Power Yoga Hawaii — Local services in Honolulu

Update: this studio is no longer donation-based. More details to follow later.

Original review:

Such a great studio, especially for experienced practitioners. Donation-based.

PYH is a different kind of place. Instead of just “hiring” yoga teachers, this studio is more of an open space that various yoga teachers rent and instruct their own way.

Each yoga teacher is free to promote the class and benefit from their followings, and attending yogis pay what they can afford ($15 minimum recommended). All the collected class donations go straight to the teacher.

Coco (technical and precise) and Joji (gymnastic and workshoppy) are my faves. Dorian (the owner) also provides a great and difficult advanced class that will challenge even experienced yogis. In the past I’ve also attended restorative yin classes with a few different teachers that...

Beware of deceptive and manipulative tactics The yoga studio is fine… I enjoyed the aerial class but ultimately the studio wasn’t for me. My biggest issue is that they are very sneaky in their auto enrollment scheme. I highly recommend signing up for a single class if you want to try it out rather than the $50 trial. They spam you with text messages almost daily and if you don’t pay attention you will miss the “If you love the classes & want to continue, you’ll roll into membership at 139/month on […]” text. You have to explicitly tell them to cancel within your 2 week period. If you don’t catch this issue early like I did you will be out $300 for 2 months. There’s no undoing this and they are happy to provide screenshots of the misleading waiver - which, for the record, is not a safety waiver but an auto...

The worst yoga class I've had. Yoga for me is the place where encourages mindfulness, kindness, and patience, but the class today with Sammi Pang was totally the opposite. The way she behaved when I needed to borrow a mat was rude, offensive and shocking - she insisted on immediate payment when the class was already started (and when I explained that the promo I signed up for includes the mat). Even worse, she said something in line with "You are late for the class, you either start now or leave." (If you have a strict time policy, please put it writing or close the door rather than make rude remarks. Plus, when I went to previous classes in the same studio, the intructor welcomed students at any time.)

I hope to get closure from the studio and hope no students in the future get...