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September 2024 by Luther Pippen
UPDATE: 9/2/24
Single rates are now $349/month hahaha that is beyond laughable. People please save your money and go to another gym. This place is nowhere near worth that price.
This gym is bad business and just a money grab. I was a member for 2 years and within the first year I moved away for work which had me out of state for 9 months. I continued to pay the membership because they wouldn’t allow me to put it on hold.
I cancelled my membership recently but was forced to pay 1 more month.
The fees continue to rise for what reason?
Why is tennis extra? Why is golf extra? Why is parking only 3hrs?
The restaurant is severely overpriced especially when the membership fee is what it is
The showers were constantly out of wash cloths
For being such a large space and for the extremely high fee there should be more equipment.
Where’s the calf machine?
Where’s the outdoor workout area?
People, yes the gym is pretty but this company will continue to raise the rates without adding anything to justify it.
I truly won’t be surprised if an individual membership reaches $400-500/month while providing nothing extra.
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August 2024 by Brendan E Bernacki
Danny is an amazing trainer. He is focused, creative, personable, couldn't ask for more.
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August 2024 by Levi Kagan
Had to leave after 7 years as a member. Since activating a family membership, they doubled the price to $749 for a family in 3 years. It's a nice club sure, but Lakeshore fitness down the street is literally half the price for an arguably more family friendly experience.
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August 2024 by Haleyanne Freedman
Updated: The gym is not worth the money. At all. I've been a member for about 2+ years now and I'm considering terminating my membership. The customer service is honestly awful. They don't solve any problems and are really rude to members who have complaints or issues. The club very much incentivizes teenagers to become members, which unfortunately results in about 40 kids hogging equipment with poor gym etiquette, hanging on the treadmills in slides or barefoot. The membership is very pricey, which would be totally fine if there was enough value to justify it, but, tennis costs extra, the pool is over crowded in summer, pilates costs extra, they charge aggregious amounts for drinks and food at their happy hours, etc. The guest policy is ridiculous. THREE TIMES I've brought guests and have been turned away because it's "Saturday" or a holiday. Most recently, I called a day ahead of time and they promised me a guest would be allowed on Friday. Showed up, they turned us away. AGAIN. I want guests when I'm being visited. On weekends and holidays when it matters. For how much you pay, there's no value outside of a nice-ish gym. I've sent in a couple of requests and comments. I've been promised there will be resolutions and change and in my several years as a member, not one thing has changed. There is very little actual networking opportunity with other members. You have to already know people to meet people here. One of my feedback pieces was about pieces of equipment that keep breaking/ going missing and either I was never responded to or was ignored which really does suck. I keep trying to find more value than "I like these 2 yoga teachers" and I desperately want to because this gym is in my neighborhood but I'm really struggling.
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August 2024 by Jefferson
They need to answer their phones!!! I had an extremely urgent matter and they would not pick up the phones after caling and calling and calling!!!
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August 2024 by Diego M. Chamorro
The gym has great, clean equipment and great classes. Outdoor pool is a plus. But it is 100% a children's zoo. There are loud children everywhere at the pool, especially during the summer. It is obscene how many kids and how unruly it can get at the pool. The gym, on the other hand, is less chaotic and unruly but you still get so many teenagers just idling by the equipment, sometimes not even wearing proper workout attire (literally in slides). I've even seen kids on exercise bikes using their switch. When I joined the gym, I too was told that management was halting family registrations to refocus on the individual or couples membership. I don't see that reflected. That being said, the gym is great. Facilities are clean, equipment is great, classes are plenty. There is no other gym like this in Chicago. I mean that sincerely but also, you'll be hard pressed to find another gym that doubles as a children's zoo.
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July 2024 by A
This is a beautiful gym but horribly run with its priorities in the wrong place. This gym is a nightmare if you're seeking a focused fitness environment. It's less of a gym and more of a chaotic daycare center that resembles a Disney cruise at its busiest. The place is overrun by poorly mannered teenagers and families with children, especially during the summer months when the pool becomes a kiddie play zone. Teenagers will take up equipment to play on their phones and the midtown management clearly has made a decision to cater this gym to families than to other adults without children.
Trying to use any equipment or find a quiet spot for your workout is next to impossible amidst the constant noise and commotion caused by kids running wild.
If you're serious about your fitness goals with a focus on adults vs children look elsewhere. This place is a complete waste of time and money unless you enjoy navigating through a sea of screaming children + poorly mannered teenage brats, and dealing with the resulting mess and chaos.
Do yourself a favor and find a gym that values a peaceful workout environment over catering to families looking for a daycare alternative.
Suggestions: Children/teenager free zones. Children/teenager free days at pool or at least better adult only hours at the pool. Most Chicago gyms of this size have a lot of families but others like East Bank Club do a better job catering to the adults that aren't interested in paying $500/mo to hang out with other peoples children and poorly parented teenagers.
