David Lloyd gym price increase AIBU?

[NotMariah]

I’ll start with the disclaimer that I KNOW David Lloyd is very expensive, and this is aimed at other DL current member pls.

We have been members for a long time partly because of local provision otherwise is poor, and partly because one of our family has health needs which are better met by their facilities. This is relevent.

The AIBU is the fee increase for next year is a whacking +14.5%, on top on annual increases if never less than 10% for lst many many years. This is wildly more than inflation now, it’s ridiculous and I feel stuck. They know they have the monopoly. I feel stuck because it’s a chance to make a real difference to a family members health. And as a wider family it’s beneficial as we do go together - but - the rates will just be too much to justify, the principle / tipping point. We don’t go every day which is frankly what would be needed to make it count.

can I ask how much other pay for full access (blaze etc) family membership for 2 ad + 2 kids (one teen one not)

fwiw this is not one of their newest clubs, and has blaze & courts but nothing else new or different.

has anyone negotiated successfully ? I have sent them a reply but I don’t hold my breath.

thanks

Ours went up ridiculously so it would have been over £200 just for me, and that was with the 'grandfathered in' spa price.

Price rise was above what was written in the contract so I cancelled with no fuss. I had been there for 6 years but they weren't interested in offering a deal so I could stay. Still cross about it tbh.

I have cancelled ours. We pay almost £300 for Platinum to cover two kids and adults. The classes I want to attend are almost always fully booked and as a result it’s not worth the extortionate amount we pay.

DL are a law to themselves. Everyone, even within one club pay a different amount for the same access.

It is very possible that if you've been a member for a long time, you were on a much cheaper legacy price than new member. So what they do is crank up the annual increase.

Also, there use to be discretion for local managers to agree pricing. This has now stopped and it's all down to the main office team. They don't care at all about individual circumstances. You can give notice and hope they agree on a compromise. You can leave for 3 months and then try to sign up again in the new year with their offer for new customers, but there is always a risk that it might be more expensive than what you pay currently.

Also, huge difference in pricing depending on the geography.

Totally agree about all the decent classes being during the day. No use to me when I work. Fri evening no classes at all. Thursday evening one pilates class, there used to be a spin class but the instructor left and they haven’t replaced the class. Same with Saturday morning spin, now also off the timetable

Please check terms and conditions because if your membership goes up above a certain amount you don’t have to give the 3 month notice - you can cancel at the end of December and save money.

This is the knock on impacts of the recent NI and minimum wage increases. It doesn't seem unreasonable.

I was paying £280 pm+ (can't remember exactly) for myself and two kids in DL Cambridge. I left over 18 months ago.

It was platinum membership (everything included).

We moved away and I had to cancel.

No DL near us now.

To this day the kids still talk lovingly about DL and secretly I miss it too.

I would work from DL when I needed a change of scene.

We ate there after classes and we were healthier - I had a better routine and I was slimmer.

The access to table tennis, rackets in the car if they wanted a hit on the kids courts, play zone, it was all great.

Still miss it!

Our local gyms are horrible. Crappy showers where you press the button for a 15 second splash, chipped tiles, no individual changing rooms (problem for one child who can't bear this) but most of all, crap teachers. I wouldn't pay 50p for the shitshow swim lessons my kids are now in.

I miss you DL!!!!

... but I agree with you OP, it is mad money!!!!

Some of the London DLs are £225+++ a month for ONE ADULT.
You can go to our local The Gym for £22.99 a month. There are more machines a less queues at The Gym. The Gym is not got the DL social scene if that's what you're into though.

Is anyone a member at the Beckenham club?

I pay £42 per month on an anytime plan with Village Gym, it's a 12 month commitment. For that I have unlimited access to both peak and off peak, gym, swim and any classes I want to participate in. Its a fantastic gym, I used to go probably 4 or five times a week, haven't been for a fortnight now but I am hoping to get back into it again soon. It started off around £34 a month - that was in about 2018 so its not gone up much.

So often the way with things like this that they're great if you're going all the time, but not worth it otherwise.

We used to pay £219 for 2 adults and 2 kids but now alone I pay £99 and have barely used it. My issue is a love the outdoor pool so sadly I feel it’s a luxury I’d like to keep. Dread what the increase is though and I now can’t access the two other DL near me as they’re super swanky new spa garden things!

Ours is extortionate but the club does get investment. To be honest we only stay as the kids have tennis & swimming lessons & the teachers are good, we are short on time and its convenient - when both are done with swim lessons we'll move to a basic tennis club.

That’s me. My price for this year is £216 per month. Just for me.

It is very pricey however, it’s a wonderful place for me and my mental health. Forget the physical side. It’s the mental health aspect that I gain that means I continue to pay for it.

