Can you haggle on gym memberships?

Person_one

I really want to join my local Virgin Active, its gorgeously luxurious, loads of classes, pool, jacuzzi etc. and will be right on my doorstep when I move.

Its pricey though! Is there any wriggle room to get the prices down at gyms? I'e only ever used local council ones before!

welshdent

No harm in asking

fixx

No harm in asking - also ask about corporate discounts if you work (at all!) - most are quite happy to give them if you ask for even small companies. And your company doesn't even have to do anything, you just get a reduced rate.

Best option is to ask for a one day trial - they'llusually have a sales person meet you start and finish. At the end, if they ask if you are interested, say "Well, I do like the facilities, but it feels very expensive overall for what you're getting, so I might look elsewhere...(can cite unsuitable opening hours, lack of classes, certian types of machines too busy etc)" They'll usually then offer you something - Fitness First offered me insane discounts recently!

(I still went elsewhere though as the opening hours really were no good for me, and there were never any free cross trainers, so even very cheap I wouldn't have got much from it, I wasn't making it up!...)

[Deleted User]

My little bro joined a cheaper virgin gym, but had a contract that let him go to any other virgin gym.. i think it worked out half the price

Person_one

ringo_24601 wrote: »

My little bro joined a cheaper virgin gym, but had a contract that let him go to any other virgin gym.. i think it worked out half the price

Ooh interesting. The one near me is right in the city centre, maybe one on the outskirts would be cheaper...

Thanks guys, I'll try the one day trial as well.

jenniewb

I have tried many times to haggle memberships as I tend to change gyms every year (I get bored easily).

I have found that Fitness First tend to haggle (tried at 3 gyms over 5 years) but Virgin wouldn't at all (tried at two gyms), however when mentioning a discount I had seen they were more then happy to accept with no problems at all. LA Fitness (tried once) wouldn't lower the price but threw in other freebies such as a free month/two months and goodiebag (towel, bag, padlock, earphones-still in box as they look v.cheap!) If you also sign up to their mailing list they seem to email out offers too but watch for the contract legnth, last time I checked it was 18 months! I tried to query the price at Gymbox but not very hard, I was not about to sign up as I have time left on my current contract but they did seem pretty firm. They did however offer to postpone the current price for me until I wanted to sign up in January.
My local council gym wouldn't barter and their price when compared to other gyms was actually quite high for what it offered. Last year, my local gym is £40 a month, LA Fitness was £30 a month, Virgin worked out to £58 a month (when taken into account the offers). Gymbox was £68, said the sign up fees could be overlooked (guess this depends on who you speak to!) and Nuffields quoted me at £70 and would ignore the sign up fees in the multiple emails I have from them.

Also weigh up what your getting,

In some gyms you get a free towel, I like to use the shower after the gym so its essential it is clean (caught many skin conditions after a freebie trial at well known gym! I also like to use the sauna from time to time. One gym I visited had a mixed sauna!! I went in with my towel...and straight back out again. !!!!!!?!

Locker spaces; some will offer this space for an additional fee. But this varies, LA Fitness offered a small space starting at £50 a month (and this was last year- price may be higher) where as Virgin offered the same for £10 a month.

I would also strongly advise you test out the gym with a free pass if at all possible. Don't go on x day because everyone else has said 'this is when its at its busiest', go when you would normally go, if that so happens to be 12pm on a wednesday when the gym is empty, then so be it, this will give you a better example of what to expect.

Look for out of use machines, taps and if the water works/tastes normal (yes really!) any queues and how busy it gets- can you tolerate it and if you can, any classes.

I do think though alot of what makes a gym is the type of people in the building. If staff and other gym users have a bad or lazy attitude (or prefer grunting on machines then doing any real work or don't use the machines properly-eg running/walking on the treadmill whist holding onto the bar!...) this can really affect the way you see things and how you work out- it can pull your motivation down if generally don't put in the effort, it can result in making a hard workout feel even harder. I have noticed this in quite a few gyms- some just have most people sweating buckets and putting in 110%, others will have most people going slow, reading magazines whilst on the elliptical machine and others on their phones whilst (not) working out on machines. It could just be me but I tend to think the hard work and friendly atmosphere can be contagious.

Tharweb

I had a day trial at Virgin last week. As you say it's very luxurious, compared to my usual gym anyway, but pricey.

I was offered no joining fee if I joined before the end of Septmber...I would always try and join at the end of the month when they need to get their targets up...and they knocked £3 off the monthly price. I was told if I knew anyone that went to the gym already they would "connect" me with them (not sure if that was the exact term they used though) and that would make it even cheaper.