Holmes Place Reviews 

Awful making the elderly walk up a steep hill to watch the protest go by every Sunday morning

I was very disappointed with the customer service at the HP Sports Center in Hasenheide, Berlin.

Let me explain.
The pool was closed for five months due to maintenance during the two years I was a member.
I requested a reduction in my monthly fee due to the lack of pool access—twice via email, with no response.

I also asked twice at the Hasenheide front desk, where I was similarly ignored.

A sports centre that positions itself as a premium service cannot neglect such a fundamental aspect of the business: the customer journey.
I felt completely ignored, canceled my membership, and have since joined a new gym with great satisfaction.

In conclusion, it's too expensive for the quality of service provided.

I want to do a Review for Holmes Places Barcelona , Club Balmes and Urquinaona.

I want to do a positive review for the the team members and the instructors.

All people and facilities are nice and great club in the City center of Barcelona

I highly recommend the Dance Classes with the instructor Nykos
I been at his Classes on Monday 19h30 at HP Urquinaona and Tuesday at 15h15 HP Balmes , this teacher is really professional and lot of energy .

I must say that finally I found a great class where we can enjoy dancing .

The worst scam of a gym. Their rates are obscene and they make promises that they then refuse to honor. They offered a suspension of my contract (because I am away for 2 months) and they then said it was not possible because of my "type of contract" (I took that type of contract because they offered the suspension). Customer Service is USELESS, they are rude and refuse to help in any way.
I asked to cancel and they said any day before the 20th of the month I can cancel for it to take effect for the next month. I canceled on Nov 16, 2023, and they documented it was going to take effect December 1st, 2023 and just received an email that my cancellation would not take effect until January 2024 and that they will keep charging me.

Stay away! Worst gym I've ever been a member of. Everything looks great when you are signing in, but whenever you try to leave they will hunt down until you pay all the hidden fees and penalties they can think of.
Paid around 275€ in penalties upon canceling the contract. Not worth it, believe me.

Nice, but too expensive. Not best value for money

Stay away as far as you could, crazy policy, nothing protects clients, they suck you dry... shameful, i would have given less rating if I could, one star is way too much for them.

I am writing this as a public and informal complaint about the customer service we have experienced at Holmes Place Oeiras Parque in Portugal.

We recommend any foreigner (or Portuguese national) to consider this following post before signing up to Holmes Place (a globally operating chain) with it’s self proclaimed slogan ‘’A place to get you the most out of life’’ and boasts of a ‘’Premium Service’’

As an overview, my partner and myself work internationally as Dj’s and Music Producers and have used gyms all over the world. Moving from London to Portugal this time last year we had no idea what to expect from the standards of customer care here, but this particular case has left us VERY DISSAPOINTED.

Issues we have encountered range from customer service, equipment use, emails being unanswered and now most shockingly our gym wear!

This complaint is not aimed at every staff member, as some are polite and respectful. It is however aimed towards Holmes Place as a company, the gym manager at Oeiras Parque and a percentage of the staff there.

As new members starting the gym last year we were greeted, or not as it is in this case, with quite a cold reception from the vast majority of the staff members. We put this down to the immaturity of certain staff members, un-worldliness or maybe just because we are foreigners who do not speak the language and thought that after time this would improve.

From receptionists not turning around to say hello as we checked in, to ‘Member Interaction’ staff refusing to greet us, smile, say hello or make eye contact when crossing our path… it was made evident they intended us to feel unwelcome there.

Our first interaction with the gym manager came after we wanted to bring the above matter to his attention. He was very responsive and seemed to sympathise and even knew which members of staff were the problem. He said he would sort this issue out and we had every faith that he would.

Nothing changed.

Our second interaction with him was after being told by staff members that we are not allowed to use the spin bikes in the studio. We made it clear that we were using them because the only two that are available on the gym floor were either in use or often badly maintained. We were told that under no circumstances were we allowed to use any of the 30 or so bikes that sit dormant in the studio all day. We were assured that a 3rd bike would be available on the gym floor. When asked why we were not able to use the bikes in the studio, the answer was simply ‘’these are the rules’’.

No 3rd bike ever appeared.

Today the final interaction came. A new member of staff who we have never seen before approached us, while in the middle of completing a set of weights, and with barely an introduction informed me that I was breaking rules by wearing a cap in the gym! (To clarify this is an Adidas sports cap sold in a sports shop worn for personal reasons). When we asked why he simply said ‘’these are the rules’’ and would not give any further information or reasons for this.

So again we asked to speak to the gym manager to clear up this situation. The gym manager took the same stance ‘’these are the rules’’ without giving any more concise reasoning or explanation. We asked if we can take the matter up with higher management and the answer was ‘’we can not give out numbers of Holmes Place head office’’ and that there is an email address if we wish to talk to anyone further.

The gym manager was being anything but kind, responsive and friendly, he actually was obviously distracted and made it clear that there was another meeting he wanted to get to that was more pressing than ours. He simply kept saying ‘’these are the rules’’ and ‘’there is nothing I can do’’

We explained how the sports cap has been worn for most of the year and not one of the gym’s staff, including the gym manager himself, has ever mentioned it before he again had no explanation to give us.

He then said that there are clear signs all over the gym stating ‘no hats allowed’ we said we have never seen any such signs and shockingly his retort was ‘’I am not obliged to have these signs in English’’ quite a statement considering Holmes Place is originally a British Health Club chain.

It is also important to point out that upon signing our contract we were never made aware of these apparent rules and regulations.

We tried to mention the other unresolved issues (staff, equipment, ignored emails etc) with hopes that he would have some understanding and treat us like respected paying customers who matter, but this did not happen today so we had no choice but to ask to cancel our memberships and be refunded the month in advance we had literally just paid.

… and of course he said ‘’No we can’t do that’’ and again the now familiar ‘’these are the rules’’

The reactions of the gym manager started to feel hostile, to the point of feeling like we were back at school having to face a head teacher, which is not something you expect while trying to relax and work out at a health club for adults.

It would be easy for the gym manager to just see us as numbers, trouble, serial complainers or whatever he chooses but in reality we just wanted a nice and friendly atmosphere to train in, with polite staff, have accessible equipment and the right to wear our normal gym attire without being harassed.

Our frustrations and have complaints have only been fueled by his inability to provide us with valid solutions to the problems we have raised and the frequent use of the statement “you can’t, no, these are the rules etc.”

When taking into account the gyms branding ‘’A community to help you thrive’’ and the premium price we pay to use it, we expect a certain level of treatment and have definitely not received the type of service we feel is appropriate.

Keep in consideration that there are plenty of locally situated gym chains in the area that charge a tiny fraction of what we have been paying at Holmes Place.

To make today (My birthday) really special we received a ‘’Happy Birthday’’ phone call from a staff member at the gym office… SPEECHLESS!

Who needs a stranger calling them to say Happy Birthday when you can’t get a smile or hello when you actually attend the gym?

This experience, mainly down to the gym manager and his lack of customer service skills and inability to take command of his team has left us with a very bad impression of the Holmes Place brand. It seems to simply be a bureaucratic money-making machine who have no real interest in or care for the people who actually keep the company running. THE CUSTOMER!

Oh and one more thing, Holmes Place do not reply to customer emails.

Goodbye Holmes Place. It’s been average to BAD knowing you.