David Lloyd Members

[NerrSnerr]

Has anyone had any detailed communication from their club about the arrangements when reopening. I received the email saying they're taking fees from the 25th but wondered if anyone had heard any more from their club?

I'm in 2 minds what to do at the moment, whether to freeze, cancel or use membership.

Yes had an email saying will be fully reopening the club but with reduced member and class capacity and increased cleaning etc. Not really sure if we want to continue our membership either but it's 3 months notice which is a lot of money when we probably won't be going. They haven't given any indication they will allow people to cancel for no charge or 1 months fee which is mor acceptable. I just don't see how it's going to work with reduced capacity, what if I go and they're full when I get there? Will I be expected to qué as if I'm going in the supermarket?

That's our concern about capacity, will we be able to book a slot for swimming or will i just turn up with my small children and get turned away. Same with classes, if they're limited to 5 people per class will they have extra classes etc. I just hope they come up with a clear plan soon with info on whether we'll have to book for swimming and gym, how they'll manage classes, kids clubs etc.

@SpiltMilk100 i'm not at David Lloyd but my gym has said it will be advance bookings for the gym, pool and classes so they can control numbers. We don't have any more info than that at the moment though.

They’re taking our fees again from I think August. Right now my centre is doing outside classes etc that you can book via the app and not pay for so assume that maybe everything will need to be booked.

I emailed them yesterday about the pool and they’ve said they won’t be doing bookings and they don’t expect it to get over capacity but it is first come first served.
I didn’t ask about gym as I don’t intend to use it for a bit but Im desperate for a swim!

I emailed my club with a few questions on Sunday and haven't heard back as yet. I wish mine had opened doing outdoor stuff but hasn't.

We pay for a family membership so quite a lot so really want to know if we'll be able to use it enough to justify the huge expense.

@NerrSnerr I'm also torn and don't know what to do. We too pay a family membership and even before it was already hard to find slots, now it will be impossible.

Ours has had outdoor facilities open too but we haven't bothered going. Considering they have an app they could easily do booking for the pools and gym which would make life a lot easier for everyone. I don't want to be getting 2 kids ready to go swimming, including timing feeds for a newborn, only to turn up and be told they're full.

I think we're going to try and cancel to be honest.

My DL emailed saying that they would only be taking 7 days membership fee on the 24th of July ,full fees from beginning of August.

Funny that they're happy to take payment for the 7 days in July knowing full well loads of people won't even be going, but no word of what's happening about the 11 days in March that have been paid for but unused due to closing.

We’ve been offered a choice of refund for March - either PT vouchers, bar credit, guest passes, a donation to the club or cash refund. It came by email a few weeks ago. I assumed it was central and not just our club.

We got offered the vouchers too for March.

Some members in our DL have said they can extend freeze until 1 September?

We have emailed but not heard back yet

My concern is that we go as a family and as you mention it's a lot of money if it's not going to be used fully.

We pay about £310 I think for 2 a 4 children and want to be able to use it fully.

The kids really miss the swimming pool!

We have had outdoor classes. They’ve been great. Unfortunately, I’ve heard that our club won’t be running them after July 24th. Not sure I fancy sweating it out in a Spin studio right now with no fresh air! Ditto Blaze - I definitely won’t be going in there!

I’m really unhappy. We’ve had no communication apart from the fact they reopen on the 25th. We’ve had no outdoor classes as no space.

Indoor classes are obviously going to be severely limited capacity, probably 5 per class unless govt guidelines change. Even if they do our studios are tiny and with social distancing will maybe only fit 8 in.

If you freeze your membership you have to pay 25%. I think it will be a major struggle to get in a class. So I either pay £110 a month and can’t do any classes but could possibly use the gym (which I never do) or pay £30 a month and not allowed in.

Oh and they’ve scrapped all Les Mills classes apart from bodypump, they’ve stopped paying for the licences. All the classes are going to be run by their in house instructors,,,,,which in my experience are always consistently shit. All they ever do is circuits, legs bums and tums or a core class. And they’re always rubbish.

And of course if you cancel it’s a 3 month notice period. Though I do reckon there’s an argument that the facilities have changed so much we should be allowed to immediately cancel. But it will be a fight and I imagine they will take people to small claims court if they just stop their membership.

I have just emailed my club again as I have had no response. Someone from my local club has said they've had an email saying DL will freeze their membership free of charge but no one else has heard anything.

I love using our club and it's brilliant for the family but I think we'll have to freeze our membership.

Have a look at the fb page. Some very unhappy people. They're quiet clear 25% to freeze.

And nobody is getting answers to emails to local clubs. The person answering fb enquiries says everyone is still on furlough.

On our local DL Facebook page they replied to everyone's comments saying they were back in the office on Monday ready to reply to everyone queries and I think they've replied to a couple but not many. One person has commented saying they've agreed to freeze their membership for free for 2 months but don't know if that's a special case just for them?

I joined (just before lockdown!) because teenage DS wanted to join the gym and he needed an adult on site with him. It's halfway between his school and home so I was happy to meet him there after school & use the pool while he was in the gym, travel home together. We didn't even get one session in before lockdown. I've been told that junior memberships won't start again before September at the earliest, so he can't go at all for the foreseeable. I don't need to use the pool and I'd feel pretty mean going when DS can't. Also, being self employed means my priority is keeping my business going not taking time out to go swimming. Still feeling guilty about possibly cancelling
our memberships because I know that people's jobs are on the line.

I’ve just spoken to a friend who works at my local one and they’ve had a meeting. Members will be able to freeze membership for July and August with no charge. The club room isn’t opening when the gym opens, will serve take away coffee only but you can’t stay and drink it. Gym opening hours will be reduced a lot. Classes reduced a lot.

Jacob the thing with arguing that things have changed is they will probably argue that it's only temporary and outwith their control or something like that.

My DH used to work there and is still good friends with the sales manager so going to get him to find out what our options are.

Classes won't necessarily be limited to 5, it's based on space restrictions rather than an arbitrary number. Minimum space is 100sq ft per participant in a class where they remain stationery, this increases to 172.2 sq ft if they move around. So it severely limits the numbers that can attend.

I've also heard from a reliable source that DL are stopping most of their Les Mills classes, I think the only one they're keeping on is body pump. So if you're a fan of Combat or any of the others you might want to look into that too.