JOHN REED Fitness Wien Schottentor — Local services in Vienna

JR Schottentor is hands down the best gym in town and truly a great experience! The company did a great job to give you that certain JR experience that we love, but here are some tips for the management to make it even better:

1.) I think there are still too many machines and not enough spots for Instagram selfies. Maybe you could remove some of the unnecessary training equipment that still covers 25% of the total gym area of 5000 square meters and maybe add a second piano? Or more bookshelves - I love bookshelves; and also more tables with pottery, couches, sofas and futons.

2.) Speaking of machines, I know you did your best to reduce the risk of injury through exercise by having a total of ~115 spots where you can move a weight somehow for 200+ people that are normally at the gym (if not even half of the 500 lockers are occupied) but one can somehow still manage to exercise by just not sticking to one's training plan (or waiting constantly to get that single seated cable row or that single seated leg curl). But maybe you find a way to make repair of damaged equipment even slower, as with a new broken machine every 4 or 5 days, people would be even more prevented from training and could enjoy the interior design, as this is where all the money was spent.

3.) Money was obviously not so much spent on plumbing, and although I miss the buckets of water standing around in-between the benches and racks for more than half a year as well as the complimentary shower that you placed in front of the urinals for nearly 4 months, I congratulate you to finally repairing the showers in the male locker room :)) Only one of the four showers is already broken again but I think you did a great job by removing any! possibility to hang one's towel anywhere, because there is no need for showering if you can't exercise in a overcrowded gym anyway, right?

4.) Speaking of broken, the whirlpool still is only closed for half of the time, which is a little surprising to me, as it is usually so overcrowded that I would not risk having it available at all, let alone installing a larger one, or a sauna where more than 15 people can sit or any kind of steam-bath. Does the warm water at the sauna showers work already by the way, because I really liked the idea of having only cold water there (or none at all)?

5.) Last but not least, I want to thank the person who designed the locker room. However, there are still not enough lockers for the constantly more members you are inviting, so here are two ideas: a) maybe remove the last 6 benches for the 300 lockers in the men's area, we can happily place our bags on the dirty floor, as we have do this already. Or maybe make the lockers even a little tinier - I know that it's not intended, but some people still manage to cramp their winter jackets and their bags into these lockers that are the size of 4 stacked shoeboxes, but who needs a winter jacket or a space to place wet shoes in a country that has only 5-6 months of cold weather, right?

Summing up, I love the club and will for sure not look for another gym. John Reed just gives the feeling of a good club in Ibiza at the peak season: two times as many people as the club was designed for and music so loud, you can even enjoy it through your noise canceling in ears - 12/10, can really recommend!

Get your membership here as long as its hot, especially for new years resolutions

ps: I am looking forward to a generic answer here from the PR department, I really don't want the JR management to be bothered with feedback, as they have more important things to do than taking care of...

I signed up from the beginning, I was very excited at first but now I am quite disappointed. Issue: the lockers are tiny and way too few for the people they allow to get it. When I go there after work there is no locker left and a queue for for each machine. There is plenty of space to put more lockers.

Issue: only two sinks for this amount of women is not ok.

I don't know on which basis you can sign up to courses, but I've been trying for 2 years and they are either not open yet to book or fully booked instantly. I have never seen a course with places available and i even put alarm clocks on my phone as reminders. It's weird that i never see any available spot even when I go on the app at the milisecond the bookings starts. I have made more than 10 complaints and filed a report at the customer protection. It's a scam guys.

Issue: very little desinfectant and very very bad quality tissues. I've never been in a gym without a hygiene culture like this one.

Issue: no trainer available on shop floor to ask

Issue: the staff is really desinterested in helping you, they see you waiting on the but the 5 of them still need to finish their chat before they ask what you want

Issue: even at the courses I visited the trainers just blur out words like everyone knows what they are talking about. Don't assume everyone is a yoga profi and knows the name of each type of matt or weights or position. In general very unprofessional trainers, the girls doing Zumba and Shape it is chewing gum during the training.

Issue: the air conditioning doesn't seem to work, it's always incredibly hot and smelly.

The spa area is unbelievable cold and I have said this to the reception a couple of times. I think they do this on purpose so people can't lay there and hence they have less to clean. It's unbearable cold.

All in all is a very good design and size, but this little things doesn't make it worth the money. I explicitly asked before signing up if there are reformer and Pilates classes after 6 pm and they told me yes. Well guess what, they are all during the day. I have been a member since it's opened but now after 2 years I cancelled my membership since I do honestly believe the courses are a scam since it's impossible to sign up for reformer...

Machines would be good, facilities look nice, staff is friendly however:

Far too many members for the amount of machines/weights, "training" from 17:00 to 20:00 is nearly pointless Some people block machines for 15+ minutes until they are able to deceide which Selfies they can upload to Tik Tok 4 out of 5 people sit on the Sauna bare feet, dragging the water from the showers as well as their foot-sweat and papilloma viruses straight onto the wood. (And you then wipe it away with your own towel - yuck!!) The mixed sauna has seats for ~18 people, which is undersized for the 5000 (?) members Lockerrooms are ridiculously small, so people get always in each others way and there is no room to put your gym clothes. Doesn't seem bad at first, but will make you crazy after one week. Lockers are tiny, no space for winter jackets If you intend to go in the morning when there are less people, be aware as there are social media reports (ofc) on broken up lockers and stolen watches No steambath, but well...

In general, the club looks nice and the stuff is very very friendly, but it seems like they have 4 times more members then the gym was designed for.

(There is a reason the good reviews are older, when things were not as bad as they are nowadays)

Update 03/24: situation is even worse now. they cramp up the gym continuously with more members while literally EVERY machine, bench and rack is clogged at peak hours. Additionally, the new gym 80 machines appear to be of low quality and there are constantly two or three machines "under maintaince" now as they have been used for a...