a litte anecdote from Holmes Place Geneva:

at my second time at the gym (february this year), in the jaccuzzi after training, a guy took his shorts off, looked me straight in the eye and started jerking off. needless to say, i was horrified, immediately left the jaccuzzi and reported the incident to reception. they didnt care. several emails to the club manager remained unanswered. during my next training session, i ran into the same guy again, who threatened to beat me up (!) if i pursued the case any further. when i finally managed to get an account manager to speak to the man, i had to witness from far a very friendly conversation which ended in a cordial high-five. 

i put as much pressure as i could onto the Geneva club manager, went through the compliance department of Holmes Place international, and finally achieved a reimbursement of my membership fee - which i have received only last week, 10 months after the incident. and unfortunately, only partially.

i have not been to Holmes Place since February and will never ever go back.

This case should have been reported to the police or even media.

Go to Ghi et police

I am a member of Holmes place and am disgusted by what happened to Giselina. The management are rubbish at Holmes Place apart from one lady who has been there for years. I am sure you would have gotten a better response if you had spoken to her Giselina. I have been going there for a while now and can honestly say that the two main managers just don't care, they are only interested in the bottom dollar. I go there because I have lots of friends there and it is centrally located and the classes are very good. I would strongly recommend telling your story to the GHI, it might wake management up a bit and make them a little less arrogant.

@Giselina

You should also tell your story to the consumer magazines “FRC Mieux choisir” and “Bon à Savoir”.  It certainly sounds as though Holmes Place  could do with some long-overdue media exposure.

Best, R.

hey, thanks for all the support! i guess its a little late to spin a media thing, after almost a year.. but i'll happily spread the word about Holmes. so, yes @Benjamin, Holmes Place really is THAT bad!

on a positive note: Harmony Fitness is a great club. highly recommended in my opinion, if you are based in Geneva and can make it down to La Praille. Harmony La Praille has an awesome swimming pool (big enough to actually swim!), with beautiful, stylish and superclean sauna and hammam, lots of courses, nice trainers, reasonable prices. and a totally different vibe - a club for people who prefer to take their make-up OFF rather than slap it ON before they exercise.

i recently moved to Lausanne. looking for a club over here, in case someone has any recommendation?

Hi Benjamin C and Giselina,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I had been regretting my decision to choose Silhouette over Holmes Place for several weeks (due to the decrepit state of my Silhouette branch), but now I'm glad I didn't choose the latter.

With you selling Harmony, Giselina, too bad the place was late in offering a membership coupon through buyclub/groupon...I had just signed up at Silhouette for one year at that time.

About a 2-years contract...

One year ago I bought a 2-years contract following their advice that it s cheaper than a 1-year contract and the condition that if I want to interrupt it in 1 year, it s fine as I just will  have to pay the difference between the prices of 1-year contract and 2-years contract.

Finally when I called them saying that I want to stop my 2-year contract after just 1 year of using (of course 3 month in advance), they said that the ONLY reason for it could be PAPER FROM OFFICE CONTONAL DE LA POPULATION that I am leaving Geneva and my visa is going to be finished, so only this could be a reason to cancel my membership!!

My God!!! It s not even a bank to make such conditions!!!

hey its never too late for the media, try it you have nothing to lose, look at the all the hits.

BR
BC:)

Hear, hear!

R.

if I am not mistaken, Glocals has, or had, a special agreement with Holmes.

You might want to address this (awful) issue to Glocals management.

They also might give you some good hints.

Also, I trust you could (should) go to the police indeed. This is public exhibitionnism and is condemned by law, Holmes behaviour should, IMHO, also not be accepted as if something unharmful happened.

FYI this is called a "main courante" in law/police terms.

I joined holmes, one year membership, pre paid in full. I got pressured to hire a trainer 10 sessions with my membership,  (i'm a marathon runner, but they wanted to put me  on a program with the excuse that i could break the machines and every member hires a trainer when they join to ensure proper etiquette is taught. I know how to use gym machines, but ok- fine). The trainer was a tool, and was showing off more than trying to teach me. he was more interested about my personal life and trying to show off he can (barely) speak english (i'm fluent in french, and lived in france many years, my mother is french and a french teacher..ok). When we had our session, we often got interrupted by other male members that would greet him, and he would greet them back (constantly, on my time of course). The overall sense was that he was a bit too flirtatious.

I canceled all our remaining 9 sessions, and he still got paid, out of politeness, i just didnt want to see him again. I hate that kind of flirtation. I went back to holmes once after that, and the place was a meat market in the sense that  i got stared at, and other male members offered to show me how the machines work while i was using them (ok, i survived the one session by the trainer , and know how the machines work), and even got invited by  male member to join the jacuzzi later.

I'm a serious person, not provocative, i don't stretch in provacative ways, i dont wear provocative clothing, I really just keep to myself. i never went back to holmes. i made the mistake of buying the one year membership on the spot, and wasted a good 3000 CHF on that.

im just writing this here so others don't repeat the same mistake iv'e made. If you want to go there, its worth paying the individual day fee for two or three visits so you can see what its like. Maybe they can offer you a one or two day trial pass.

