24 Hour Fitness

• Price and Contracts
• Hidden Fees
• Classes
• Trainers and Nutrition

Price and Contracts

24 Hour Fitness charges different pricing options and contract lengths depending on what gym membership plan you select. The most popular membership is the Basic membership package. If you stay with the company for a year, your monthly fee drops to a great deal of $26.99 per month. Average membership fees run from $29.99 to $34.99/month. These fees are competitive with other fitness centers who charge over $50 to $150/month in monthly fees.

Hidden Fees

There are no hidden fees with 24 Hour Fitness: no cancellation fees, no cleaning fee and no maintenance fee. We found many gyms to have at least one hidden fee. For example, one gym we reviewed charged customers a $10 holding fee if you wanted to freeze your membership due to illness or relocation. 24 Hour Fitness is highly favorable for customers in this regard.

Classes

Access to all of its group classes comes standard with the basic membership package. Some gyms charge additional fees for group classes on top of the monthly membership dues, making 24 Hour Fitness a more cost-effective choice for fitness members. This is highly favorable compared to certain gyms who charge additional fees for some classes or who force you to upgrade to a higher-cost package in order to get unlimited access to these classes. We liked the variation of fitness classes that are available, which include cardio, Boot Camp (boxing, free weights, jumping rope, and inner class competitions), cycling, dance studios, kickboxing and martial arts, Les Mills (BodyPump), mind and body, active aging (low-impact, fitness classes for older members), strength, aqua, and Zumba classes.

Trainers and Nutrition

Members seeking additional training can hire a personal trainer. Using the 24 Hour Fitness website you can put in your zip code to receive each gym's list of personal trainers complete with a professional image, available hours, bio and pricing. This service feature is unique compared to any of the gyms we reviewed, none of which offered profiles of each location's personal trainers like this. As you prepare to train on a whole new level with one-on-one coaching, you will be able to know exactly who you will be working with and how they can help you not only meet your fitness goals, but your health and wellness goals.

The personal trainers work with clients to help facilitate improved muscular strength, build muscular endurance, weight loss, healthy body weight, proper use of strength training equipment for weight lifting, and good workout habits for clients. Years of age, current strength, body weight, current exercise program or lack thereof, health and fitness goals, and whether or not you live a healthy lifestyle will not affect your opportunity to have one-on-one coaching with personal trainers at your local fitness center.

Regarding price, customers get to choose between packages of five or more of 25-minute and 50-minute sessions. The cost depends on how many sessions you get in a bundle package. For example, a bundle of five 50-Minute Sessions costs $365. A bundle of five 25-minute sessions is less expensive at $215. The most expensive training sessions are the twenty-session packages. A bundle of twenty 25-Minute Sessions costs $720 while a bundle of twenty-four 50-minute sessions can cost as much as $1,460.

24 Hour Fitness is one of the few gyms that actually make their personal training fees available on their websites. Most companies make customers contact them directly or participate in a free session or two before they disclose rates and package prices. This method often puts members off, since they feel trainers are upselling them to spend more money. 24 Hour's pricing is reasonable compared to its average competitors, who charge slightly more per individual session. 24 Hour Fitness Customers can save money on the lower-tiered packages.

Other Available Amenities

Additional amenities for 24 Hour Fitness include:

• Full-Sized Basketball Court
• Indoor Lap Swimming Pool
• Kids' Club (childcare)
• Pro Shop
• Spa and Sauna
• Massage Service 
• Steam Room
• Volleyball
• Whirlpool

24 Hour Fitness center offers a long list of amenities comparable with the highest-end gyms in the industry. Two features we found unique were volleyball and a Pro Shop. The majority of fitness clubs we reviewed do not offer these two amenities. A few of 24 Hour Fitness' amenities cost extra in addition to the membership fee.

• Upfront Fees
• Equipment
• Cleanliness

Upfront Fees

Up Front Costs (sometimes referred to as ad enrollment fee) to join 24 Hour Fitness typically costs $49.99 per person. This Initiation fee can be as high as $99.99 or as low as $29.99 at peak sales times-such as the New Year. At the time of this review, 24 Hour Fitness is offering 50 percent off of the initiation fee for their All-Club Basic or Commitment Monthly Payment memberships. Customers should also be aware that they're expected to pay your first and last month's fee when you sign up as well, so the sign-up costs for this company become more expensive than initially anticipated. For example, depending on the discounts available at the time of signup, customers can expect to pay a total of anywhere between $73.48 to $123.47 when enrolling for a membership. We did not find many fitness centers who charge first and last month fees for members when signing up. Typically, gyms charge an enrollment/initiation fee along with the first month's dues. On top of the rest of these dues 24 Hour Fitness also charges a $49.99 annual fee to all members. This annual fee is charged through 24 Hour Fitness directly and it appears that it is in place instead of the renewal fees that other gyms often charge.

Equipment

24 Hour's gym equipment is on-par with the best in the industry. There are a wide variety of cardio equipment including: treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and even stair-climbers there. Most of their gyms are on a two to three-month maintenance cycle and a three-year replacement cycle. Compared to many gym chains, this is a much higher standard; however, we found a large number of customer reviews for the company's competitors who complain about broken equipment that is outdated or takes a long time to get repaired. At times gym members that just wanted to go and run on a treadmill were unable to due to the lack of equipment that was in good enough condition for use. Your ability to go to a gym and have a good workout many times is directly affected by the availability of equipment. If you are worried about wasting your time and not being able to find a piece of equipment to train or get your workout in, you may want to look elsewhere.

Cleanliness

When it comes to hygiene, customers feel that 24 hour's gyms should be cleaned more often. For instance, customers wear flip flops in the showers because the showers do not appear to be cleaned enough to be called spotless. Customers also wish there were more cleaning stations around the gym, which have only three or four in 24 Hours huge space. This would encourage people to wipe down their machines. We also recommend 24 Hour Fitness should consider using antibacterial wipes versus regular paper towels and spray, since germs can spread on the spray bottle handle.