Virgin Active UK Reviews 6,019

I am writing to formally raise a complaint regarding the unsatisfactory service I experienced on Flight VS136 on March 14.

Unfortunately, my in-flight experience was disappointing for several reasons. Firstly, the toilet located near my seat (61A) was in an unacceptable condition, with a strong stench of urine. Secondly, my in-flight entertainment monitor had no volume, despite being reset three times, and the issue remained unresolved throughout the flight. Additionally, I found that the cabin crew demonstrated a lack of knowledge and effectiveness when attempting to address these problems.

I was offered an alternative seat (seat 72) as a solution; however, this seat had significantly less legroom and was not suitable for me, particularly as I had arranged travel assistance due to my limited mobility.

Overall, this experience fell well below the standard I expected, and I found the handling of these issues to be inadequate.

I would appreciate it if you could review this matter and advise what steps will be taken to address my concerns. I also request appropriate compensation for the inconvenience caused.

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,
Theresa James McIntosh

Honestly the virgin active in Solihull is being reported to the local council &
Trading standards as there hygiene levels are DISTURBING to say the least ! The pool tiles are absolutely filthy ! Then I have watched staff members with my own eyes scrubbing the sides of the pool tiles while people are in the pool so all the grime is just going straight back into the pool where people are swimming like WHAT THE **** is going on ! These is seriously dangerous to peoples health it’s pure mould & bacterial! When I challenged the staff member saying would you scrub your bath at home while sitting it in ? His response was erm you have a point but still carried on ! Please lord help them ! Guide these people to BASIC hygiene ! Then it’s £90 a month to train in a DARK miserable gym floor like why on earth have you painted the whole gym black ? It’s all dark & horrible I come to the gym for my mental heath I want to see nice bright happy colours not a whole gym floor dark & black making me feel miserable & low ! Then have the cheek to charge more money for this rubbish ! I’m in shock at how low there cleaning standards actually are the place needs an inspection and should be shut down ! I’ve seen third world counties with cleaner pools !

The staff are rude and are very unfriendly on all interactions. We have finally finished our contract with virgin active never going to return. I had attempted to make many complaints whilst with the gym but was ignored. The crèche staff are exactly the same, unfriendly that I just stopped taking my child. After I have told the gym numerous times that I will not be renewing my contract they have then hounded me to say my contract will automatically start in April. If it is not the text about my renewing contract is texts to say I owe an outstanding balance with a different balance each time which is incorrect as my contract had already ended. I would save your money and go to a different gym. The amenities were amazing just to bad that the staff had let the whole experience down.

My gym has just had refurbishment and my membership has now gone up over 40% which is a ridiculous increase. Also ridiculous you can't contact the gym directly, especially when paying that amount of money. If you are on the waiting list for a class they can let you know even up until the class is due to star yet you cannot cancel within the hour- really silly way of doing it.
Similar prices now to David Lloyd since yet that is a much superior gym with more availability, cleanliness and better customer service. Queue for the cafe is always ridiculous and food takes ages to come out.
I've cancelled my membership.
The classes are good though and the instructors great.

Such a vague response. Not everyone has the luxury of access to multiple clubs, but I do, and in every other club the schedule is consistent—reformer classes run throughout the day, alongside options like yoga and strength & conditioning. It’s pretty clear VA isn’t interested in member feedback and is more focused on charging excessive fees. Time to switch gyms, I think

I’m genuinely disappointed with Virgin Active in London. They’ve removed some of the best classes including Les Mills and almost all cardio-based sessions. What’s left is a very limited selection, especially considering the high membership cost. At this point, it’s mostly reformer, yoga, and the occasional strength and conditioning class.

I don’t quite understand the hype around reformer, but even so, having more variety would make a big difference. Other gyms like Fitness First still offer a broader range of classes, including Les Mills, so at least members have options.

Cleanliness is another major issue. After a year of supposed improvements, I still regularly see clumps of hair in the showers. It feels unhygienic and frankly unpleasant.

