I sent an email of complaint, copied below, to the CEO of Silhouette, S. Duvanel, and his response was, and I quote:

"It is no use forwarding your next findings and as I understand it, it is probably more time efficient for you to remain far from our club"...

That's the manegement expertise one can expect from studying at Cranfield University Milton Keynes!!!

6th October 2016
Upon arrival @ 12:00 (the busiest time between 07:00 to 18:00) there was no toilet paper in 1 of only two available facilities in the men’s changing room. Soap was also missing.
Not only is this very unhygienic and seemingly a daily occurrence, it speaks volumes to the competence of those responsible.
In the fitness area, 2 of the paper-cleaning dispensers were empty for the whole duration of my stay.
When I left, @ 14:10, I re-checked the toilets and now both were without the requisite paper.
In the reception area, between 2 and 4 employees had spent the whole morning standing around chatting while steadily turning the up music higher and higher for their own pleasure.
I asked the on-site management if they had: bothered to review the fitness centre’s facilities at any time today? The response was complete indifference.

Another bad review of Silhouette Nyon, I'm afraid. Ventilation and jacuzzi non-functional for at least 2 months now. Jacuzzi supposed to be fixed in 2 weeks. Ventilation - no idea. Compensation - none. Conditions completely unacceptable.

Really unbelievable with their gym subscriptions. They are harsh and utterly unsympathetic if for any reason, even the most terrible personal circumstances, you cannot send them the cancelation notice a month in advance. They don't care if you were in emotional turmoil or had lost a loved one, too bad, they want their money. If the gym experience was amazing, then at least this would be easier to swallow but seriously?
Not sure I will ever join them again, I'd prefer to pay a bit extra to join somewhere with a little more humanity and understanding.

Fully agree: Alps is the most disgusting. It is amazing to have such a disregard for basic cleanliness standard.

It sucks, plain and simple. Dépends on the club. Manoir is the best in terms of space and celanliness. Alps is disgusting. The others I dunno too much. Vermon is small but reasonably clean, and the only one where I do not mind interact with the staff. Overall I would say stay the f away from Silhouette...BUT....this is Geneva. Silhoette sucks but the others are even worse. and in terms of value for moeny is the only one acceptable.

After 4 years of membership, I decided to stop.

The problems continue to be the same: overcrowded gyms, lack of cleaning, lack of maintenance (saunas often don't work, broken equipment that remain out of order for ages). That would be more or less OK considering it's a cheap gym and they've got several clubs in Geneva, Nyon, Lausanne, Zurich, etc..

However, recently they started "reserving" some areas in the clubs for people who hire personal trainers. The result is even more overcrowded gyms, since big chunks of the clubs are now reserved (and seldom empty).

I once complained and they answered without blushing that this is the new policy of silhouette.

Don't go to Silhouette !!! They almost managed to have me put on the national bad debitors list, because my letter arrived 2 days too late to cancel my subscription which I had used about 6 times during the year. I didn't like the place (Mies Versoix), which was old and lacked place and air! I also had twice very poor teachers... I would recommend you try and go to Harmony, Physic Club or Go Fitness, which apparently are fighting abusive contract provisions such as this one (according to FRC, the consumer association). See linl: http://www.frc.ch/articles/lets-go-fitness-montre-lexemple-physic-club-suit/
I had such a bad experience with this club, I would never recommand them.


SURTOUT PAS ALLER CHEZ SILHOUETTE !!! (Mies Versoix) Ils sont sur le point de me faire mettre sur le fichier des débiteurs insolvables parce que j'ai eu 2 jours de retard pour signifier ma résiliation, alors que j'avais prévenu le club plusieurs fois au préalable que je ne souhaitais pas renouveler, et que j'avais été au club 6 fois environ au cours de l'année. Trop de monde, pas asse de place, sauna et jacuzzi sentent le renfermé, ... Personnel aimable cependant, mais ne vaut pas le montant de la cotisation, surtout quand le service après client est si peu arrangeant ! Je suis à la recherche d'un emploi et donc plus dans une situation financière me permettant de payer un abonnement dans l'absolu, mis encore moins pour ne pas m'en servir ! A vous de voir si vous voulez tenter votre chance. Les associations de consommateurs disent que Harmony est bien plus arrangeant et cherche à supprimer ces clauses abusives du point de vue du client (malheureusement pas encore de la loi!).

I haven't used my annual membership for months, mainly for the reasons given below. Not very convenient class times, not particularly pleasant conditions in the classes re space and ventilation. My annual membership finished a few months ago and then today I get a call saying I have to pay a full years membership as I hadn't cancelled in writing a month in advance. I see it happens to other people. They must be making 10s of thousands of francs a year forcing people to pay for gym membership they don't want, need or even realised they have signed up for.

