24 Hour Fitness USA

Beware of 24 Hour Fitness - they are doing a bait & switch with their new sports & fitness club contracts. They are not honoring long time members who previously purchased 24 Hour Fitness's All-Club Lifetime Memberships. I purchased an All-Club Lifetime Membership about 8 to 10 years ago. The contract said I'd have lifetime access to ALL clubs if I paid a large fee at sign-up, as well as an annual fee. I figured since it was a nationwide chain, it was a sound choice and good motivation to keep working out.

I've been splitting my gym time between the Mall 205 24-Hour Fitness and the NE Halsey facilities which are each 3-4 miles from my home. I was excited to see the new 24-Hour Fitness going up off of SE Holgate & 99E. I stopped in for a work out after they opened in late August. The only thing noticeably different, besides the new, clean gym feel with all new stuff, was that it has a few extra machines, including 3 spin cycles with interactive video, nicer tile in the locker room, and shower towels - that's it. It was missing the row of lie-down ab machines that the other two gyms have.

Today, I went to the new SE Holgate 24-Hour Fitness gym again. They stopped me this time and said I'd have to pay extra to continue going there. I asked "Why, I have a Lifetime, All-Club 24-Hour Fitness membership?" They said because it's a 'Club-Sport' which has more square footage, newer machines, some fancy locking thing and doors on the showers! That's it - that's all! The other two gym have pretty much every other major thing that it has - except shower towels. And they want me to pay MORE THAN DOUBLE MY CURRENT ANNUAL FEE to go there! It's disgusting, big-business as usual tactics. I'll bring my own flippin' shower towel & ride in the spin room for that!

From what I've experienced, 24-Hour Fitness gyms all get run-down and filthy. After these gyms are in operation, they make very little effort to clean & disinfect them or make any major improvements . The pools and hot tubs - when they aren't undergoing maintenance - are usually very murky with hair, sand & other debris is always in them. I fished out a big bloody glob one morning. People use those things as big bath tubs. Mall 205 stopped providing shampoo long ago, just overly fragrant soap, which seeps into the pool and is awful when you are swimming. Don't ever use the floor mats, I caught some sort of fungus on my knee from one. Use a towel or find a spray bottle to wipe the machines down before you use them. The only thing positive I can say is that the check-in staff at my two regular gyms have been very nice.