Virgin Active Gym Paarl — Local services in Drakenstein Local Municipality

I have been a member of VA Paarl vir about 2 years now. Coming from PTA, I was immediately aware of the disparity in the level of quality of gyms we are used to in Gauteng, compared to Paarl, but I can accept that things aren’t the same everywhere. However, 2 years later, seeing how things are declining, despite the fact that Paarl VA is one of the busiest I’ve seen, is very upsetting. At any given time you can walk around the gym and count numerous machines that have ‘out of order’ notices on them. But where I really have lost my patience is with the condition of the watt bikes. Since weather conditions in Paarl during winter months, make outside training a challenge. We rely on the gym as an alternative. Since mid June, I have spent in excess of 70 hours on the watt bikes at VA. There are only 4 watt bikes, and more people using them than are available. So if you are not in the queue to get into the gym by 04:40 am, the chances of you getting a functional watt bike is very slim. Not only are the moveable/adjustable parts like seats, handle bars etc so badly worn, that the seats move during your session, but the handle bars move around, and the software is out of date. Very often the bikes have not been charged. So there is one extension chord, and you need to plug it in yourself. That is if no one else is using it. Not only could I not get my bike correctly set up this morning, but I could not connect to the bike via the app, as the battery was either too flat, or the software was malfunctioning. There was another bike open, but that one doubles and triples your training stats. I have tried to google solutions myself, as talking to the gym, and numerous complaints have yielded zero change.

I have never seen a queue of 20-50 people between 04:30 & 05:00 to get into a gym, but to know that they are there in the hopes of getting the ‘functional’ equipment should be embarrassing for you VA Paarl. If we are putting in the hours, getting up early, paying expensive rates, then the least you can do is take better care of the facilities, do some upgrades look after your clients.

This is a topic that has come up numerous times on the social cycling groups in town, so I know hoe many others are feeling frustrated that nothing is being done. I really hope VA head office looks into the condition of this gym & does...

Time to review the old review..

After what seemed a very long time the gym has been almost revamped with new paint on the walls and great new floors. Some of it seems half done but I guess that will be sorted at some stage. The showers are functional again after 2 months and were nicely redone with some quality issues by the builders but that's something the owner is probably monitoring. Biggest general complaint was the lack of communication during the revamp. But thankful nevertheless.

My biggest gripe on the gym is just the management making sure that things that are broken (machines) or leaking (water coolers) are fixed quickly. Never understood why the one seated row machine took a year to be given a new seat and cable.

Maybe the gym just needs a box or a method where you can report broken stuff. A floor manager to ensure weights are put back in place and organized would be great. If patrons then co-operate...

Overall not a bad gym. There aren't many real alternatives in Paarl. Maybe that's the...

Paarl loves to exercise. As such, the gym is always full. It's a pity that Paarl has such a small gym for such eager people.

The gym is reasonably equipped. This does not apply to the spinning studio. Fun fact: most of the spinning instructors do not actually own a bicycle. This plus their unoriginal classes that follow the same free downloaded music makes it torture. Recall that freely downloaded music has the pitch and base changed such that it does not quality as pirated. Awful! I would honestly replace most of the instructors except for the young lady that does the Wednesday evening class.

Personal trainers are also rude and think they own the place. You cannot book three machines at once for your single client. Not ethical.

Lastly, this gym does like to save on its electricity bill through running the air-conditioner as little as possible.

Other than that, the staff are...