EōS Fitness — Attraction in Houston

God it’s such a love hate with this location. I’ve been to 3 other locations aside from this one (one was the ONLY other lux location that is only 15 minutes away from this lux location)and it has a lot of things it does better. It has 4 honeycomb treadmills where the other lux location only has 1. The locker room here isn’t so hot when you walk in like all the other locations. It just feels normal temperature. And smells the best out of all the ones I’ve been to. They have the locks built into the lockers. The locker room is the nice one with the white lockers and lights, both lux locations and the spring location have that. The endicott location is basically a 24 hr fitness locker room so. Also the outdoor third floor yard is SO nice. Very spacious. I feel like I never have to squeeze between people to find a spot. That’s a huge selling point for me for sure. And oh my goodness the recovery area?!? They have contrast therapy, led infra red, a waterbed thing plus the massage chairs and leg compression that they have at the other lux location.

The staff are absolutely lovely. The locker rooms are well maintained. It’s clean and the equipment isn’t all old and crappy (when functioning). They have plenty of cleaning stations always stocked with spray and towels. The front desk employees are so wonderful every time I walk in and make me feel so genuinely welcome and comfortable. The staff at both lux locations honestly are wonderful. HOWEVER, My GOD are there so many things that are a pain in the ass. Parking at ANY EOS location is miserable. Literally Black Friday shopping following people to their car type parking. Today I spent about 10 minutes looking for parking. I know they’re opening more locations soon but not soon enough. And I’m hoping they put a lux location somewhere that isn’t 15 minutes from the only other lux location. But I digress. Fighting for a spot comes into the gym. I had to elliptical for a few minutes and just keep turning around to see if there was an open treadmill. I watched four other people do exactly what I did, which is approach the treadmill area, walk up to one of the empty treadmills, realize it’s not working and go to another one and realize that one isn’t working. Turns out, there are 4 treadmills broken, two of the honeycomb ones and two regular ones…. So after walking around like an idiot to every empty treadmill to find out it doesn’t work, you head to the bikes to do that until there’s a free treadmill. You get on a seated bike, and it slides up and down and does not lock into a position. Now, as an even bigger idiot, you go to the elliptical because THE BIKE SEAT SHOULDNT BE MOVING. Basically it’s an overpopulated gym with way too much broken equipment for how populated it is. While I’ve been writing this on the treadmill, 11 more people have walked up to the broken one next to me and have to walk away. Ultimately I’m super conflicted. I think if they didn’t have the balcony yard I would just stay at the other lux location. Also, neither lux locations have a pool, or hot tub, or swimsuit dryer, but the REGULAR spring location does so. I like what EOS is trying to do but there’s a fair amount of things that need work particularly at this gym cause so many broken machines is a MAJOR con for me and if you’re paying lux location pricing you’d hope there wouldn’t be 4 broken treadmills out of the roughly 18 treadmills. And to have a situation like that last any longer than a week at one of the only 2 lux locations is just not cool for what you pay. And to go through that experience less than 10 minutes after spending 10 minutes trying to park…vibes are NOT pleasant. Anyways. I hope this was thorough enough for anyone looking into this gym or gym chain. I really like to know the locker room situation before going to a gym. Locker rooms are important to me. And amenities like saunas, towels, recovery machines, etc. Anyways, three stars cause...

EOS is by far the best bang for your buck gym in the city in terms of cleanliness, service, and amenities. A lot of folks are complaining that they increased their price by $10 this year but I use active and fit so that didn't really affect me. When they increased the price they also added on more services, so I'll explain.

Clean: I've been to a lot of gyms at a lot of price points within the downtown Houston area and of the budget options, EOS by far outstrips the competition. They have a level of cleanliness you'd expect at places like Equinox or Life Time, and I think it's because they have a cleaning staff constantly circulating during the day. The showers and restrooms are always immaculate too.

Service: the front desk staff is helpful, attentive, polite, and good at remembering names and faces. They make everyone feel welcome and are good at drawing people into conversations. This is a far cry from the disinterest you get at other gyms at similar price points, or the "better than you" attitude you get at the pricy gyms.

Amenities: the massage room, which I believe is now included for users since the price increase, offers the same services you'll find at the high end gyms, or at sports recovery clinics, but without the crazy price tag. They offer cryo, waterbed massage, massage chairs, red light, and compression therapy. The only other gym at this price point that offers this is LA fitness and it's an add-on fee. 24 hour fitness doesn't offer it.

So that was the good, now for the bad: parking and corporate.

Parking: I don't hold this against the gym, but rather the developers, who have destroyed the parking situation by roping off the entire front of the parking lot for the entrance of a new restaurant, regardless of when the restaurant is open or whether anyone is dining there. The remainder of the lot (aka the back part of it) is by pay, though EOS validates it up to 3 hours. So while you're not paying for parking, you do have to remember to log into the LAZ app and reserve your spot every time you visit or the LAZ parking czar will put a toy parking ticket on your windshield. (How cute of them.) The crowding at the gym has gotten better since they opened a second gym location down the street, but on the weekends you can still be fighting for your life in the parking lot for a spot.

Corporate: their corporate office sucks. Corporate will absolutely try to rob you. They'll continue to charge you once you cancel training add ons, and reaching them by phone is impossible. They also make it very difficult for their location staff to fix anything in clients' accounts because any concerns or changes have to be submitted via a ticketing system. The good news about this location at least is that the staff here will absolutely fist-fight their corporate office on your behalf and knows how bad corporate sucks.

So yeah, there's your rundown of this place. I'm not going to comment on how busy it is and machine availability because that really depends on the time of day and month you go, but I will say they have a great compliment of machines and free weights and the times I am waiting for a machine, I'm never waiting long. And most of the gym goers here are diligent about wiping them...

I’m honestly not sure I’ll be renewing my membership. I might just have to cancel

Pros:

The gym offers a lot of great services, and the variety of equipment is decent. Cryotherapy and recovery areas are a nice touch, though they could use some improvement. However, there are several downsides that have made my experience less than ideal:

Overcrowding During Peak Hours (4 pm - 8 pm): The gym tends to get super packed during these times, and I've noticed a lot of people just sitting on machines or scrolling through their phones, not using the equipment. It creates a frustrating environment, especially when you're waiting to use something. There really needs to be staff walking around, enforcing gym etiquette, and encouraging members to be more considerate about sharing equipment.

Cleanliness Issues: A huge pet peeve is that a lot of people don’t clean the equipment after using it. It’s honestly pretty disgusting, and I feel like there should be more staff involved in cleaning or at least reminding members to wipe down machines after their workout.

Cryotherapy Area Closes Too Early: I pay extra for access to the cryotherapy service, but they close it earlier than I expected. It feels a bit like a waste of money if I can’t even use it during the hours that work for me.

Parking: The parking situation here is a mess. It’s very difficult to find a spot, especially during peak times. It adds a lot of unnecessary stress when you’re just trying to get to your workout.

All in all, I feel like this gym is getting a lot of hype right now, but some of these issues are really starting to make me question if it’s worth my membership. I hope they can address these concerns, as it has the potential to be a great place...