Bay Club Portland

"Pros: - Good workout classes: There is a wide range of classes and teaching styles. - Adequate machinery: I'm always able to use a machine when I want to without much of a wait, if any. - Good location for me Cons: - Frequent and excessive price hikes alongside reduction in services: I'm seeing a lot of reviews with a similar sentiment that I echo, but I would like to specifically call out their recent guest pass policy update. Originally when you signed up in a shared membership each person within that membership got 2 guest passes a quarter, so if you had a full 6 person membership your group got 12 passes per quarter. Recently they changed the policy so that now only the primary member gets 2 guest passes per quarter, which nets out to less than one guest pass per member. This would be an acceptable policy if the non-primary member costs were drastically cheaper than the primary member costs, but they've raised the price for all memberships while stripping away benefits and this is only one example. - Outdated and dirty locker rooms: The locker rooms are extremely outdated, specifically the shower/spa areas. Unsure why it seems like there is not plan to update when they've been raking in our money with all of the rate increases. There is also always hair on the walls or in the drains and I've seen blood in the shower area floors twice recently. The floors they have in the locker area are also some weird mesh that probably dries quickly, but seems like a magnet for hair and other gross small dirt. - Unknowledgeable front desk staff: I went to the front desk around 7pm to try to change my phone number attached to my account and she said she couldn't do it and I would have to come back during the day. I feel like a simple request like that should be able to be done by any front desk staff? Otherwise why are they even standing there?"

"Pros: -Free coffee till 12pm -Large facility with 4 basketball courts -Nice young man works hard in the men’s locker room Cons: - Raised membership prices 4 times in the last 2 years -Kids world manager is rude and they have gotten rid of all kids events (not a family friendly club at all) -Creepy old man named “Joe” who bothers and hits on young women from 1030am-1230pm every day -Locker room is outdated and smells horrible. -The showers have no water pressure and some are infested with mold"

"Used to be an excellent micro-version of better Bay Clubs in California, now this place is okay if you’re single and well-heeled, but of limited value to a family. Their business practices are questionable lately, too, with unannounced and substantial rate hikes. During the pandemic, this gym offered to put peoples accounts on hold or if people were feeling generous, they could pay half of their club dues while the club was not being used. Many of us chose to pay that half because we liked the club. On returning to the club they've gotten rid of any discounts, increase the prices several times, and this January decided to make a 20% unannounced across-the-board membership fee increase. No warning, not even an email. See Jon Small's review for a cost increase breakdown. Now for a family of four it's around $450 for a club with no tennis courts, with a kids club that has half the hours it used to (so one of its main selling points that it has free babysitting for a couple of hours really isn't that useful after all), the classes have gone down in quality, the personal training rates are high, and the gift shop has moved on from selling normal brands like Nike/Adidas to selling brands that are triple the cost and half the quality. On top of that, you still have to pay handsomely for anything extra you do in the club, yet you pay for it like it's a country club. They’ve also made odd changes like getting rid of an excellent set up where you could look at your children in the kids club on several monitors. It was just grainy enough to maintain privacy while still allowing a broad overview of what was happening in that club with the children. Now they have no monitors and it’s unclear what’s going on in there. I know it was useful to me as a few times I saw my daughter in there just kind of sitting by herself, not really engaged or playing, which is not their responsibility, but it allowed me to at least understand what was happening to her in there. See other reviewers take on this as well. This seems to be consistent with other trends of limiting features, something also seen in how limited the outside pool hours are now. That used to be open largely through the year. I can’t tell if it’s laziness, they want to limit membership, or just want to test how little they can give. It’s a trend of less for more - shrinkflation at the gym. One thing is clear: this gym paints itself as family friendly, but has become more and more family unfriendly. Maybe that’s what they want, because it only makes sense anymore if you are a single person paying their single rate of nearly $200 per month, you don’t much care about the extras, and just kind of like towels, free coffee, and the click-clack of pickleball on your basketball court. Very San Francisco (and unlike the CA clubs, the Bay Club here doesn’t even have tennis courts). Overall, this is just continuing an overall trend of giving less and charging more. What does it matter if there’s free coffee if you’re chipping away at every other nice thing there was about this place. Do yourself a favor and find a country club, a tennis club, or any other kind of club. See if you're not getting more for the money at one of those. In the face of these incredible unannounced fee increases in January, their management team was conveniently out of town for meetings, so there was no one to talk to and after trying to I was directed to write to somebody on the app. When asked if there would be any more surprises, It was suggested that they expect a two month cancellation despite no evidence of any communication about these price increases. The staff are reasonable people, but the policies and shrinkflation are not. This used to be a great club, now it's another wolf in sheep's clothing classic gym-based extortionary money grab. Doesn’t it make you feel good to walk into a place where you don’t know what’s going to be canceled next? Sure beats feeling like things are getting better, right? Avoid this establishment and their California-based private equity ownership and management team."

"My family and I have been members of the club for only two years and within the last two years prices have gone up and quality to members have gone down. We started paying $260/month march 2022 for a family of four and as of today Jan 2024 pay $435/month. My biggest dissatisfaction as of the last year is that they no longer have the tv monitor where you can check the childcare cameras. This was a huge reason for why we chose to come here to begin with (childcare). Not being able to check on my child when I want to is disappointing to say the least. We use to be members of VillaSport prior to moving and I called them today to check current rates and ask about the child cameras and as of today they still have two very large TV’s that display cameras in all kids rooms both upstairs in the weight area and downstairs. VillaSport current rates are $284/month for a family of four. Why they decided to no longer display the childcare cameras is unsettling. Second complaint is summer camp. We signed up for one week of summer camp in 2022 which my son 5 at the time really enjoyed because he got to use the outdoor pool however last year summer 2023 (6 years old) $350/week he did not get to use the outdoor pool instead they did kitty pool inflatables in the parking lot for them to use. Had I known that would have been the case I would have not signed up for it. Last complaint would be outdated facilty for the price. The women’s restroom needs some love. The stalls are cracked taped together on the bottom as pictured barely holding on. My family will continue to come here not because we feel like we have much of a choice but mostly because it’s conveniently located."

"I love this gym. The facilities and experience are as close to perfect as can get. The prices have gone up a tremendous amount since I joined, with an increase it seems 2 x a year since the pandemic. They are not small increases. Cost for one person is currently 200/ month. Every time I see the price increase happening again I research the other gyms in the area and find either class based gyms with hours that don’t work for me, or a larger dirty gym with broken equipment. Stafford looks promising but no indoor pool, so I stay. It would be perfect if they could manage to charge a lot less and have a saline pool. Chlorine is pretty irritating"