Bintang Badminton Academy

Never see a guy so rude in Bay area. The guy in front desk is rolling eye on me when I forget my password. He talks like someone force him to do the job, and he is the god of all the customers. At first I though I did something wrong, after reading the reviews, I know others have the same experience. I will never come to this place again.

Stay away from this place. Extremely rude guy behind the desk. Yells and screams at people for no apparent reason. Bad restrooms. They have a lot of kids who come in for training classes and end up taking up a majority of courts. Game play is only 30 mins per booking. Again, the front deck guy destroys the whole experience. Got to know that several people quit the club due to his attitude.

I’ve no idea about the other front desks, the guy on duty of Saturday afternoon is extremely rude, totally ruining my experience there. Could the manager please have a right person for the front desk?

I love the sport, so it wasn’t difficult to get myself registered as a member paying 50 odd dollars per month (and a one time $ 100 initiation fee) to get unlimited access. Most players are helpful and accommodative. They teach and help with the game and techniques.
The courts are pretty well maintained. My expectations are low and they exceed it. Waiting is a big problem as there are a lot of loyal members. One day I had to wait for an hour for a free court. Training sessions running till 8pm makes it worse as they keep around 4 of the 11 courts booked. Out of the remaining 7, 3 are booked as challenger courts, occupied by the wizard of racquets (the experts) and hence we struggle for the remaining 4 courts.

Kind of agree with the general comments about the attitude of the front desk guy. But my motivation for this review is mainly to remind you that don’t string your racket there. Terrible skills! I have it done twice there, first time the string broke within a couple of weeks, second time the racket broke about a month. Same thing happened to my coworker, his racket broke within 5 minutes of playing with the new string.

The courts are excellent and well maintained. The quality of players are also pretty high. 4 stars for that.
However, the guy at the counter is extremely rude always, every single time. It does not look like he gives a sh*t about customers. I don’t understand how a person with such minimal people skills sits on a front desk.
1 star rating so that management takes notice of this.

Extremely rude front desk. He talks as if he is doing favor to you. The place is also messy and bathrooms are horrible.
The only good thing about the place were good players with whom we enjoyed playing.

Facilities are good but staff are rude. Would love to give 4 stars but staff behavior should be better to deserve that. Will go there regular, hoping it will get better. Please carry some dollar bills if planning to buy anything there. Minimum transaction limit is $ 10 for card service.

This is the first Bintang I have been to and I was really looking forward to it. But the entire mood was spoilt on entering the place primarily owing to the staff’s response.
The woman was at the end of her shift and we mentioned that we needed to have a day pass and needed racquets, she was in quite a hurry to leave and redirected to the next person. His first response after signing in, when we requested for the same racquets we asked the previous lady (who specifically mentioned that the next person will take care of us) was that he was not yet organized and rudely mentioned that that was her and this was him. Their lack of coordination/​communication is not the customer’s fault.
The second response on asking him what the difference of the racquets was that «one is garbage and the other is less garbage». All the good work in maintaining a good court and accessories by Bintang, is being undone by very poor customer service.

This is the first Bintang I have been to. I’m very impressed by the bouncy suspension flooring not to mention the owners who used to be there were very knowledgeable. I used to come here until I discovered Campbell location which was a lot closer to my parent’s place. I still like the bouncy flooring here more than Campbell’s.
Badminton clubs were a scarce thing back then and you had to wait a long time to play. We have a wide selection of clubs now thanks to a handful of owners and strong demand for the sport. For beginners and recreationers who whine about the price, go play in a park or high school gym night, those are free with steel racquets. For people who really know and play badminton, this is not a cheap sport, the graphite racquets with fancy nano-​tech paint are around $ 180−200+, the natural rubber shoes are $ 90−120+, the goose feather shuttles (good ones) are $ 20+ that’s before you even enter the gym. For those of us that cherish a good flooring facility where we can get a hard game on we wait our turn and love this gym. For those that demand customer service, neatly cleaned floors and restrooms, low pricing, I’d ask them to visit a hotel or restaurant… err wait… those places cost money too… maybe McDonalds?

