1Rebel High Street Kensington — Attraction in London

UPDATE: CC have contacted me and offered a free class which is good enough for me. Judging by the other reviews this is a great gym and I've so I've revised my review score upwards from 1 to 3 as this, compounded with the fact that class pass attendees are not informed of their policy, was my main gripe. Go check them out! :)

I arrived 2 minutes late and was not let in due to their so called 'lateness policy'. I was quite taken back as up to this point I'd been having a superb experience on Class Pass and now attend some new gyms regularly and sing their praises to my friends.

As a first time customer I was incensed because the otherwise very nice girl on reception told me I had been informed of this policy via email when I made my reservation and I accepted that I may have overlooked this when I made the booking (although it turned out not to be the case - see later)

Unfortunately as this policy was set in stone I asked to speak with the gym owner who reiterated the policy and explained I had been notified and that the reason was it causes distress to other attendees and does not allow sufficient warm up (to be fair he did offer to go on standby for the next class if someone dropped out). He then more or less walked off - although I'm not going to hold him up on that as I caught him on the fly - but surely this was the moment to win over a new customer and offer a free class another day.

I left and went to my favourite local pub The Windsor to pass some time until my evening meeting and with a bit of spare time I started to re-check all of Core Collectives emails and this policy was not mentioned other than the normal arrive early instruction which all gyms include. I couldn't believe it. So, being the legal nerd I am, I went on to their own website's Terms and Conditions and this policy wasn't mentioned there either (correct at time of print).

I was absolutely livid and returned to the club and explained that there was absolutely no way I or anyone on Class Pass could have known this and the girl on reception admitted that she had got confused with the emails sent to members when they reserve a class directly.

This means a Class Pass first time visitor or anyone not booking directly has no way of knowing actual policy at the time of reservation unless they make a double booking and then cancel the direct one. If like myself you're travelling from the City it also makes attending a session a real risk if there's a transport delay unless you leave work extra early.

While can I understand certain provisions should be made for lateness, I believe not letting someone in two minutes late due to transport issues (but still charging them and taking the money for the class) is very extreme and I will not be recommending this studio to anyone. And to then inform your customers wrongly and act like it's still their fault when corrected is just wrong, period.

Having never run a gym (although I do have a small but growing activewear brand) I may also have misunderstood the policy benefits or the needs of their customer base. But being totally wrong about your own communications and then treating a first time customer like this is inexcusable.

I hope for the benefit of Core Collective's future customers they amend this policy or at the very least make new customers aware of it.

I also hope this review plays a minor role in Core Collective fine-tuning their growth as I am sure that otherwise they are probably an excellent gym. I, for one, am unlikely...

So I read all the negative reviews before I joined - and there is truth in rude front desk staff - but this is mainly at other branches - Oxford street and Angel appeared to be rudest (only around 1 person at each place) - just feel bad for them really - obviously miserable or wouldn’t act like that. Oxford street have some strange, moody girl who didn't sign me in when I did sign in - but they did give me a refund when I emailed.

There is one main reason to join - ie: you want to exercise but don't feel disciplined enough to do it on your own yet.....this is really the only reason I signed up to it. And look into all options first ie: psycle, Barry’s, etc - psycle more expensive doesn’t offer treadmill class, in some harder to get to locations, Barry’s only offers the main bootcamp thing - so less choice if you don’t feel like doing that. It worked for me because I knew it would take money out of my account. I can now run for 10 minutes which I never have been able to do before. And lost 9+kg with no change in eating. High Street Kensington probably the easiest location in my opinion - they have enough sofas to sit on and you have whole foods, etc down the road. Things I don't understand are: why reformer classes are the most popular and they keep creating more reformer rooms than anything else?! Is it the gimmick of the sliding equipment(?) because it is not true Pilates - you also won't lose weight with it either. People would be better off going to a yoga class - but who am I to judge/know what goes on in minds. Other things are instead of having to speak to a person when entering - why not just use a screen sign in instead. Some of the front desk people are obviously putting people off… and sometimes - it's not that at all - some are really, really nice - you just don't want to speak to a person at that time. I'm not a current member anymore - but it really did what I...

I used to rave about 1Rebel classes to my friends and share them on social media, and am genuinely saddened about the aggression with which I was treated today.

1Rebel instructors wear headsets to they can be heard above the music in class. This is normally fine.

However, the instructor today was shouting AND using the microphone. This made the noise level unbearable, and it hurt my ears.

First, I attempted to cover my ears when she was shouting, so I could get the instructions, but not the damage.

But about 7 mins into the class, I realised I would not be able to work out for the whole class like that.

I asked her to turn down the noise level, but she chose not to.

I then had to leave the class, because I was concerned about long term damage to my eardrums.

I went to reception and told them about the issue.

They said they could not offer me a refund, because I would have to contact Classpass, which I have done

I also told the two women at reception that "I love your studio, and want to work out there, but this noise level in that particular class is damaging." They said that:

a) nobody has ever complained, and

b) offered me to buy headphones to protect my ears.

If nobody had ever complained about the noise level, why would you sell headphones to protect people's ears?

It seems that they knowingly create an issue, so customers have to pay to solve it.

This is unethical.

Various other unpleasant conversations followed, which I won't bore you with here.

I do genuinely think that the noise level is damaging, so be careful if you go.

I am also saddened about the aggression with which they chose to treat a repeat customer and fan.

There are lots of great fitness studios in London, and I'm going to give my money to those who...