Is David Lloyd worth it?

[AmateurHour]

I’m soon to be moving house and have (stupidly) been looking into the local David Lloyd. It looks amazing but at £165 per month, seems ridiculous! It’s just for me but I’d want the spa so that’s the only package that’d work for me. Is anyone a member? Do you feel it’s worth it?

I’d be interested in a trial or something but I’m not sure they offer that, they’ve certainly not mentioned it!

When I joined last year, I asked about it and I think there was a slightly more expensive 3-month option. My DLs (2 nearby) are spotless and refurbished. The spa is amazing with a range of facilities.

Does feel like it varies by region. Mine definitely offers a 3 month membership so no harm in you asking.

With the 3 month trial, make sure you give notice on the first day. Its rolling, not fixed, with a 3 month notice period.

And check what is currently open. Mine has shut the steam room etc due to covid, so make sure what you want to use is open.

I love mine, mainly for the 2 swimming pools and the café, I wouldn't join just for the gym and classes, I'd go somewhere cheaper. It's way better than any other gym I've been to, I could easily spend the best part of a day there rather than just going in and out. £165 sounds expensive though, it might be platinum membership or whatever they call it now plus racquets, I paid £99 for mine without racquets and I can't use the sectioned off spa, just sauna and steam and jacuzzi in the main bit.

Well worth it for us. We usually pay around £360 a month for our family of 5 with access to the spa for dh and I.
Other than lockdown, we were both here 3 times a week for a mixture of exercise and spa facilities. A godsend during the holidays when it’s raining and you want to kill a couple of hours - it’s about half a mile away from our house, we can zip down and swim for a couple of hours.
If you’re serious about exercise (and by that I don’t mean if you’re a serious athlete in training, I suppose I mean if you’re diligent about going) any gym membership is worth it.
But if you’re likely to flit in and out of an exercise routine then no gym is worth it.
To be honest we are considering taking 2 of the dc off our membership as they older teens don’t go very often anymore, maybe once a month. But as I say, they will often come swimming for something to do and with our memberships we get monthly guest passes so they can bring a friend with them.
Only you know if you’re going to make the most out of the membership though, just think carefully about how much time you’ll be spending travelling to and from the gym, whether you’ll be doing it before/after/during work and how motivated you will be to go at the end of the working day.
The one we go to opens at 6am and closes at 11pm usually (pre Covid) which is perfect for me, I go before work for exercise and post work for relaxation and there’s enough time for me to fully enjoy both.

The one thing that I particularly like about going to the spa later on in the evening is that they seem to have a time limit on those sort of groupon deals or similar (I don’t know, I’ve never seen them online but someone like groupon anyway!) do spa trips and they tend to be taken up by loud groups!! I’ve been there occasionally during the daytime and left pretty quickly just because I don’t find it relaxing.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t be there, I just want to go to switch off, relax and not have to make conversation or listen to a lot of it either which is why I prefer to go later in the evening so I make the most of the late closing time!

I found that if you wanted and willing to pay for a country club style of gym it was worth it, if you want to exercise by doing classes/ gym/ swimming it’s not worth the money.

Is your local one one of the super fancy ones? Because that's a lot for a single person. We pay what I consider a fortune at around £240 for me, DH and two kids.

It is worth it if you are genuinely going to use it. DH goes to a lot of classes, I swim and use the spa and, pre covid, often sat in the cafe to work. The kids obviously come swimming and we had just got to the point where in the holidays they'd go to some of the kids sessions.

I'm not surprised to hear they treat staff badly - one thing we find is that while staff are almost universally pleasant at both the ones we've used frequently, they seem to have zero training and it's all a bit hit and miss on the quality of the service whether that's in the cafe or in sorting out a problem with the membership.

They will negotiate that rate. A lot. Desperate for members. I like it but it can be very noisy at after school times. A lot of the parents just abandon the kids to run riot while they have a coffee. If you can choose your times it’s much better. The performance parenting is entertaining though..

Oh and one more thing, not to OP as they said it wasn’t for children but to anyone else using their crèche, just be mindful of the safeguarding policies they have in place. I used it once for ds and once alone, made a formal complaint and they were kissing my arse for months trying to placate me. I wasn’t horrible, rude out shouty just pointed out a huge breach in safeguarding and said I would never again be using their crèche facilities! Spoke to the manager and everything - I have never asked to speak to a manager of anywhere before or since by the way
Just check that they know who your child is, what their name is and who they’re allowed to leave with!