LA Fitness — Local services in Dr. Phillips

My family and I just rejoined LA Fitness 11/07/22. We opted to add the unlimited guest pass to our membership at the time we enrolled with Colton; since we often have visitors from out of town, and my teenager has friends he'd like to bring along. Each visit after our initial visit on 11/07/22, my teenage son has brought an underage guest with us; whom I have checked in using only MY signature and the guest's student ID, and we've encountered zero issues. That was until yesterday, 11/16/22, when I was notified by a younger female desk attendant (whose name I did not get) that guests under 18 years of age require their parent/guardian to sign for them. This was news to me entirely; as we had visited with this same exact underage guest our previous 5 visits to LA Fitness Windermere since joining. I was very confused, and rightfully so; however, I was still polite while asking why this sudden change was occurring. The female desk attendant seemed unsure of how to reply, so she offered to get her manager. That's when a woman (later identified as the Director of Personal Training, Ali) turned around and joined the conversation. I explained to her, politely, that we'd been 5 times since joining and that we'd brought this same guest with us each time and had no issue signing him in. Ali was immediately rude and replied with a condescending tone, "Well, I'm telling you that in order to bring an underage guest their parent/guardian has to be present to sign for them. I don't know what to tell you." I politely questioned why this hadn't been relayed to me prior to 11/16/22, on the other occasions I'd brought this guest, and instead of displaying any type of business acumen or exhibiting an ounce of customer service skills, Ali snapped back again saying "Well, I'm telling you a parent/guardian has to sign in order for them to come in." No offer of an apology for our inconvenience, their lack of proper instruction on guest pass restrictions at the time of enrollment - nothing. The only thing Ali had to offer was an unprofessional, and ambiguous attitude. I stated to Ali, "You seem like I'm putting you out by having this conversation, and you seem ambiguous to the inconvenience caused." Again, Ali missed the opportunity to exhibit any leadership abilities, or customer service skills and rectify this situation with a better attitude. My husband arrived at the gym 30 minutes after this encounter, and he approached Ali to discuss what had transpired between she and I. Ali IMMEDIATELY said to my husband, "Your wife came in aggressive", and "I had to step in". This is absolutely untrue. Was I confused? Absolutely! Who wouldn't be? Did I match Ali's energy after she displayed her own aggressive, condescending, and ambiguous behavior? Yes, I most certainly did. Notice how Ali is not interested in rectifying any of the issues, but rather, she's intent on escaping any accountability for her terribly unprofessional attitude and placing blame on members. My husband asked "Does the parent/guardian of the guest have to come every single time the underage guest comes? Or how does this work, so we know tomorrow when we come?" Ali DID NOT know the answer! Ali had to go and ask another staff member, and reported back that the guest's parent/guardian has to come in and sign for the underage guest once per month. That is when my husband asked for Ali's role at LA Fitness. To hear she is the DIRECTOR of personal training is disappointing, to say the least. As a certified personal trainer myself, I am appalled at the attitude displayed so openly and unapologetically to any member, let alone brand new members. I am just grateful my husband and I waited to purchase the year's worth of training package (as we do every time I join a new gym as a way to get to know staff and the facility better); because if Ali is in a leadership position and behaving this way, it tells me I can very likely expect nothing other than this treatment from the trainers...

I’ve been coming to this location for about a bit more than a year now, here’s my thoughts on the different areas. Trainer- I’ve been training with Nour since 2021, she is amazing. When I started my fitness journey (which was more for health reasons) I had balance issues, no muscle strength, no motivation, I wasn’t happy with where I was with my body. She is encouraging, she gets to know her clients one on one and does her research on the best approach for each person (for me who I have underlying conditions, this was a huge thing) she has gone above and beyond, she doesn’t just train you, she teaches you how to change your habits, which in the end ends up changing a lot of areas of your life. She is sweet, but don’t get me wrong, she won’t baby you at all. Personally I needed someone to push me, and she did just that. She pushes you to the point of believing in yourself, she celebrates your goals with you. To be honest she is probably the only reason I still come to this gym. In my fitness journey with her I’ve lost almost 50 lbs, have toned up, have balance, and the strength to keep working on my fitness goals, whereas before I didn’t.

