PRO Club Bellevue — Restaurant in Bellevue

12/1 edit: The floor actually is getting better over time, and someone appears to have gone through and scuffed the gloss off of the new deadlift platforms, so they're largely usable now. Worth a few stars back.

I've been lifting in the free weights area here for five years now. Would have been an easy five-star rating up until now, but the recent renovations have been a travesty. Regular operations have been severely disrupted for months on the promise that the free weights area would be new and improved, and now that the renovations are essentially finished, I can say that it's been a large expenditure of time and money for a sharp downgrade in quality. Most notably, the floor was great before and has been replaced with something far too slippery. I can't bench properly without putting plates on the floor to leg drive against, and squatting heavy now feels unsafe. Eight perfectly good full racks have been removed and replaced with half racks. On the bright side, there are more of them now. Unfortunately, the squat racks in the side room have pull-up bars between them and you may find yourself squatting with someone doing pull-ups about 1ft from the end of your barbell, and the squat racks in the main room... Three perfectly adequate deadlift platforms have been replaced with platforms so slippery that I can pivot my feet freely with my shoes flat on the platform. And unfortunately, the dozen or so brand new squat racks in the main room each have one of these platforms underfoot, so squatting is going to be hazardous in one way or another no matter which rack you use. Without exaggeration, we'd be much better off if the new deadlift platforms were simply removed altogether; compared to the platforms, the floor is clearly superior for both deadlifting and squatting. And for whatever silly reason, they've thrown out a bunch of safety-less benches and replaced them with benches that not only still don't have safeties, but also have fewer hooks available, so your arms had better be within a fairly narrow range of lengths and you'd better get used to wrenching your shoulders when you unrack. When I heard that they were upgrading the equipment, the very first thing I thought of was getting more benches with safeties. Months later, I suppose I'm just grateful that they kept the three original benches that do have safeties (and re-upholstered them, thank you for that).

I give the renovations a little credit. The new dumbbells are nice, some of the new machines are nice, and it made sense to take out some of the cardio equipment for more free weights, as we already had three huge rooms dedicated to cardio. Unfortunately, making the three major barbell compounds untenable really defeats the purpose of a free weights area.

This is just terrible in both practice and principle. I can't believe actual time and money was spent actively making the gym worse.

EDIT: I did reach out to the VP of fitness. The claim is that the floor and deadlift platforms will scuff up and be less slick within a few weeks, and if not, they're going to look into other solutions. ...

I am so disgusted by this place. I regret signing up with them at the beginning of the year- and I cancelled membership in August. They seem to have become a money-grabbing, filthy establishment now that Bayclub took over. They purposely create extra fees and charges in ways that you won't know what you owe or when you do, e.g. if you do aquatics, and how you are being charged. It's VERY sketch. They told me on the phone (when I could still reach some form of customer service) that I was paid up for my membership but then charged me for a whole extra month! I wasn't there that entire month, but they don't care why- they just want your $. There was no warning or reminder to pay that bill in email. They just took the $ out via our credit card. Okay...But then they added an extra late fee because they said they couldn’t take it out via credit card (which they clearly had done!)

The worst part is that I contacted the staff MULTIPLE times to discuss my bill, with multiple promises from the front desk that I would be receiving a call back. Yet still, after WEEKS, they still haven’t returned any of my calls. Because- there is no customer service there anymore. We had to go through credit card dispute because the management simply won’t be bothered to respond. This is what this business has become- poorly run and lacking the customer service or support they had prior. So, people who are considering joining this gym... be forewarned!!!

Additionally, I witnessed the gym become - dirty, women’s steam and sauna areas a bit yucky, 1/2 cleaning staff let go, and there is a lot of wear and tear there (carpets, walls, equipment), despite the areas they are choosing to remodel for massage beds and whatnot. It's a lot of gloss with zero substance. Most of us don't care about your massage beds and Bayclub posters. We are looking for access to clean, useable, well-maintained equipment in a spacious facility/ nice atmosphere. Which this place lacks now. And, for this price, we also would want staff to be available and to have some regard for customers. But that is no longer the case.

There are a few things here not found at other gyms, like the area the little kids can play (I believe that's still there), a coffee shop, and the sheer amount of treadmills. Just understand that Bayclub upped the fees a ton this year, and provides subpar quality to what they offered prior. When I compare with other gyms in the area, I feel that other gyms that cost way less have better relationships with their members, and offer cleaner more breathable spaces with a much better atmosphere. And after the way they've failed to respond to any of my emails or calls, I've no doubt the customer service is better at literally any other gym.

To conclude, Proclub now Bay club is super sketchy, not worth it, and like car salesmen they will take whatever nasty shortcuts they can to make a profit, even at the cost of losing members...they really don't care. And I would definitely never recommend...

I really wanted to like this place because it is only 4 mins away from my home and their amenities are actually quite good. However, Pro Club is disappointing for several reasons. First, they don't have online registration system for any classes/camps. I usually sit down in front of my computer searching for my children's classes/camps at nighttime, but there is no feature to find out availability online and to register online. They always make us call them.

Also, some of their aqua instructors are nice, but some are questionable. My son had a pirate swim camp last year and it was extremely disappointing. The camp was named "pirate-themed" camp, but there was NOTHING pirate about that camp. I stayed inside by the pool for the whole session only to realize their advertisement on this camp is misleading. In the camp advertisement, it looked like children will have much fun playing pirate game with the instructor, but for the whole week, the instructor looked bored and wanted to escape the children. (She literally seemed mad at getting water splashed onto her face. I mean, it is a swimming pool, and children are aged 3-5. What do you expect?) At the end, the instructor just tossed indifferently a few shabby-looking pirate-ish toys to children. For the last 30 mins, they give pirate coloring page. That's why they named the camp a pirate camp. Their inside-water session didn't include ANY pirate-related play/games. The instructor totally seemed unhappy, energy less, bothered by children who splash water occasionally.

About the swim lesson area. It is good that they have multiple lap pools. But they don't have any shallow area in the lap pool. My son is 5 years old and he was having a hard time learning how to float in his private lessons. He couldn't float himself, so he constantly had to struggle with fear that his feet don't touch the bottom. I wish they can use the shallow pool area for swim lessons of younger ones.

Another thing.. They made us ask for the passcode every time we use the family changing room. I didn't want to take my son to a women's locker room, so I always need a family changing room. But because we are non-member (I only use Pro Club for my son's lesson and camp at times), they said we need to get a passcode every time. Some staff gave us the passcode, but some didn't. So I had to take him to a women's changing room. There were several young girls changing their clothes, and they obviously didn't like a boy in there. I had to say I am sorry, cover his eyes and hurry to the shower room where I can close the door. It was very uncomfortable. Also when I got out of the changing room, I had to check if there was anyone there.

I'm sure Pro Club is a great place for families and they do provide a good variety of camps and classes. I especially like the cafe table area where I can rest and eat something. I just hope the above-mentioned...