I joined this Pilates studio because I genuinely enjoy Pilates and was excited about the quality of…read morethe instructors, who are very good. Unfortunately, the membership experience has been incredibly disappointing.
The studio actively recruited new clients into a $189-per-month membership program for 8 classes with the expectation that we would be able to regularly attend classes. In reality, getting into a class has been extraordinarily difficult. I would estimate that 90% of the time, the classes are already full, leaving me on a waitlist. I've heard several other members expressing their frustration around the same issue.
The waitlist system creates another problem. Openings can occur at the last minute, and if you don't see the notification in time and are automatically added to the class, you can then be charged a no-show fee. So you're paying a significant monthly membership fee for classes you struggle to access, while potentially being penalized when a last-minute opening doesn't work with your schedule.
What is most frustrating is that when I joined, I was specifically told there was plenty of class availability. That simply has not been my experience. If a studio is going to aggressively recruit new members, it needs to have the class capacity to accommodate them. Continuing to sell memberships without sufficient availability feels misleading and, frankly, like a bait-and-switch.
Several of us have work schedules that require early mornings, which means late-afternoon or evening classes are really our only practical option. When we shared this concern with the owner, her suggestion was that we attend the 6:00 a.m. class and simply get ready for work in the studio bathroom.
To be clear, this is a single, standard bathroom, not a locker room or changing facility with showers or other amenities. The suggestion that multiple clients should work out at 6:00 a.m. and then somehow get ready for their professional workday in the studio's one bathroom, without even the ability to shower, felt completely impractical. It also raises the obvious question of how one person could occupy the studio's only bathroom for 20 to 30 minutes getting ready without inconveniencing everyone else.
Rather than acknowledging the legitimate concern that working members need reasonable access to evening classes, the response seemed dismissive of our schedules and the capacity issue we were trying to address. I found the suggestion lacking in both thoughtful judgment and respect for the very real scheduling constraints of members paying $189 a month for access to classes they are struggling to attend.
The instructors deserve credit because the classes themselves are very good. Unfortunately, that doesn't matter much when members can't get into them. Between the lack of class availability, the waitlist and no-show structure, and what appears to be poor management of membership capacity, I have been left feeling duped and taken advantage of.
At $189+ per month, members should have reasonable access to the service they are paying for. Until this studio addresses its capacity issues, I cannot recommend joining. You may find yourself spending far more time managing waitlists than actually taking Pilates classes, which is an unfortunate waste of both money and time.