Now to the gym staff themselves- this is an area that could really be worked on. I honestly don’t know who I’m going to encounter when I walk into the gym (besides Nour). Seems like the front desk is selective on how they are feeling, some employees have no problem giving me a towel, then some - especially female employees would give you a hard time, but if other people asked for a towel they ask no questions other than large or small… for someone who is paying a gym membership plus training sessions, and having to catch an attitude after a long day of work, and you yourself being nice to them… it’s not cool, it does not make you feel welcomed. Now let’s talk about the personal training area, when the trainers are there it seems to be okay. However, on the weekends, it’s more like a wild zoo, you get random people (mainly the younger crowd) going in there, taking the equipment, or rushing you, no one monitors these areas at all, not to mention it’s always messy, as I said people go in there and take stuff and when it gets returned it’s more like a 3 year old putting away stuff, it just gets left where they feel like dropping it. As I said if it wasn’t for my personal trainer I probably wouldn’t colme to this location, though I’ve been to the winter garden one and they are just as bad. The cleaning crew is always very friendly, which is welcoming. Overall, unless you have a trainer there, I wouldn’t exactly recommend this location. For the amount you have to pay a month, and not really knowing if you’ll have a good experience (other than working out- you can always make your workouts great on your own) I wouldn’t recommend, as I said the staff (not really the trainers) need some people manner training. Coming to the gym should be a positive experience, not one where people get to pick and choose who they are nice to. I’ve met with Ally a couple of times and she has always been very helpful, I also trained with Laura for about a month last year while my trainer was out and she is awesome as well. I hope this review...

Signature, HaHa. I travel and have been into lots of different LA Fitness gyms throughout the country. This gym is supposed to be a "Signature" more expensive, more desirable gym. It is really only slightly different than any other LA Fitness I've been to, except worse. I asked the front desk why this is considered a Signature. I was told because of the towel service the bath products in the showers, and the hair dryers. Well most LA Fitness gyms used to have hair dryers, then they took them out. The bath products are worthless. They are 3 big pump jars in each shower stall attached to the wall. The showers are extremely small, and then you add 3 big pump jars (you end up smelling like a fruit) so now you have no room to move around. They also have those stupid water saver nozzles, so you have hardly any water coming out. So no room to move and little water, good luck trying to get clean or trying to get the soap out of those nether regions. The main pool is the smaller of the standard size for most regular level LA Fitness gyms. Some have larger pools, most have pools about this size. So why is this a Signature. The hot tub is a joke. Whomever poured/installed it has never been in a hot tub/spa. It is nice and deep in the middle, but the seating area around the side was poured too high. I am a normal gym size 5'9" male. When I hop up (yes, you have to climb up to sit) my feet are dangling about 6" from the tub floor. The water level and jets are where they should be, but with the seat so high, the jets hit your butt and your entire upper body is out of the water. When I was in there, 3 normal sized ladies came in. They stood the entire time in the middle. If they would have sat, they would have had to hop/climb up and their entire upper body would have been out of the water. So great if you have legs issues, but if you want jets or hot water therapy for your back, shoulders or neck, this is not the place. There is no drinking fountain in the pool area or even in the locker room. So if you want to hydrate or even refill your water bottle, you have to walk dripping wet all of the way out into the workout floor to the nearest fountain. The workout floor was nice. Just as nice as most other regular LA Fitness gyms. So, if you are the type that likes to wear the matching outfits and waltz around the workout floor and seldom enter the locker room and never go into the pools then great. But if you like to sweat, take a shower, use a hot tub or swim a lot, then this is a worthless gym. I have been to Signature gyms in other towns, they are nice. This is not...