Equinox Printing House — Local services in New York

Sadly, this location has gone really far downhill. Let's start with the positives. The classes (when you can get in) and instructors are EXCELLENT! They are all top notch - there isn't one class I do not enjoy. The front desk staff, the head of fitness (Jamie), the trainers , Joanne in the locker room and having the juice press is all wonderful. This location is also 2 blocks from my home so super convenient. Now the negative. If you have a "normal" job (which I do not) getting into a class during the week during that isn't from 10:30-4 is next to impossible unless you set your alerts and grab it the second it becomes available. There is no room for uncertainty. 2 weeks ago, I was 36 on the waitlist for Barre class and 33 for a Pilates class. When you come off hours so you can get into a class you often can't use the stream room as it gets cleaned during the slower times. The pool (unheated and very cold) is finally open yet they no longer have Goop SPF for you to use. They formally had it prior to entering the roof deck and at the pool. Cost cutting measures no doubt. Getting 2 chairs on the weekends is as competitive and difficult as getting into a prime time class. The locker rooms in the evening used to have 2 attendants and the last 2 evenings I was they only had 1. The result is all showers now have tons of hair in them and are undesirable to enter. In addition, they changed all shower heads and water pressure has been cut 50%. Cost cutting measure once again and yet another? They took away our BELOVED KIEHL'S products and replaced with an inferior brand. Average rating of this brand online is a 3.9 and average rating for Kiehl's is 4.4. Not only is everyone in the locker room super bummed but the labeling is so bad that the white words on the bottle wash off and you cannot tell which product you are using. Body wash? Shampoo? Face wash? It's really super disappointing. The elevator here is out of service several times a year, year after year after year. Last night a group of us were stuck on the 9th floor and finally had to walk down to get out. Many times when it's out , the stairs/ elevators in the condo portion of the building are not available so that means no locker room/no roof deck / no pool and no equipment. I've asked for years for the TV's on the treadmills to match shows with the stations you pick but they have never remedied. Disney channel will be the news, ESPN will be cartoons etc. Its super annoying. I've been to Equinox gyms on the east side and they are PRISTINE. So clearly nicer and newer it makes you feel taken advantage of at the printing house location. And guess what? They keep signing up more members and they allow summer membership so classes get harder and harder to get into as does accessing the pool without having to sit on the concrete as lounge chairs are nearly impossible to get. With all this the price keeps going up and up and is now $275 a month. The clientele here (myself excluded) skews much younger than the other equinox gyms I've been to and Related must feel they are less likely to complain? The last 2 months it feels as if it was purchased by PE and they are doing what they can to slash overhead. One other nice thing - they finally replaced the stained cloth couch that has been downstairs for years. If the classes weren't so exceptional and this wasn't two blocks from my house I would quickly ditch...

Atrocious customer service. I joined this gym 5 weeks ago because I was looking for a better gym with a better experience, and to not interact with obnoxious gym goers. This place turned out to be a Frathouse not a west village high end club. Some of the trainers are pushy, loud and obnoxious, trying to force an introduction into members, using the gym as their own private property with no regard for actual paying members. One of those pretentious fratboy trainers named Yomi tried to rush me to finish squats cos he wanted to use the equipment himself! or in another instance that same trainer was video taping another trainer, with me in the middle of that video without being asked! No consideration to a member's privacy or experience at this gym!

The bigger issue is when reporting this rude behavior to the training manager ( Russell Suggs ) he shamelessly said some trainers upload videos to Instagram ( with paying member's privacy not relevant !) and that was it. I was actively ignored by him for over two weeks!! He purposefully avoided any contact with me on the gym floor. Not what I'd expect from a manager at a DESTINATION club.

Only when I escalated the issue to Russell's manager did I get a response from Russell that did not have any apologies about his trainer's behavior or what steps were taken, but to blatantly reframe the entire issue as a personality difference! I just joined this gym and never engaged that trainer in conversation, I come to the gym to exercise and be in my zone, not to have loud pretentious fratboy trainers competing for equipment and machines with me as a paying member, or interrupting my workouts to force an introduction! So basically I had to go all the way up to the General manager just to be able to use the gym as intended.

An average gym should provide a good environment for members to exercise and use the facilities, and this is supposed to an upscale venue that instead of providing an upscale environment they present members with a rude trainer competing with actual paying members to use the weights / machines. Or videotaping other trainers and including unsuspecting members in the video! and above all to have their managers shamelessly ignore the issue. This gym has no regard for personal space or a member's experience. Atrocious...

Pre-pandemic, this was a pretty good gym when Terry J. was the GM. It felt like there was actual pride in the facilities. Pride like you'd see in an army barracks or a navy ship.

But in the past year or two, it's gone down. Badly. To wit: The equipment is dirty and scuffed. The incline bench press chair often slips down in the middle of a set of reps (dangerous and startling). They replaced elliptical machines downstairs that many people use with stairclimbers that literally no one uses.

The gym often runs out of towels during morning rush hour. And cans of wipes are often empty.

But seriously...the elevator. It hardly ever works. And when it does, in the time it takes to go from the ground floor to the top, you could legit run a half mile. This puts a massive, massive strain on the first floor staff and facilities and creates very overcrowded conditions on the ground floor, as well as cancelled classes, which surely causes frustration for the staff and definitely prompts members to consider finding another gym. Seriously, if you're in a long-term agreement with the building, wouldn't it be advantageous for you to try to work with the building to get the elevator fixed? Maybe that makes too much sense.

I've shared all of the above in an email to the GM and got absolutely nothing in response. They don't care about the facilities. They just care about...