LA Fitness — Attraction in San Diego

Honestly, I was upset on how long it took for this place to open; it was false promises almost monthly that this gym was going to open back in November when I signed up for LA Fit back in Sept 2021. Unfortunately, I signed up at the LA Fit NC location, but it was far and not worth the commute, so I paid monthly without getting a chance to attend since I waited for this location to open, including for personal training which was nearly $200 more a month..

Finally, the gym opened, and I'm very happy with it. Though I'm am avid swimmer, the pool is nice and long, but it's got one lane less than the NC location, so it's a bummer having to constantly wait for a lane to open; the lanes feel more narrow too so feels weird sharing. It's obviously clean and have good kind staff from reception to cleaning, but really, the only reason this place gets a 5 star review is thanks to the Personal Trainer: Emile.

I've had a few personal trainers over the years, here and there, even multiple at single locations trying to find the one that works for me and then some. Emile was kind and genuine from the start, and I truly feel like he knows what he is doing, he talks about the muscle groups in depth, and best of all, pushes me and my limits. I definitely get a good work out from him and I feel comfortable, even though he pushes, he never belittles what i can and can't do, it's always a positive response to my exercise and it's genuine. Thank you Emile and I look forward to many more sessions with you! Look forward to growing thanks to your skill and knowledge.

As per the location: there is 2 levels of parking, and the basement level has a direct elevator to enter the club which was awesome when i took it one day, now I always park down there instead of fighting for parking on the main level.

The gym itself is single level, but widespread and spacy, with a neat feature: the grass terrain (fake grass) where people do all kinds of exercise from pull to jump rope and more. Lots of equipment between machine and and non- idk the name lol. There's also a studio room that's family large. Downside is that there's only 2 water stations in the whole gym other than by the pool, also, I don't think they have a dryer for wet clothes/ towels: bummer. There's a sauna that can get very hot, but feels like it can take a while for the heat to gather in there, you do have to spend some time inside.

The bathroom and showers are clean, as well as locker room. All spaces are large and comfortable. A lot of mirror space and sinks in the locker room, also a weight. Through the men's room, you can access the pool and hot tub area. There's also gender-neutral restrooms which is nice add-on

The pool is good temp, not hot or cold, but, as someone who doesn't like hot tubs because they are too hot, the hot tub here isn't and I can enter it fairly easily, which for many I'm sure sucks.

All in all, this place as a whole would be 4-stars if it weren't for Emile.

Thanks for reading my rant y review. Lol....

Horrible experience with this gym from a usage and customer service standpoint.

The gym is nice and new but the equipment is severely lacking. The variety of equipment there will make you stuck in the same workout over and over again. The cable machines have these bogus attachments that came with them and nothing extra.

Beyond the variety of what you can do, youre limited by the sheer lack of quantity of equipment. At any given time (I tried going rather late where other gyms are empty) there is more people then there is equipment. You find yourself waiting for things which stresses people out that are using something, or someone waiting for something you're using which in turn stresses you out. There is enough space for probably another .5x the equipment they have but everything is just unnecessarily spaced out.

Now getting to the customer service part of it. I joined on black friday and got a deal to pay in advance. When i asked the sales person what would happen if I did not like the gym, they said they would work with me to get my money back. This was a flat out lie. I went to the gym for a bit and got extremely frustrated with how it operated and the workout I could get given the equipment and amount of people there. I decided that this gym was not for me within two weeks and asked that they work with me to cancel the membership. I was told straight out no nothing you can do, try another gym location if you dont like this one. After trying to work with them on this they stopped responding and honestly just did not care what so ever, they got my money already. I then found out in order to get this cancelled I would of had to send a mailed in letter within 5 days of the membership starting. They basically made it purposely impossible to try the gym and make a decision on it then refused to even attempt to make this right.

My fault for not fully reading the membership agreement but that doesnt make it right...

Beautiful facility but extremely overcrowded. Even during less busy periods of the day, you will still have to wait for a bench, squat rack or cable machine pretty much every time. There are always more people here than equipment. I have tried literally every time of the day and night and it's always packed. In addition, there are alot of people who work out here who just seem utterly oblivious to gym etiquette, and who will stay on squat racks for over 30 minutes just scrolling on their phones half the time. This isn't the fault of management, but maybe some educational campaigns would be helpful.

What really sent me over the edge was that the club is constantly promoting new memberships when it seems like it is at capacity already and seems to have zero regard for the member experience. Only reason I keep my membership is because I can walk here and it's cheap. I guess you get what you pay for.

Don't expect good service or honesty either. This is a corporation interested in getting your money and isn't willing to do anything to create a positive experience. I have been routinely lied to, cheated twice, charged for 2 memberships for 3 months, and the complete lack of concern or responsibility when these things are brought up is shocking. Employees should be more empowered because some of them actually care, but they can't do anything without checking with their "VPs," Seems like they have extremely high turnover as well, which is a clear sign on what matters...