On top of that, the customer service is extremely poor and does little to address these concerns.

I would not recommend Virgin Active. The fact that they seem to be ignoring a rating of 3.1 is concerning—this is a brand that should comfortably be in the high 4s, not hovering at a level that reflects consistent dissatisfaction.

App says it's open, but surprise, it's closed!
Yet another wonderful experience with Virgin Active Swiss Cottage (in reality it's Finchley Road, but mentioning Swiss Cottage it sounds better).

App says club is open with 8% capacity full. I arrived and surprise, it's closed.
No warning, no email, no texts.

Virgin Active already started charging me 33% more per month WITHOUT A PREVIOUS WARNING.
They claim they sent an email, but do they know their emails might not arrive or just go straight to Junk?

A serious, professional company would request USERS to SIGN AN AGREEMENT - especially when they are INCREASING by 33% the membership!
What a JOKE!

Anyhow, I am getting this club shut down before it's natural death by September 2026 (they cant extend their contract with landlord, thank GOD).
How will i do this? I have evidence that this club doesn't fulfill HEALTH AND SAFETY measures.
Can't wait to get them fined, shut down and hopefully in some sort of economic problem.

I spoke with many members and ALL experienced the same robbery. Shame on you Virgin active.

I have pics, please let me post them to prove what I just said.

Terrible company, terrible service, terrible suppert.

Terrible service. Offer 30% has been charge full price and after promises no one phone up to show my husband around. I will finish my contract and find a gym with customer car

Virgin Active only cares about getting your money. I decided to sign up to Virgin Active, but before my first payment was supposed to be taken, I wanted to take a tour to see the facilities. I was disappointed and as a result decided not to engage in the 1 year membership. Since then, Virgin Active has been spamming me everyday with late payment fees when there was no payment made in the first place. I emailed them as soon as I signed up to cancel my membership before the first payment was meant to be taken. No replies on their end. Just continuous claims for late payment fees. I would highly recommend David Lloyds instead. They are fantastic and I happily signed up for their yearly membership.

5+ year member here — and honestly, the club has gone downhill.

Classes have been stripped back (HIIT, Body Pump gone), treadmills removed from Grid Training classes, no music in classes anymore (?!), and morning schedules pushed to 7:00–7:15am — making them way less accessible for office goers.

Boxing classes are the main reason many of us stay — as that will go, the deal is sealed. And I’m definitely not the only one: 150+ members from the Mayfair club only are seriously impacted by these changes and have either already left or are planning to.

Feels like the club is losing what made it great, without offering anything comparable in return. Really disappointing!

I'd like to be clear, the local gym is fantastic and the people there are friendly. They'd get a 5 out of 5.

Apparently, the fastest way to reach Virgin Active is via their webchat, which their automated voice told me. I went through the same options list twice, being told twice I should go to my local gym or use their webchat, which is the fastest way to get through to them (de ja vu anyone?). So, here's my experience of their webchat.

Red (their chatbot) - what's your name?
Me - name given
Red - email address?
Me - email address given
Red - why are contacting us?
Me - Personal Training - Freeze / Cancel
Red - DOB?
Me - DOB given
Red - What do you want to change (Address, bank details, email).

I don't see how any of the options relate to personal training. I went through this 3 times, telling "Red" I wanted to discuss personal training freeze/cancellation, and each time I only get the option to update my personal details.

In January this year I emailed Virgin Active regarding another issue (my gym was closed unexpectedly). It took them TWO months to respond to my email. In their response they did not address my query at all, they apologised for the delay. I do not think a 2 month delay is acceptable.

Again, I would say my local gym is fantastic. When everything works well, Virgin are great. However, it should not be near impossible to contact customer services, that is very bad service in my view.

