Recovery rooms for padel clubs and boutique gyms: the rota is the product

Short version: size the cabin by the match or the class, put two cold pools beside it rather than one, give the room a person who closes it, and leave out everything you will not clean. This note walks through those four decisions with the arithmetic.

Two Spanish counts give the scale: 7.1 million members of fitness clubs (EuropeActive and Deloitte, end of 2025) and about 17,000 padel courts (International Padel Federation, 2024 data). They describe an audience, not a return, and we quote no return.

Size by the match or the class

A padel match is four players for about ninety minutes; a boutique gym class might be twelve. A four-seat cabin takes one match; an eight-seat cabin takes two, or a match and the coach; a twelve-seat cabin suits a class. Two cold pools stop the cold side from queueing behind the hot. See padel and racquet clubs and gyms and studios.

The rota: three models that work

• First-come with a timer. A clock on the wall, fifteen-minute sessions, a sheet of rules. Suits a studio.
• Booked slots on the same app as the courts or classes. Suits a club with an evening peak.
• Attached to the booking. The recovery room opens for the people who played in the last hour. Suits a club that wants the room to feel earned.

Wet feet, towels and the laundry plan

Towels are the part of a recovery room that nobody budgets. A cabin used by twenty people a day produces twenty to forty of them, and the laundry needs a plan: a bin with a lid, a pick-up point and a count per member. The floor needs one as well, with a non-slip finish from the changing room to the coping, a drain under the cabin door and a shower between the pool and the gym floor.

Where the room goes on the plan

The best position is the one where the walk from the court door is shorter than the walk to the bar. That usually means the end of the clubhouse nearest the courts, or a pavilion between the courts and the car park. A room on the far side of the club, past the changing rooms, is used by the people who plan to use it and not by the ones who pass it. Draw the route players take at the end of a match, in their shoes and with a racket bag, and put the door on it.

Noise, neighbours and the court next door

A chiller hums, and a padel court is loud too. The two can share a wall as long as the machine is not next to a bedroom or an office. The cabin's glass faces the clubhouse, not the street, and its closing time is set by the rota, not by the heater.

Amps for a club that already runs floodlights

An eight-seat cabin draws a 10.5 kW three-phase heater; two chillers draw about 3.6 kW each. A club that already runs floodlights and pumps may need its supply reinforced. See villa mains or three-phase.

The arithmetic you can do yourself

A sample week sheet

The values are an example. What matters is that every row has a name against it, so that the room is closed by a person and not by a forgotten timer.

Asking members, not guessing

Before you build, put one question on the booking app or a sheet at the desk: would you use a hot cabin and a cold pool after a match, and when? A club of two hundred members can give you an answer in a week, and the answer sets the size of the cabin better than any rule of ours.

Rules on one sheet

One sheet, at eye height, at the door: how long (the operator's limit for the cabin and for the pool), rinse first, no running, steps only and no diving, ask a doctor if you are unsure, and who to tell if something looks wrong. Add the opening hours and the name of the person who closes the room. The notice does not replace supervision or your insurer's requirements; it makes the usual mistakes less likely.

Start with one pool, draw for two

A club that is not sure how busy the room will be can start with one cabin and one pool, on a plant space drawn for two. The second pool, the larger cabin or the extra chiller is then an addition and not a rebuild. We draw both stages on one sheet and mark what is built and what is provided for: capped pipes, a spare circuit and an air path wide enough for the second machine.

What to leave out

• A steam room, unless the club will hose a wet room every night: a hammam is a different product with its own waterproofing.
• A third pool: two are enough; the second is for the cold side to move.
• A large reception area: the room is for ten minutes, not an hour.
• Anything you would not clean by hand on a Sunday night.

Local detail for clubs sits on Marbella and the Costa del Sol and Madrid; the pools are on plunge pools and the cabins on glass-front saunas.