Most frustrating part in all of this is how we were sold on this gym. My wife and I were warned that the gym was a children zoo but still came to check it out because of it's location and amenities. We asked the sales person directly about the teenager/child problem and they promised us new rules were being implemented to help address this as (in his words) the leading reason people are leaving midtown are the kids. He had mentioned restricted family memberships, adult only pool hrs starting at noon, as well as a few other "soon to come" changes. None have be implemented in over a year. So management in this gym knows the children/families are a problem and lie to potential new members that are aware of it to bait them into membership.
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July 2024 by Susan Marvin
I have recently rejoined Midtown and I’m loving it— the newly refreshed building beautiful!! Also, I started training with Joanna Magner and she is amazing!! She thoughtfully plans sessions for me every week and is helping me not only overcome the challenges I have, but renewing my excitement to achieve my fitness goals-thank you Joanna!!
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July 2024 by Deanna Heuschel
Terrible front desk and back office service for members. Staff doesn’t have answers, managers don’t follow through, supervisors are untrained and handle situations poorly. I just spoke with Amy in the back office and she was incredibly condescending regarding a simple question about why the women’s stream room hasn’t worked in over a month — unacceptable!
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July 2024 by Juan Diego Tellez
Guys, let’s get the outdoor hot tub water jets fixed please! It’s been almost 2 months since the outdoor pool area opened. It’s Kind of disconcerting to pay an elevated premium and not be able to use this amenity.
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July 2024 by simon blanco
Look this place is great if you have a family, more than a gym it felt like a family club. a lot of kids and teens everywhere, during the summer even worst. As someone who came from the Equinox franchise it was a hard adjustment, wouldn't recommend to someone without kids.
Excellent tennis classes and coaches
Immaculate bathrooms, sauna, steam rooms, and showers (10/10 for cleanliness)
Delicious smoothies
Dedicated yoga room
Spacious environment, never too crowded
Friendly and welcoming front desk staff
Ample parking.
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July 2024 by Harriet Tran
Stop advertising family memberships on your website when you aren’t actually allowing people to sign up for one. What a waste of time going down there for an appointment, only to be told family memberships weren’t available and then giving me the hard sell on an individual membership to wait a year in the hopes that family memberships would become available.
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July 2024 by Zayn Naeem
This gym has plummeted in quality over the past few months. The steam room was out of service for two months over a simple door fix, and the hot tub jets have been broken for eight months with no resolution. East Bank Club is far superior, especially in customer service. I was forced to extend my membership for an extra month despite canceling the previous month. Every attempt to use my referral bonus credits was thwarted by "system issues," and I couldn't use my three yearly guest passes due to another "glitch ." Four days before my membership expired, I was told I could have brought guests and paid $35, which would have been refunded—information conveniently withheld. Guess what? The last three days, I couldn't use my guest passes either due to yet another random rule stating that from Friday to Sunday during specific times of the year, guests aren't allowed. The showers have large gaps, allowing other people to see you while you're showering. Many days recently, there were no bath towels at all. Good luck ever entering the swimming pool without a swarm of little kids. Management is also racist—just look for yourself at which ethnicities get the daytime shifts and which ones are stuck with the graveyard shifts.
Last year, 38 cleaning crew workers were laid off, and management asked them to sign resignation agreements that would prohibit them from holding the club liable for abruptly firing them without notice, according to news releases. Signing the document would also make it harder for the workers to collect unemployment benefits. Workers were also told they had to sign the document if they wanted to retrieve their belongings from their lockers and receive the pay they were owed. The majority of the workers refused to sign the document. A former Midtown employee said management wouldn’t allow her into the building to get her medication from her locker because she refused to sign. According to AM 780, a Midtown employee said they worked under less-than-ideal conditions, including having to dispose of trash containing used needles without proper protective equipment. There were always towels with blood, and they were constantly told to “just throw them into the garbage.”
Multiple times, someone was peeking into the showers, and management did nothing about it. We had to call CPD to address the issue since Midtown didn’t do anything. Upper management is utterly incompetent. This place has worse customer service than the DMV, nickel-and-dimes you for every little thing, and is filled with greed and ego. Avoid this place like the plague.
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July 2024 by Sav
Customer service could be better. I brought my mother with from out of town as a guest and was told I couldn’t bring her in due to it being a holiday. I mentioned I was unaware of this policy as it was never mentioned before. There were also no signs put up anywhere and when I mentioned the lack of communication I was told it was mentioned in the weekly newsletter at the very bottom. Well, not everyone checks their emails all the time. So my mom was not allowed in. When I got inside the gym it was empty. I mentioned this to the manager and she told me the gym was packed. Attached photo shows how empty it was. The pool was busy, but I told her we didn’t want to use the pool, just workout. Well no exceptions can be made at this gym even to loyal customers. The burden of responsibility falls on me for not checking my email and reading through the entire weekly newsletter.
The facilities themself are very nice. Gym can get crowded quickly and you may have to wait for equipment. Locker rooms are clean and well kept.
Would like to see a decline bench added and perhaps a cold plunge would be a nice touch. The childcare has also been great, the staff there are very friendly and my son loves going there.
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July 2024 by Richard Lubin
Amazing