I am a long time member of Virgin Active. I am mostly happy with the Moorgate facility. However, today I went to the club at around 1:30pm had a shower before going to the swimming pool only to be confronted with a sign at poolside stating it was closed today. The manager told me it was due to some construction. I asked him why there was no signage indicating this by the entrance to the club. All he could do was apologise and say he will do that. This is pathetic. I use to get an SMS from Virgin when its facilities were having trouble and cancellations were necessary. Why do I have to get all the way to poolside to find out it’s closed. I only use the pool at Virgin, so it was a total waste of my time. I wasn’t even offered a refund. A totally disrespectful experience.

Since the refurb, more and more members joining, making it so busy at peak times, waiting around for equipment, limited parking and difficulty booking in the app for popular classes. Today I drove round 3 times to get a space, arrived to class, equipment all set up, only to be told they hadn’t covered the class while our usual instructor was away! What a waste time! Been a member for 10 years…. Truly disappointed!

The Club and the facilities are ok, However the staff are not helpful and can be quite rude/pushy.

+ The club has DBs upto 50kgs, squat racks, punch bags, good boxing area, cardio equipment, KBs up to 32kg, stretching areas.

+ The Pool/spa is also handy

+ usually pretty clean

- The club is freezing cold, training in my coat and hat at times, given what it costs I'd expect them to turn the heating on in winter. I've reported this about 4-5 times.

- The staff can be rude/pushy and want you to leave 15 mins before it closes (appears to be a theme)

- PTs have classes in the middle of the gym during peak time which puts more stress on equipment which is in popular demand, they also like to turn the volume right up so you can't hear yourself think.

As far as Gyms go it is ok but could be ran a lot better.

Poor customer service, if you have an issue, no one will help you. They do not care.

There is no way to cancel the membership online; the only option is to call them. If you have relocated, they request numerous documents and respond very slowly. By the time they reply, your next billing cycle has often already started and you are charged for the full month.
If you refuse to pay, they add late payment penalties. This feels like a very sneaky way to take money from customers. I am very disappointed that I joined and would not recommend them to anyone.
It is very easy to sign up, but extremely difficult and costly to cancel.

I sent 4 emails with 4 different complaints - poor in itself - had no response after a week. Terrible customer service.
Virgin replied after about two weeks but didn't resolve all the queries. The biggest complaint is that my husband pays the same amount to be a peak time member as I pay to be off peak. This is unfair and the company doesn’t care.

I am a member of Wimbledon and it is superb. Staff : Barnabus on reception is always helpful and my favourite pilates classes are with Jennifer, Marzia, Mari, Eleni, Charlie and Justine - they all make the gym such a wonderful place to visit. It is a life-saver for so many people and my health is much improved. Thank you all so much for making it such a lovely place plus the cafe is fab. The annual subscription is reasonable with access to the other London clubs.
Sauna is clean and toasty.

After 10 years' membership, I have finally cancelled. In the last couple of years in particular Virgin Active has gone so far downhill. The facilities on-site are not as well maintained as they used to be, and they are certainly not cleaned as much as they used to be. Dirty equipment, empty sanitiser spray bottles, dirty changing rooms. They've implemented new towel rules meaning 1 towel per visit, no matter how long you're there for or what you're doing. (E.g. if you are there for an hour in the gym and an hour in the pool then you get one towel, or if you visit for a half hour class you get one towel. It's absurd.)

In short, you do not get what you pay for.

To top it off, you are not treated as a valued customer. It is now not possible to phone your gym - you have to go through to a call centre. You can expect to be waiting on hold for anything from 20 to 45 minutes. When you do speak to someone they often are unable to help. Emailing is no better - you can expect a response in a week's time.

It's also notable that it doesn't only seem to be the customers who are unhappy; I know several very good instructors who've recently stopped working for Virgin Active and have taken their skills elsewhere.

A relatively expensive gym membership that does not deliver on that price tag.

I have been pleading with virgin active to allow me to come to a settlement buy out of my membership. I realise I signed a contract but since then my circumstances stances have changed but not within the 3 reasons the company will accept if full proof can be given. The whole situation is making me quite ill and I am still waiting for somebody from Virgin to speak to me in person. Can anybody please advise me what I can do!
Thank you