Is David Lloyd’s membership actually worth it?

[CarbieDoll]

Had a 2 week pass and fallen in love with ours- fantastic clubs for dc, pool, gym and the lifestyle etc.
We only live 5 mins away and I think we’d use it most if not every sat and sun plus couple of times in the week.
It will be a chunk of our money every month but I’d be willing not go on holiday next year to pay for it.
But really is it worth it or am I being fooled by it all and how much we’d get out of it as a family it’s not cheap at all.

I agonised over whether to join because it is expensive but I have to say I absolutely love it!
It’s the only place that my kids can use the gym and the outdoor pool has come into it’s own over the holidays.
Expensive but definitely worth it IF you use it!

Definitely worth it. Kids club normally ties in with the classes too.

This is making me think for when baby number two arrives....what is the situation with the crèche?! Do they take tiny ones so you can use the gym for half an hour?? If so that sounds amazing!!

My teenagers almost lived there at one stage - very often going twice a day with friends from school who were members too - so that would be 14 visits a week each! We have always stopped paying however when people stop going. (Currently not a member). We had 7 of us members at one stage plus our nanny so she could take the twins, on a nanny membership so she could go in when with the children. That was quite expensive.

october
the creche is great - you pay for the half hour slots you need and it fits around classes

xenia
Yup, I used to go on my own in the morning and again in the afternoon with kids
I looked up my usage stats and one month between the four of us we went through the gate over 100 times !

Our is about £400 each month for all of us. It’s too expensive and I need to stop it. But it’s clean and nice and I like having coffee and lunch there. Oh and we have made a lot of use out of the outdoor pool this summer.

My bil, sil and 2 nephews pay £220 a month for David Lloyd.
I pay just under £80 per month for me and 2 children at virgin. I can have 4 hrs a day free in the Creche for both kids too. Much better value in my opinion.

Depends how much you’d use it.

I’ve been a member for years and go 6 days a week. Do 12 classes a week and use the gym. Weekends are spent meeting friends for lunch after classes. Was there from 8am till 2pm today. Even one of the instructors laughed st me yesterday and said I do more classes than him!

Don’t have kids but friends who do rate the kids club, say it’s good value. Good swimming lessons.

I swim outdoors .... DLL pools are worth the difference in price

@Ta1kinpeace, they are the only gym near us that has an outdoor pool but, we could get family membership at either of the other 2 large local gyms for about £250 a month rather than the £400+ that we pay for DL. I’m not sure the benefit of an outdoor pool is worth over £150 a month extra which is why I’m thinking of switching.

We did the 14 day trial at our local DL and loved it but similarly struggling with the thought of paying so much. There are other cheaper options locally but the main benefit of DL for us is that it's only 5 minutes walk away whereas the next nearest gym with a pool would be more like half an hour. I don't know exactly what the fees are at ours but I'm guessing we'd pay about £250 a month for four of us. The next closest gym with a pool would be £180 a month, so a good bit cheaper, but I think I'd be more inclined to actually use DL because it's so much closer.

Dp and I joined earlier this year and we have full memberships I mainly use the racquet side of the membership as I play wheelchair tennis and they have storage space for my chair when I’m not using it which is a huge plus for me, I also do classes when I can.

Prices do vary between clubs, the nearest DL to where I live is double the price I pay for the one I go to which is nearer to work.

For us we both travel a fair bit so being able to use other clubs and their classes is great, as long as we spend over 50% time at our home club that isn’t a problem

alittle
for £400 you must have racquets or be in London
as my fee for effectively four adults is less than that
BUT
I'd always say
work it out as a pay as you go comparator

how much per person per swim
how much per class
how much per gym workout

some of the branches of virgin active are good too.

If you want cheap no frills, no plush atmosphere but constant opening hours and loads of locations, best bet in The Gym Group and Pure Gym.

But the pricey ones are always going to be less torture chamber-ish!!!!

Ex employee. Pretty low usage by many after initial thrill wears off which proves to be expensive.

All gyms base their business models on no shows

my DLL would be unbearable if all of the members used it regularly

I think they vary dramatically in price. We use the crèche for our youngest and clubs for our oldest. They both love the swimming and during the recent the outdoor pool was amazing. We see it as a holiday that lasts the year. It’s a lot more than just a gym to us, it’s more about a lifestyle with the kids clubs friends there etc

Not racquets nor London but there are 6 of us including 3 teenagers and an over 5. We’ve only been members for 2yrs and I know we’re on a more expensive price structure than friends who’ve been members for 5yrs. DH just told me it’s about £480 so even more than I thought. I really can’t justify it based solely on its niceness.

But I do get the whole concept of the more you use it, the cheaper it is. I use the gym 5x a week and the kids swim most weekends. Two of them also have tennis lessons there but that’s another expensive add on. I keep saying I’m going to cancel but I don’t as I know the others aren’t quite as nice but I also know that saving of £200 a month would pay for, say, Christmas so it’s a ridiculous extravagance.

so it’s a ridiculous extravagance.
Not if you use it its not

how much per person per visit is it ?
Then compare it with visits to a paying swimming baths
or with stand alone yoga classes
or stand alone tennis lessons

@CarbieDoll my rule of thumb is generally if there is no price readily available on the website, and you have to get the hard sell from an "adviser" with a bunch of different packages, AND they enforce minimum contracts that are notoriously hard to cancel, then its bargepole time.

(My gym: one fixed price on website, week free trial, rolling monthly payment, cancel/restart any time)

General wondering - do you DL members have to pay extra for all your coffees and lunches? That would seem a bit of a bloody cheek at the rates you are quoting!

But my point is that I can also do those things at the enormous chain gym 10mins the other way for £££ cheaper. So it’s not about being able to do them Vs not being able to do them (apart from the outdoor swimming). I’m effectively paying double for the niceness of DL.

Also it depends on your income - if that's fairly high then the gym doesn't feel that bad. It's all relative. There is also the point that if it's too expensive for most people to afford it may not be too crowded and you might have a relatively rich group of people attending (whether you think that is a pro or a con just depends what you are after).

Shots Coffee and lunches definitely not free!

Yes, cafe is obviously extra, as is swim lessons and tennis lessons.