Will never ever go to this place! Why I have to play with other people if we only have two people?! So crowded place, front desk is rude. Yeah, you guys make the policy, you don’t do refund even when I didn’t play a min here!

Good place, the gym really needs some cleaning up (cockroaches.) and a water fountain. But otherwise, really good teachers etc.

I like badminton, but I haven’t play it since high school and I was excited to play again. My friends suggested to go to Bintang. Played a couple hours of badminton with my friends last week’s evening. There are a few things I want to share.
My Experience:
We arrived at the north sunnyvale area, where the commercial buildings are located near Java. First of all, the parking lot is really dark. We managed to find a parking space not too far the entrance. 2 of our friends already arrived, signed in, and paid to expedite the check in process. However, they want to wait for us before we entered as a group. The remaining 4 of us lined up and check in. First impression of the staff, extremely rude and incompetent. How difficult can it be to ask everyone of us to sign in and pay for the entry fee? Not only he didn’t do that. he even freaked out and yelled at all of us on how unsorted he is at the moment and can’t serve us. So unproficient. Of course we didn’t let that put us down. We listened to him, signed in individually, pay the fee. When i was paying the fee, I asked how the system works. I asked because obviously that place is overcrowded and it doesn’t seems to have a system. He quickly tensed up and told me to stop, he had to sort things out. My godness, I questioned again, how difficult it is to accept payment??? The lady next to him obviously sensed how unprofessional he is and quickly explained to us how it work.
You enter a user name and they give you a simple password. You would enter the user name and password at a computer near the bench with your friends to «line up» for courts. This system is ridiculously stupid. However I have to play by the rules.
Second impression, why is this place so crowded? They admitted at least twice the available spaces/​courts. The courts are in a sealed, warehouse-​like venue which the only opened ventilation I see is the front door. The front check in is not over yet, remember I mentioned 2 friends were here early and checked in already? The front check in staff forgot they signed in and paid already. Come on, they even wrote their name on the signed in sheet. The unprofessional staff continue to deny their entry and make them repay. They even got their user name and password already! In the end they checked the record and indeed they paid already. Not only they didn’t apologize, they insisted my friends were in the wrong and ask them to not do this again. What do you guys think? This place is just systematically ridiculous.
After like 15 minutes at the check-​in counter, we finally arrived at the computer were you wait for a court to open up. We quickly did some warm up and get ready to play. The courts basically has no spacing between them so it’s difficult to maneuver to your court without disturbing other people. Finally it is our turn, lets review how the court is.
1) the hardwood floor are uneven, not a super big deal
2) the hardwood floor are soft… very scary, it felt like I can fall into a sinkhole any minute
3) the ceiling is low, numerous shuttlecock were stuck up there.
I felt like all I’ve done so far is complain, which wasn’t my only intent. I must say this court is pretty well equipped with badminton accessories, the drinks are too expensive. There is a bathroom for a quick shower and changing.
Their sign shows they close at 11. At 11, that rude staff will start pushing a push broom around the court and its the sign you have to start packing!

Convenient location. Small warehouse. Make sure you’re aware of when they close if you have a multi visit pass or are doing drop in. This weekend my friend handed them $ 9 cash, signed up on the sign in sheet, and was informed that they will be closing at 9pm, an hour from closing. We decided to come back another time but they were unsure the $ 9 payment could be refunded. He ended up texting his boss and waiting for a reply before we got the refund. The same would probably happen at other bintang locations. It can get pretty crowded but courts will clear up towards the end of the night.