I don’t use it as much as I’d like to but the spa alone is like a massive comfort hug which gets me through each week. I feel transformed some days after going in the sauna and steam rooms.

Kids used to be members but those days are long gone.

Ooooh my favourite subject.

I cancelled our family membership (members for 8 years) a few weeks ago after yet another unsatisfactory visit. DC is beyond the daycare and there are barely any spots for family swimming now between lessons and not being able to keep a lifeguard seemingly.

They spent about a year renovating the showers recently. The showers are exactly the same barely working hoses, they just retiled and replaced the stalls with ones where the doors don't lock, they don't even close. Nobody cleans the machines, they don't have sprays anymore, just wet wipes. I don't believe that the shower gel/ soap etc are Elemis, more like washing up liquid. Constantly getting emails about 3 month memberships which are probably half the price of mine and are clearly popular judging by the amount of new members coming and going. Ugh. So sick of them.

I'm going to miss the pool but not the men who walk straight from the sauna and steam room into the pool without showering first. Or the women who show up an hour before Aquafit (which they barely participate in) to chat in the lanes or eat their protein poolside.

My new gym doesn't have a pool but at a third of the price I'll pop off to the centerparcs pool once a month (like the weekend dads do at the DL pool on Saturdays).

Rant over. Buh-bye David Lloyd.

I’ve just cancelled our membership- £470 for two adults and two children. Plus extras for tennis starts and swimming lessons. That’s outer London suburbs. We do use it and I will miss it, particularly the spa (and the being able to let the DC wander around to the softplay etc without watching them too closely). However it’s just too much money plus the annoyance of niggles (daytime classes, too much demand for included kids classes, extremely poor communication, dodgy app).

If money was no object (ha) would probably continue but only during my small-children phase of life. They don’t negotiate on price these days, when I gave my three months notice it was very much ‘ok bye!’

Agree with poster above re showers. Grimy and for the best part of £500 I expect conditioner. And for them not to hoard towels like dragons

We have a basic joint membership, no blaze, tennis etc and we’re paying £180 a month. Just had the email to say it’s going up by £5 a month. I was surprised at how reasonable it seemed for once!

Our gym is definitely due a refurb as don’t think it’s been touched in the 25 years since it opened. There's no spa, broken equipment and changing rooms are grim. There’s talk of it getting refurbished, but imagine they’ll really ramp up the prices then (given what I’ve heard from members of other clubs).

Many of their staff are self employed so they won't be paying NI on their wages. They charge whatever they think they can get away with. If NI hadn't gone up they would just make more profit.

Mine has gone up only a small bit (4 per month, so 104 now for Platinum membership)

I go 4x a week, and play tennis do yoga class and swim

to me it is totally worth it. Indoor tennis courts in winter are a crazy luxury, as is an outdoor pool. I have not been able to afford holidays for years, but swimming in the outdoor pool in the middle of winter, followed by a sauna is a mini-holiday to me 😄

you will have to prise my DL membership out of my cold dead hands 😂😂😂

and There is just nowhere comparable

I cancelled ours 3 months ago and it just
came to an end - just short of £300 a month for two adults two children with swimming lessons for the kids, no racquets. Just couldn’t justify it. They did ring me about a month ago to offer me January for free but otherwise wouldn’t negotiate. That’s a largish club in the south (not London). They just upgraded the gym but there seemed to be permanent maintenance issues in the showers and changing rooms.

Mine has just gone up to £103 monthly.Have been a member 18 years.Our DL has been refurbished and has a new Spa Retreat.I am not just elderly.........I am really old.I go every day.It is the outside pool that I love,nowhere else near here has a heated pool like that.Just discovered the joy of ice plunging and there are two plunge pools in the new spa.

DL are only interested in making money,they couldn’t care less about the members,in fact they like us long time members leaving,they want new members and can charge extortionate fees.

Wow thanks all, really helpful.

its exactly as I expected everyone on different rates
I emailed them but it’s nearly £300… 3 years ago it was £225….
to everyone saying look elsewhere - that’s part of the issue - I don’t have good provision locally which is even nearly comparable on quality of kit but I can’t go daily to justify it.
I could leave immediately for a couple of reasons - what I’d really welcome is a peak rate ie included everything but max number of visits or capped at 10 a month.
I looked at just adults and then guest pass to my kids but that barely dropped it.

NI is a red herring - neariy all fitness staff are freelance,

The rest of roles are lower wage and there are a lot of younger / cheaper under 21s working too.

Surely they should display fees at point of sale?!

Ours is going up 7.5% a bit annoying as I guess it is funding the new gym refurbishment which I hate. The layout wasn't thought through properly so really impacts the enjoyment of going to the gym.