Washington Sports Clubs

Great trainers, especially Tyree. Very knowledgeable, passionate about fitness, and dedicated to his clients. I have found a home gym here thanks to his professionalism and support in my journey to health. I’d definitely recommend Tyree for your training needs!

The instructor in the Tuesday 5:30pm cardio cross training course stopped me on my way out the door to give me this comment:
«Hey, you indian? you have that look»
Me: yes, i am (eyes man wearily, edging away)
Him (his name is Tyree Macavoy): «you got a good body for an indian girl! you’re athletic, most indian girls don’t look like they work out»
Me: NEVER SAY THAT TO ANYONE EVER AGAIN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU
Him: What? It’s a compliment, how about this instead, ‘you got a good body’
Me: Runs away, screaming internally and wanting to punch someone
Needless to say I will NEVER be going back to that class. Thanks for nothing WSC.
P. S. This is not the first time I’ve been hit on or stopped awkwardly by trainers at both the Dupont Circle and Columbia Heights locations. WSC NEEDS to institute some sort of comprehensive sexual harassment education program for their employees and particularly their fitness instructors.

its a culture of nobody gives a shit. they pretty much all got an attitude and it’s just not a pleasant place to workout whatsoever and it turns into me loathing to go there. theres not even that much space in order to support the volume of people. the equipment is average at best. the shower area is a bit funky. they turn off the sauna early before closing. the managers are nonexistent, and when they are, they are not helpful. have to freeze or cancel your membership in person and they make you jump through unnecessary hoops to do so. outrageous cancellation fees and stuff once youre locked in. Im pretty sure after a year you even have to pay to not continue your membership. Like, wtf is that bullshit. Avoid. I’m only in it for the sauna and weights but would cancel in a heartbeat if i could. find any alternative at all. literally, anything else. Peace.

Update: Tyler, the manager, assisted me in resolving this. He was very kind and responsive, which I very much appreciate. Still, it was ridiculous to have to go through what I went through and spend as much time on the phone as I did to take care of this.

Really poor service. They don’t even care if you sign up and the sales consultants are extremely unknowledgable. One of them promised they’d follow up with me to set up my membership since he needed a manager to make changes to my existing membership.
Of course, no follow up and instead when I follow up, he piles on random fees that weren’t mentioned before. And the promo he had mentioned 2 days before? Doesn’t apply obviously.
I’ve been going to another WSC for awhile. One of the «value» gyms. This particular one is over 3x more expensive. Customer service is 3x worse.
Update: GM did follow up after complaining to my current gym and waived the extra fees and apologized for confusion.

I had a membership at WSC for 2+ years. A rating of 1 out of 5 stars is generous.
On customer satisfaction, this company is on the same level as cable companies.
WSC makes it extremely difficult to cancel your membership. You have to cancel in person when the «manager» decides to come into work (which is only at the most inconvenient times). They told me I could also cancel by calling a corporate number, but no one answers the corporate number. When a company sets up hurdles to prevent its members from canceling, you know something is wrong.
Also, I’ve worked out at multiple WSC locations — the gyms are all mediocre at best. A lot of the equipment is very old and doesn’t work. They frequently lack towels and other basic gym amenities.
There are better gym options in the DC area.

I worked out here for two days which attending a conference next door at the Hilton. I had previously had bad experiences with New York Sports Club, but WSC made me rethink the brand. The staff I dealt with were very friendly and helpful, and the facility is extensive, clean, with lots of fun «extras.» There are 3 floors, one of the floors having a «yard» where you can do agility ladder drills, TRX, kettlebells. Every type of cardio and strength training equipment/​balance equipment you could possibly want, and all in good working order and well maintained. I’m not into group fitness classes but they had separate rooms for spinning, aerobics, yoga, so I’m sure they were ample. The locker rooms are immaculately kept by an also very friendly housekeeper, and there is towel service. I didn’t see a place to get smoothies, that might be one thing they consider adding in the future, but I loved what I was able to see of this gym in 2 days.

The only reason I go to this gym is that it’s somewhat convenient. But seriously go somewhere else if you can.
The machines always have a grimy, dirty feeling. Many free weights actually have their own foul odor. And the exercise class rooms are dank. This place just doesn’t seem well maintained. Get ready to use lots of hand sanitizer here.
You will have to constantly let staff know that tvs on the ellipticals and bikes aren’t working as they fail to proactively check these. At any given point many aren’t working.
The trainers, floor staff are rude and sometimes bullying. They will monopolize machines with clients. If you are not in a class or being trained here expect to be asked to move all the time.
Classes inconveniently scheduled means you will constantly be invited to leave exercise class rooms — no matter that the room may be filled with people and the scheduled class only has 2 people.
The service here has only gotten more lackadaisacal here over the past year. No one seems to be focused on client satisfaction.

Horrible Horrible customer service. The people at the front desk are fine but they messed up the billing on my personal training and they haven’t even tried to fix it. Their tactics appear to be that if you ignore someone’s complaint long enough it will just go away. I have called every day for two weeks to speak to the manager I need to fix this, and he is conveniently always not in or in a meeting and I leave a message every day for him and have not yet received a single phone call. If you have another gym option, take it! Their business model is clearly to scam people out of their money! No major complaints with their facilities or general personnel, but not worth the administrative headache.