I am a paid member (the initiation fee of a non-​refundable 100 $ is a rip off), I’ve been playing in these courts for almost 3 years now and it has gone from ok to bad to worse. Their prices have jumped from 8 $ to 9 $ for drop ins, 50 $ to 55 $ for memberships, 80 $ to 100 $ for initiation fee.
1) The reservation system for courts is pathetic. Luckily, people who play here are very reasonable and somehow things work out.
2) The courts have bumps and they have not been fixed. It’s definitely not safe. Plus, they don’t wipe clean the courts regularly. Therefore you have a lot of chances of getting injured (you’ll slip).
3) There is no fountain water if you forget to take your water bottle with you. This is ridiculous. They can easily fix this but they won’t.
4) The front desk people are weird. They are sometimes rude and mostly disinterested about the sport in general.
5) The ventilation is so bad. If you are playing for long hours, you’ll feel it.
6) The only reason this gym is surviving is because of the enthusiastic players who don’t seem to care much about points (1) — (5). I don’t think the owners are interested in making it an awesome place for playing badminton. Perhaps some competition for them in the area would make them think twice. If there is a better place in Sunnyvale, I’d not think twice to cancel my bintang membership.

I came on a Saturday night around 9 pm with my friend to play some badminton. The guy working behind the counter was really friendly! Thank you if you’re reading this!
However, 9 dollars to play badminton? It is a green gym. Granted there is special padding on the floor for better impact on knees/​legs. but I felt like 9 dollars is a bit much. The gym also seems a bit run down/​old because there are parts on the floor that are not flat… is that even safe? I’m sure it’s not a big deal but it just makes the gym look old. Also, it is pretty stuffy in there. I understand you can’t have AC/​fans or anything because it’ll affect the birdies path. but still. soo stuffy. I was so sweaty hahaha. I guess that’s a good thing though: P
Since I went on a Saturday night, it was very spacious! Barely anyone there. I felt very comfortable (only played on my high school team, and only play every now and then after that) here, and did not feel like anyone was judging or looking onto our court and judging. There was a mom and child playing on another court, so it was definitely a very good and relaxed vibe there.
I am giving three stars because of the $ 9 entrance fee. A bit steep in my opinion, but definitely a great place to come with some friends once in awhile!
Oh yeah. and I always wondered. why green?!

Very hot & kinda run down. Their reservation system doesn’t move people from the queue into the «play» mode for some reason, causing a newbie like me to get kicked off my first court. Walls are all green, presumably, to make the birdie easier to see, but the lights do a good job of distracting your view of the birdie.
Did I mention it was hot in there? I expect a gym to be hot, but there’s a corner court with no circulation at all.

Best place to play some badminton! The floors are real easy on the knees and all the other fellow badminton players are nice to play with.
One thing I must say, avoid this place at all times when it rains!

This review is just for the open gym at nights. I’ve been here quite a few times.
The place gets crowded at night up until around 9−10pm. It’s very hard to find open courts, especially when half of the courts are challenge courts. It’s great if you’re one of those godly players, but it’s not so good when you’re just out with friends.
In terms of facilities, this place is falling apart. There are some workout requirements in the corner of the room, but they’re in disrepair. The bathrooms are in horrible shape, and paper towels are often out of stock. Part of the problem is that there’s only 1 person manning the place many nights.

It looks like a warehouse from the outside but inside it houses 11 badminton courts. It is always packed in the evenings despite being located in suburban Sunnyvale!
It costs $ 9 per person (it used to be $ 8) and you get unlimited play time. You can bring your own rackets and shuttlecocks or you can buy them from the counter (I am not sure about rentals though). Upon signing in you will be assigned a password (named after animals, e.g. tiger, horse, dragon, etc) which you can use to reserve a court. You can reserve one court at a time for 30 minutes per slot. It is best to go with a group of friends so you can reserve the courts for longer periods at a stretch.
Even if you go alone, fret not! The players at Bintang are super friendly and you can easily find someone else to play with or join in a doubles game if they are short of a player. All you got to do is ask, «Do you want to play badminton?» sung to the tune of Frozen’s «Do you want to build a snowman?» (if you want to increase your chances of success). I once played a match with a stranger whom I later found out was a high school badminton coach! He totally pwned me! I was utterly exhausted after our game despite being half his age!!!