January is always the busiest time of year for gyms. Fueled by a combination of new year’s resolutions and summer holiday bookings, people join gyms up and down the country. For a few months of the year, booking a spin class or getting onto a rowing machine becomes difficult. With 48% of gym members wanting to do at least one group class a week and 14% of the UK population having an active gym membership, that’s a lot of people to get into the gym.
People join a gym for very good reasons, but there are a number of reasons they stop going to the gym:
Increasing your customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 55%. By keeping a chunk of those who leave because it is too busy, you could transform your business. But with most gyms being made of bricks and mortar, how can you add more space?
Most people think of marquees as a place for weddings or festivals. They think of canvas and guy ropes. Marquees are no longer like that. We provide spaces from 9 – 1900 square metres, with nothing getting in the way. Modern marquees can have solid floors, secure walls, heating and power. They can be as luxurious or as basic as you wish.
Adding a marquee to the side of your gym, using car park or grass spaces, can give you the space to provide bigger high intensity or dance fitness classes. If you have more exercise equipment, the additional space could be used for that. Both would mean fewer people complaining, and ultimately leaving, due to your gym being too busy.
A number of David Lloyd gyms made use of our marquees to provide more space as we came out of lockdown. With social distancing rules limiting the number of people who could go into the rooms in their building, the marquees provided much bigger spaces so they could keep their customers happy.
People who are going to stop going normally do so within 3-4 months. By keeping a marquee for that period of time, you maximise the availability of classes and equipment availability until some members stop going (there will always be some) and there is space back in the building.
If demand continues, simply keep the marquee in place until you get planning permission to extend the building!