24 Hour Fitness — Attraction in New York

(9/6/25 EDIT) I previously gave a high rating to this location for the community of PEOPLE here, of which i still wholeheartedly agree to be true. However, I am now lowering my review as a reflection of the UNSAFE, IGNORANT, AND AWFUL business operating decisions at this location. As a paying customer, I (and I imagine many others) want answers and REAL CORRECTIONS.

Over the past few months, this location has abruptly closed due to "maintenance" - both while in operation and without notice hours before opening. Notification and communication only comes HOURS after the closure has been made. For example, I only found out the gym was closed AT 12PM when I was IN FRONT OF THE GYM by someone who was leaving as the gym announced closure due to extreme temperatures. I received a notification from 24-Hour at 6PM. They posted a sign on the door stating the closure was due to "maintenance", but I was told by members it was the extreme heat and members who had fainted or fell ill due to these conditions presented by the gym. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE and the lack or transparency (and blatant lying) is not okay.

On another occasion a few months ago, the gym was again abruptly closed due to strong chemical odor, but no initial reasoning as to where the chemicals were coming from were presented to members. Only through talking to other members did I discover they had a confirmed case of BED BUGS in the male locker rooms so an emergency treatment was performed. A formal communication was sent to SOME members but not all - I did not receive that notification. As bedbugs are a serious health and sanitary issue AND EASILY SPREAD in a gym environment, again this is unacceptable. The lack of transparency puts everyone in the gym at risk.

These closures are more frequent than not and as a paying customer who has been coming for years, I want answers. How are members going to be refunded all of the time they are not able to use the facilities - both from the lack of safe operational conditions resulting in closure and allowing conditions that deter paying customers to show up? I will be bringing this to the corporate email and truly wish to see change in how this place is run. LISTEN TO YOUR MEMBERS, make decisions that put them in their best interests, and run the place like you want to stay in business. Especially with blatant ignoring of extreme heat, it's only a matter of time until legal ramifications reach your office.

Great community in the morning and overall has everything you need to get a good workout in. Anita at the front desk is...

...Let me see where I can start on this.

This place is freaking annoying on many levels that the manager of this place should really look closely with a microscope.

Every personal trainer are pathetic that their clients are of course females than within 2 to 3 months they are in a relationship. What the heck is this? This is not a speed dating gym. How the hell they are making money? Guess what? I am more fit than them as well.

There are a couple of personal trainer that "LOVE TO SHOW OFF" and don't be surprised to see this. They will drop their weights and yell like a dumbbell drop on their foot. Especially one guy who I think is Arab who is mentally challenged because every dumbbell, weight, even his drink throws it to the ground so he can grab attention "pathetically".

There are some people who annoy me over here. I will post pics next time. I will name a few. A guy reading a newspaper between sets...WTF?!?!? I already finished my fourth set after he finished an article. I wanted to do my bench pressing on a bench then you have somebody talking there talking like it is freaking Starbucks which they are located across the gym. The cardio machine are under maintenance like the treadmill...I can outrun most of these machines. The reason I said this because they break down when hit around 9.0mph on them. Lucky that I have good reflex so I won't kill myself on these broken machines like their trainers.

I remember when I first joined at this location which was called "Ballys Total Fitness". There was this one guy who was huge and won a lot of awards from many competitions which inspired me. I wanted to be like him and did that. Now there are personal trainers that have their clients and still are at phase one for almost a year and counting. I heard that they charge an arm and leg plus try to attract their clients with their shakes for free which are disgusting by the way.

The most funniest thing that I kept getting this gym that people over there questioned me if I was a personal trainer. I felt surprised but had to break the news to them that I'm not.

Alright I'm going to stop because I can go on and create a book on this review to this place. If you agree with me then don't be ashamed because it is a shame that you pay on this place and get mediocre service.

There is one thing that they are really good at....kicking you out at the right time of closing.

Good luck if you just joined...

Literally the worst gym I ever been to. Used to be Ballys. They took over and put in new cardio equipment, refaced the locker room and added a training area that regular members can't use. If you don't plan on lifting weights and just want to do cardio or classes, then you might like the gym. If you want to strength train, the rest of this review is for you. The free weights area is a disgrace. Dumbells/plates are all over the gym. There's only 2 flat benches and one incline. Guys are always using the bars from there to do deadlifts. There's no room for it but you see them lined up taking all of the floor space which is already small. There's one squat rack, one cage and one smith machine. Hard to actually squat. Someone is always in the areas doing everything but squats. The free weights area is the smallest in the whole gym. So much equipment is thrown on top of each other. It's an embarrassment. They do have a larger area for pulley machines but they have too many either redundant, useless or obsolete machines. Just about everyone that goes there to lift is a douche. It looks like a badly run mom and pop gym not a chain gym. I'm still a member because I'm paying $20 and it's my back up gym if I don't have time to go to my regular gym. It's basically the only gym in a 2 mile radius. 24 hour fitness should be ashamed of themselves for not investing more to fix this horrible Ballys location. If they closed the gym to reorganized the equipment and get rid of the useless machines they could revitalize the space. They also need to enforce the reracking policy. Even the personal trainers that workout in the free weights area don't put stuff back... it's not even open 24 hours....more like 17 hour fitness, 13 on...