I have been taking classes at the Silhouette Wilson Center in Geneva for nearly 3 years. The classes and instructors are great. The downside is that the facilities are old:

- The air conditioning system in the classroom is not powerful enough and by the middle of an aerobic class, everybody is grasping for fresh air; the room, mirrors and floor are full of sweat and often people fall because the floors are slippery

- The ladies’ locker room is humid and hot and the showers don’t work properly. When one person takes a shower all the other ones have to wait to be able to get some hot water.

I spoke to the manager several times but nothing have been done. Several other persons have asked the manager to address those problems too but there has been no change so far.

I will not recommend going to the Silhouette Wilson Center until these problems are solved.

I have a Silhouette subscription to sell. I have renew it on las august but I'm moving out of Geneva very soon.
With the subscription you can use all the Silhouette centers in all around Geneva.
The real price is 1200 chf for a year.
I have pay it for 900 chf.
I'm selling it for 750 chf. (I've used it two months)
The subscription is available from september 2011 to september 2012.

I have to sell it before 25th october!

Rude staff, not clean at all, the classes are packed and don't have even the space to do the exercises the right way! I wrote a letter to say that I was unhappy the way staff was, never heard from them, when I mentionned it to the manager, she said ''yes we had your letter but we don't give attention to all these letters we receive from clients''.. yes chep membership but you pay the rest in another way, am I going to renew it, the answer is NO. my confort is worth an invesment of a couple of 100chf more per year. I don't recommend SILHOUETTE.

I have been with Silhouette for 5 years and just paid the fee for the next year - very hesitantly. I must admit that I am quite shocked by some of the accounts I read here, especially about the refusal to accept notice letters (having to send by registered mail is absolute bull****, legally, that's not necessary).

I do mostly classes, and rarely machines, so what matters to me is availability of classes and the quality of the instructors - both I am very happy with.

However, there are quite a few popints that require improvement, all of them on the management level (many of which are mentioned in the other reviews) and the cleanliness and state of equipment varies quite a bit between the different places.

I wrote a letter to the general management in which I explained that I was very happy with all instructors I have seen in 5 years, but there were some things that could be improved such as sanitary conditions (there are spiderwebs, it smells bad and in general, is not clean). I also complained about inacceptable and very rude behaviour by the manager in Silhouette Vermont. The reply I received was shocking. There was no reply to any of the points I raised, instead, there were blaming me for the bad behaviour of their employee (and she was RUDE).

Unfortunately, Silhouette is my only option because it is very conveniently located with all the outlets that it has and I cannot go to another studio because none are really on my way.

I am afraid that Silhouette will continue to be badly managed as long as all of us go there, put up with sometimes crappy service and don't complain. Well, I tried, and it didn't seem so useful...

If you have a chance to use another gym, do it.

Im not using Sillouette since long, but i can tell: if your aim is to go and exercise, it`s a good place. Good classes, motivated teachers, plenty of machines. However, some days can be a bit crowded, depending on the time one goes.

I've been going to Silhouette for 31/2 years. I would give it 31/2 stars. For Switzerland, it's pretty good value. They have a center in every neighborhood in Geneva, hard to beat that.

It is what it is, a place with everything you need to work out, without the bells and the whistles. If it's not enough for you, you probably don't belong in a gym in the first place :)

I've been to many fitness centers in my life and this one is pretty nice. 10 different centers with good sauna, working out equipment and excellent body pump lessons. However if you always visit the croweded Alpes gym, the 10 centers argument looses appeal. One important thing to know: remember when your yearly fee is due, in order to be in time to quit your membership. Otherwise it's automatically re-newed and even if you are moving Geneva, the yearly membership fee must be paid. Make sure you terminate your contract with Silhouette, before your yearly membership ends.

"have been member of silhouette for some years: Mies/Versoix is the most spacious gym (although full of desperate housewife types in the morning..), ICC is good and the staff are helpful (but crowded at lunch), Pacquis is smallish but has a swimming pool. If you or your spouse work for an int. org you can also get a discount."

"Talking about Geneva Centers: Great place to excercise if you are one of those ppl that goes to gym to sweat and not (only) to be seen. No Frills, and way less fancy then Holmes place, but if you live in Geneva there are 10 centers you can choose from, and quite a few different type of classes. enough to find something you might like/want to do every day. Most of the center have a small sauna to relax after and a jacuzzi. Definetly worth the money."

"Very good value for money, no fancy stuff, dress as you like... Their gym lessons are great (my favourite is Body Balance), and personal counseling is included in the annual fee. Some of the gyms have jaccuzi, hammam and sauna."

"Yes! I went to the silouhette at meyrin and at the ICC, and both of them are good (ICC it's the better...)"

"Reasonable size for a small town like Nyon. Machines very busy during week time around 7 pm, then getting better as of 7.30 pm. Modern equipment, good trainers, premises correctly maintained. However, only 1 year and few months old. Heard was not too busy if you go at lunch time or after 5 pm. Also machines are not limited in time. Check out the deals, got a very good one ! See you there maybe."

"They have around 10 centers around Geneva and Nyon. Good no frills value for money.

If you're really into working out, and ambience / service is a lesser priority, it's a great choice."