Planet Fitness — Local services in New York

Scam alert: All of the recent 5-star reviews given to this location CAN NOT be real. There is no way these members go to the gym in Union Square NYC. Either they are confused about the location they are working out in, the reviewers are made up or are bots. As you can see, almost all of the 5-star reviews are just "the stars" and no written comments or feedback. And of course they are all commented on as "great" and "thank you for the great review" from PF staff. This is my real, accurate review: Went here for the first time March 7th at approx 9:30 pm. Checked in, got a nod from the attendant who was on the phone. Waited to ask where the men's locker room was located...and waited. I did not bother her while she talked but she kept on ignoring me. (The check-in space is the size of a small bedroom. You walk in and immediately are met with a L-shaped desk, a vending machine and stairs going down.) There is NO WAY she could NOT have seen me standing there. Frustrated i went down the stairs. Found the men's locker room and it was in bad shape. One big room with beat-up lockers, a big pool of stagnant "water", a suitcase that was opened and rummaged through and thrown open on top of some lockers. Sinks had no soap or were broken. It didn't feel safe, but locked my things up and went to workout anyway. First things I noticed were no windows since it was completely underground and low ceiling height that made it feel claustrophobic. It also had a distinct odor of sweat, B.O. and dampness, like mold. The workout floor looked a mess. Free weights, machines, treadmills and other cardio equipment all in just one room. It was extremely crowded. Not one machine was open to use. The free weight area was so crowded there were people backed up waiting to use them next. I scanned the cardio area and saw a few rowing machines open but not much else. Didn't see anyone wiping down any equipment before or after they used it. It was so uncomfortable just being in there that I went back to the locker room, got re-dressed, grabbed my things and left. I do not recommend this location. Will not go again! Back upstairs there was a different attendant working the desk. I told her it was so crowded down there! She agreed and said that it's been like that since they cut the hours of the 24 hr. locations (now they shut down at 11, 10, or even 7 pm daily.) Everyone tries to get their workout in before they close. I asked her why they shortened the hours and she said Planet Fitness never told them why or gave any further explanation. As a member, there is no clear way to reach PF directly. The app and website direct all questions back to your home club. There are no NYC area gyms that are 24-hrs anymore but they still charge the same amount of money for the PF Black Card monthly membership. Planet Fitness could have left one or two locations in NYC open 24-hrs to meet the needs of members who signed up BECAUSE it advertised gyms were open 24-hrs. a day. It's B.S. and bait and switch false...

This gym changed my life

Sanitation: 0/10 This gym smells horrible. The sanitation here is a MESS. There is never enough paper or sanitizer, the various sanitizers don’t work (it might as well be water) and the equipment is brown. You may think initially that the brownness of the metal here is because of rust. But this is not possible, as bars are made of stainless steel. The terrible “rust” buildup here is because of dead skin. Dead skin built up over the years has made the equipment here unappealing to both my eyes and my NOSE. the smell of the equipment here is so bad, it gets on to my hands and only after excessive soapy scrubbing does the repulsive scent wash off. This gym changed my life because I now bring latex gloves to lift with so that the smell of the equipment doesn’t rot away my skin.

Equipment: 3/10 There are also only two smith machines and a very small assortment of dumbbells that is never organized. There are two four-sides cable machines, one of which is busted, so there is only one adjustable cable. 90% of the equipment here is cardio machines anyways. I do not recommend. It all smells bad anyways.

Staff: 10/10 Aside from that, the staff is very nice. I had a worker compliment my outfit the other day which made me feel nice. They are very forgiving and I don’t see any way they could actually set off the lunk alarm. I hate that thing.

This gym is very beginner friendly due to its machinery, but it isn’t very friendly to experienced lifters due to its lack of actual...

Half the lockers in the men’s locker room have broken lock rings, which means there are very few usable lockers.

Men’s bathroom has noticeable black mold all over the shower walls and ceilings and it has a disgusting smell. Rest of the bathroom smells like urine. I have mentioned this to management but the mold is still there smelling terrible and it seeps into the locker room area. Definitely a health hazard.

There was a week when none of the sink faucets were functional because all the faucet handles were broken off.

Black card members are supposed to receive “unlimited massage” but front desk will give only one token at a time (5 minutes of massage) quoting a token shortage as an excuse 🤣 That doesn’t sound unlimited to me.

I found a set of AirPods and gave it to an employee (to submit to the lost and found) who joked that he could pocket the AirPods for himself. I’m about 50% sure he followed through with that plan.

A lot of the treadmills are broken and have not been fixed for half a year. Management doesn’t care.

Find a better gym, the extra $15-25 a month is worth it.

UPDATE: The response from the “owner” is actually just the national social media team of PF and has nothing to do with the Union square gym. I followed up with their email and they literally told me to keep telling the manager my complaints and that they would not take any steps to resolve the issue 🤣🤣 I’m...