BSC | Boston Sports Club - Review
I joined Boston Sports Club in the beginning of August, taking advantage of their special student rate ($19/month for one gym, $29/month for all gym access; with restrictions). Fortunately the membership required only a small initial fee, and created no long term contract. And I get to keep the student rate until I discontinue membership! I opted for the $29/month option which gave me access to all BSCs, with two suburban exceptions. Recently, at HubSpot, we secured a few group discounts with two gyms, BSC being one of them. I thought this review would be a good chance to share my thoughts.
The Company
Boston Sports Club is as corporate as they come. Its parent company, Town Sports International, resides over four club brands: New York Sports Club, Boston Sports Club, Washington Sports Club, and Philadelphia Sports Club. Altogether TSI operates 155 gyms and has over 450,000 members. Accordingly, things move slowly at BSC; the people that run it don't own it and it shows. Sometimes the employees are awesome and go out of their way to smile and welcome you (the Davis Square crew are particularly good). Other times they barely acknowledge you and seem crabby (Wellington!). Also keep in mind that because they have almost half a million members, they outsource their collections to a collections agency. That means that letting your credit card on file go expired or attempting to get out of your contract by stopping payments could hurt your credit score (and generate tens of calls from a collections agency...even at work!). Keep on top of that stuff.
That being said, because they operate so many clubs they really do know how to run a mid-to-high end gym. There is excellent consistency between gyms both in the quality of machines and in the way they look and run. Some of their urban gyms are understandably smaller, more cramped, and are even sometimes in basements (Central Square, I'm talking about you). I have been to the Wellington, Davis Square, and East Side of Providence Clubs, respectively.
Facilities
The equipment itself is awesome. I use the elliptical, some of the upper body machines, and the treadmills. They have different options for everything (different types of ellipticals and treadmills let you find and pick a favorite). I tried one of the Woodway Treadmills recently and I found that I really prefer it over conventional wide belt treadmills. Highly recommended for other distant runners cooped up inside; their clever slogan is "Woodway: For the Long Run." All of the cardio equipment has good looking 12" TVs with roughly 30 channels of good-looking live TV and assorted music video channels.
The layout of everything makes perfect sense. In Wellington, for instance, the first floor is the pool, locker rooms, and offices. The second level holds all of the cardio, the upper/lower body machines that people who use cardio would want (I LOVE that), and then they save the top floor for extra cardio machines and a place for the body builders to work out together. As I said, it all makes sense and gives different user personas different workflows. That last sentence was for you, HubSpotters!
Cleanliness varies by gym, most notably for me with the Davis Square location. I am not kidding when I say that they have carpeted locker room floors. The rest of the location is cramped (so usually somewhat smelly) but reasonably well ventilated. I still can't get over the carpeted floors. Anyway, I make it a point to always use the provided towels and spray to clean every machine that I use. I have definitely noticed that cleaning the machines needs to be more commonplace for the other gymgoers. The locker rooms and sauna are always pretty clean, but as reviewers on yelp say, the towels could be bigger. They work for me, but anybody much larger than 160 pounds might have a problem with them. Towel service is always well maintained and complimentary shampoo/conditioner/body wash is pretty good for free. The saunas are always running well and have good, working thermometers. The lockers are large enough for whatever you're bringing from work; just make sure you bring a combo lock. Parking is free up to two hours at the Wellington Station location with validation inside. There's also free outdoor parking at the Providence East Side location, but no parking for Davis Square.
There's one thing about the way that the clubs are run that irks me. The only time you ever see BSC (non-janitorial) employees on the gym floor are when they're doing a one-on-one training session. The trainers will never come up to you to see how you're doing or otherwise interact with you at all. No employees will ever come out to test machines unless you drag them to a particular machine to prove it. This lack of interactivity makes it a do-it-yourself gym. One day at the Wellington location I tried nine treadmills before I found one that mechanically worked and had a working TV. None of this is enough to get really angry at BSC, but you can feel that this is a step down from Equinox. Or so I've heard. I've also heard that the classes are great and free, but they don't really appeal to me.
The Bottom Line
I've been really happy working out at BSC these past two months. If you're looking for a quality, reasonably priced, and well-run gym AND if there's a BSC within ten minutes from your house, do it. I've read the instructions on the machines that I use, I go to the gym roughly four times a week, and I've definitely seen results and, more importantly, feel great. The large, clean, and open layout of the gym makes BSC a great option. Even at $59/month I could justify the expense if I continue to use it routinely. This isn't a gym to sign up for and then not go. My advice is simple; do a month trial for $30 and really ask yourself if you'll stick with it.
Also be sure to check out the individual Yelp review pages of any BSCs you would want to use with your membership. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them as a blog comment.