P.S: Thanks to Adeline for editing this post upon the grammars, chosen of words, and consistency of using American English :)Fitness centers at malls have been a trend for the last 3 years. I need to underline the location at malls, since there are many other fitness centers built long time ago. Celebrity Fitness may be the pioneer when they opened their first club at eX-Plaza Indonesia in 2003. Fitness trend at malls were booming yet it still made Celebrity Fitness very popular. Today it has 11 clubs in Indonesia and growing.
I joined Celebrity Fitness (CF) on May 2005 to reduce my weight and for the sake of a healthy lifestyle. *grin* I've been participating pretty actively in its classes such as body combat, RPM, street jam, jazzercise, etc. I enjoy my membership benefits even though lately I rarely use it.
Fitness First (FF) expanded their wings to Indonesia and had their first club at Plaza Semanggi in 2005. I visited their club when they have their soft-opening on May 2005 right after I joined Celebrity. First impression about the club: SO NARROW! They divided 1600m2 into 3 different floors which were connected by stairs. I didn't like it at all. I saw their lounge which provides free drinks (water, softdrinks, tea) but still, it was too small. In addition to that, the location is definitely not strategical. Plaza Semanggi has a worsened parking problems for sure!
Nowadays, FF has learnt from its mistake regarding its club location. After having the 2nd club at Cibubur Junction, more clubs are coming soon at Taman Anggrek apartment on August 4 and Senayan City on July 1, 2006. More clubs will open at Grand Indonesia shopping town, Gandaria Main Street and Kota Casablanca (2008).
My mom and I were invited by phone to get to know more about Fitness First pre-sale this afternoon at Taman Anggrek Mall. They are giving away free joining fees and discount for monthly fees that end today. They explained the better value of Fitness First, compared with Celebrity Fitness. E.g. locker rooms which use the more secure card swipe system (in CF, we have to bring our own padlocks), swimming pools (which CF don't have), more varieties of free drinks (water-only in CF), and more clubs to access all over the world for passport-holding members (FF have 460 clubs internationally incl. in the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and many more) but CF have fewer. As for hygiene, FF give headphones to every member upon joining the club so that they can listen to the cardio theatre without having to share it with others. In CF, it is vice versa.
Fitness First offer membership fees starting from IDR 330,000 (home and no towels) up to IDR 595,000 (passport) per month excluding IDR 250,000 administration fee, whereas the fees in Celebrity Fitness start from IDR 297,000 (under 22yrs old) up to IDR 888,000 (all club). However, CF also offer packages to pay in advance for 3yrs (Emmy), 6yrs, or a lifetime (diamond) that will make the monthly fee much cheaper than usual. Somehow I just think that CF's packages are just to keep their members from switching to FF. Lately I just got infos that CF have been giving these packages from their first opening.
Poor CF management has made me think twice to sign out and move to FF. Their lack of appreciation to their personal trainers (PT) is the main reason why most of them have moved to FF. My former PT told me that they were only paid IDR 25,000 per session when in fact CF charge IDR 180,000 per session. CF is so tight! How can CF keep good PTs if they don't care for them?
About CF service; they are often careless about maintaining their facilities. I often see lockers, hairdryers, showers, steam rooms, and other equipments broken but they don't fix them ASAP. But when it comes to membership payment, once u're late, they'll ring u for hundreds of times until u settle the payment. Don't u think customer satisfaction is the highest priority?