she just does not answer. I know others have also complained- but nothing was done about any if it. I have since begun driving the 45 min round trip to the Easton pool, which is a completely different experience. The schedule is adhered to and the rules controlled. The lifeguards are attentive and present. Comments about the daycare are true; I have witnessed workers being crass with the children. The gym area is a bit better and people are generally nice. But since Covid I have seen an influx of people who refuse to wipe machines down, and young people having loud conversations laden with offensive words, people sitting on a machine on their phone for 20 mins or more, and people on FaceTime having loud phone conversations with the speaker on. I just put ear buds in and try to ignore. Also now they have some weird locker rule that changed several times. I saw some guy followed the rules and paid for his locker only to have the lock cut off anyway...last I heard nothing was done about that. On a Saturday I had to knock on the door at 3:28pm and the workers at the front desk ignored it. Another woman knocked too...I know they could hear it because once inside, I easily heard patrons knocking from the front desk! They said well we no longer let anyone inside once it is 30 minutes before close, and we begin rounding people up to leave at 3:50pm. I usually attend during the week and there have been times at 20 minutes to close they tell you you need to leave. Workers must want to get out of there at 1 minute after closing. They say it is not them, the corporate office makes the alarm go off no matter if everyone is out of the gym or not. Many people do not have the luxury of punching out the time clock the minute their workplace closes; give better customer service or you will lose your patrons who know better and whose memberships are basically paying for the place to keep running. If you say anything about any of these things, it gets blamed on the recent takeover by Bucks County. That is what happened when I (nicely) said something to the front desk about the new membership changes. The Y has signs all over talking about youth development and social responsibility and accountability, but patrons of the Y really do not need to follow any rules, which does not really make sense given their "doctrine." I suspect the management here is not managing from a position of strength, but one of weakness, so no one is making things better. I also wrote member services once and received no answer. I really wish things were different because I believe many of these issues could easily be improved with not much effort like the customer service aspect....I still enjoy the gym but do not attend the pool (3 mins from my house) any longer. Edit 2.3.25: Membership prices went up, but apparently we were not notified. It is not about the $5 it went up, it is about the lack of communication on principle alone. I asked the front desk about it and they said multiple members complained they were not notified, some ending their memberships. It would do Leadership well to address and apologize for this problem. It seems like they are incompetent in customer service.

Had my son’s birthday party here. The doors to the locker room were left open which are connected to the rented room. It stank like a dirty sock and there were people walking in and out constantly to get to the locker rooms instead of using the other door. The pool was clean and nice though and overall not an awful place but even the vents in the locker rooms look like they haven’t been cleaned in 20 years.

Always come in for a good workout. Staff is always helpful.