Have been a member of Holmes Place in Lausanne for 4 years and am delighted: the classes and the equipment are great!

No one is pressured to sign up with a  personal trainer! Furthermore, the regular membership fee is Chf 130/month=Chf 1560/year and NOT Chf 3000.00 as you stated!

hmm.. my super duper special corporate rate was CHF 179.- per month. difficult to check, since Holmes is not communicating prices transparently anywhere. so it seems even that was a rip-off to start with. great 

It was in Holmes Geneva. Full memebership (peak hours included, as there are different rates if you don't work out during peak hours I was told). No corporate rate, as I'm just a private member.

This rate included the 10 sessions of the private trainer (one free session was tossed in there)

well, it was 3000 total. I'm a private member meaning no corporate discount rate. It wa something like 1780 for full membership including peak hours , plus 1200 for personal trainer fees. Total 3000.

Terrible story... Forget gyms.

If anyone needs a trainer... Look no further..!

group, stand em sessions or one to one.

just let me know.

Dianna G: No one at Holmes Place has to sign up for a personal trainer! In Lausanne, my rate is Chf 130/month = Chf 1560/year, which is not a corporate rate. 

And finally, exchanging messages with a person who likes having a large white chicken as a profile photo is quite strange!

@Legalkitty If "exchanging messages with a person who likes having a large white chicken as a profile photo is quite strange", why do you do it? Why do you pubicly complain about your own behaviour?

Plus, she did not say, that she had to sign up for a personal trainer, just that she felt pressured to do so.

@Alan S: everyone is entitled to post on this forum, thus my comments. As a long term member of Holmes Place in Lausanne, I can state that members are not pressured to sign up for personal training. 

The rate is Chf 130/month ( have been a member for 4 years), thus chf 1560/year-and one does not have to pay for a personal trainer. Why not get your facts straight?

Also, why show up as a large white chicken on your profile photo? 

@Legalkitty I was just having a bit of harmless fun. With a handle like Legalkitty, I guessed you work in law, where people tend to be a tad more exact with words and terms.

I never said, you should not post, but you did complain about talking to (or at) a person with a chicken image, not talking as a person with a chicken image. Ergo, you were complaining something you did, not what Dianna did.

I was a member at Holmes Place in Basel for two years and liked the it.

Well I'm using my real name and don't feel the need to add a photo, just a personal choice - shouldn't affect anybody.

Anyone can check the Geneva rates, just call and make an enquiry. But I didn't make this up. I spoke with a collegue from UBS today, and he pays 180 CHF/month. When he was in Berlin 6 yrs ago, he paid 65 euros. Of course, he is another source, and I have not seen that price myself. Anyone else pay similar?

Regardless, I had advised : its better to pay individual visits to check if the gym is right for you before making a quick decision and paying up front (because its non-refundable, and you may regret it ,like I did). It doesn't mean everyone who goes there will suffer, not at all. I can only share my own experience (fact & opinion), and my impression was that this forum was the appropriate place

Could it be that the management of the Lausanne and Geneva establishments have different criteria and methodology?

The Lausanne “Holmes” seems to be well respected whereas the Geneva equivalent is anything but.

R.

Hmmmm Watson..... at first I thought this was a thread about Sherlock - As in "No Shit Sherlock, how bad is it Holmes"!!

Moving on to alternatives.....

Last weekend - 10km fast walk round town and up AND down 250 steps to the cathedral, for CHF20 petrol and tolls money to get there.....and in the freezing cold, so double the calorie burn.....

http://www.glocals.com/things-to-do/lausanne/65455.htm

Next weekend.....3.5 aerobic activity - free - all round aerobic and cardio workout - okay you need the snow shoes - CHF65 in the Dosenbach sale

http://www.glocals.com/things-to-do/lausanne/65582.htm

Starting again next summer - free (okay you need a bike but it's less than a year's sub to Sherlock) but a good cardio workout in return, up and down the vineyards and to - for example - Bulle and back (phew!!)

http://www.glocals.com/groups/caros-lausanne-cycling-group.htm

Most weekends during the summer - free or minimal transport costs for a massive cardio workout

http://www.glocals.com/things-to-do/lausanne/60134.htm

And if you really want to work on your arm strength - what could be better than non-stop hugging?

http://www.glocals.com/things-to-do/lausanne/65531.htm

I don't even know why you're wasting your money joining Holmes Place (it's the same in the UK actually, all marketing, sales and dodgy inflated prices) when you can just do what the rest of us are doing.

Come! Join in the fun!!

If you have 30 mins to spend on this glocals threads, then you have 30 minutes to spend on your home grown Swiss Ball & weights routine and invest in a living room pilates mat!

Boycott the buggers - Gyms are SO "last year".....

Good luck 

Hi I am looking for a Personal Trainer s...some one who has got a sense of humour and fun to train with... Thanks.. Melle