I became a member of this gym back in 2013 and enjoyed my membership until October of 2014 when an unusual incident occurred. I signed up for a personal training membership at the cost of $ ³⁹³⁄₃ months. Half way through my personal training membership, I showed up for a training session one day and my trainer never showed. I made repeated attempts to contact the club management and discover why I had been stood up by my trainer — it took more than a week for someone to finally contact me. I never received an apology and learned from another club member that my trainer was no longer employed at the gym. Again, I never received any notice from the management team at the gym about this change. I then requested to cancel my personal training membership effective immediately which eventually I was granted. I then attempted to use the gym for workouts after the personal training membership was canceled and was denied access to the gym because I was told by the front desk staff my membership was canceled — my entire membership. After repeated attempts to call and leave messages for the management team, no one ever contacted me back to discuss the circumstances and as such, my membership to the gym was canceled.
Fast forward to 1 year later and I receive a letter from a collections agency that I am past due on my membership dues. Of course I am stunned by this considering I was denied access to the gym because I was told my membership was canceled and no one from management ever returned my calls to rectify the situation. Furthermore, how come after the second or third time the gym failed to collect my monthly dues they didn’t call me to understand what was going on? Why am I only hearing about this nearly 1 year after they are claiming I stopped paying my dues? Mind blowing. After a lengthy discussion with corporate on the circumstances, I am essentially told that I am responsible for 3 months worth of past dues after which my membership should have been canceled. Furthermore, after explaining what I was told by the front desk staff, corporate essentially told me that the persons who work the front desk are not held accountable for what they tell the members and that I will need documentation or proof of what was said to me in order to have the entire balance eradicated. And corporate was never willing to address the fact that after many, many attempts to reach club management, none of them ever returned my messages — essentially not holding them accountable for their behavior either. A serious gaff in customer service.
The management team of this gym lacks the basic customer service skills necessary to run a reputable business. Repeated attempts were made to contact the club manager (Josh) — he never returned my calls or emails. And now I am being help liable for 3 months of dues to a facility I was unable to access because I was told my membership was canceled.
In the Dupont Circle area, there are other gyms with much nicer facilities, much nicer equipment, and much more customer service oriented management staff. Try Vida a few blocks away.

If I could put 0 stars I would. This place sucks all around. Not only is the equipment subpar and the facility dirty, the customer service is the worst I’ve experienced at any company in a long time. Do yourself a favor and join any other gym in the area. I guarantee you it will be better.

I recently joined up here. I’ve been using their facilities for a few months and so far no complaints. Professional & knowledgable sales & training personnel.
It’s got three Flores and lots of free classes that you can attend with a gym membership. I’ve taken to the spinning classes and the hours are perfect for me. The instructor ms are a good example and professional as well as helpful and friendly.
Overall, It’s a good gym! I would recommend it to anyone in the neighborhood.
If you are looking for a deal on a membership, they often have reduced price memberships and referring a friend can get the friend an even cheaper membership. So, check it out for sure! If you have a friend who goes to WSC, sign up through them!

This is the worst gym not only in DC but everywhere. They never respond or react to feedback. They keep the gym at a warm temperature which is then a sauna after 5 minutes of working out. Once you «leave» or «cancel» a membership by jumping through a million hoops they continue to harass you over email stating you need to update your account and pay your billing when you are no longer there. Worst service and definitely worst gym ever.

Just joined — seems amazing so far! The staff has already been wonderful. I had my free training session within 24 hrs with Kevin, whom I can’t recommend highly enough. He is incredibly intelligent and knowledgable about sports medicine, rehab, biomechanics, muscle recruitment patterns, and all types of strength training. He was as impressive as DPTs I’ve seen and is kind, gentle, and very generous with his time. I didn’t expect to find someone as high caliber there and I am saving my pennies for more sessions.
Tyler gave me the tour and walked me through signing up — very straightforward and professional, he didn’t upsell at all and he listened to my fitness goals and helped me find ways to fulfill them at the new gym.
I feel very welcome there so far and look forward to making their ample facility my new home.

The main selling point for me is the location. The moment another gym opens in this neighborhood, I’m leaving. I’ve been so disappointed with the management and most of the staff, who are careless, disengaged, and mostly incompetent.
Try asking any of the staff a question and see if you can get an informed answer. I don’t know whether they are untrained or not empowered by management, but I can’t even finish my question before they say «I have to call a manager.» Then I wait for the manager. The current manager, Josh, has zero management skills or customer orientation. He never walks around the gym to see what kinds of issues people might be having. If he did, he might see the broken equipment, the dirt, the frustration of patrons.
The workout areas and locker room/​showers are filthy. There is always some broken equipment. The clocks don’t work or tell the wrong time (small detail, but it projects an overall lack of attention). Some classes play criminally loud music (check out Tuesday’s 6:30 class in the large studio — the decibels are dangerous).
It wouldn’t take much to turn this place around, but it needs some leadership.

After another couple bad experiences with management I have officially thrown in my resignation (which you have to do 30 days in advance, so keep that in mind).
After noticing I have been overcharged on my statement (3 times!) I talked to someone who said the money would be refunded in 7 – 10 days, 20 days later I still see an errant charge and go to talk to someone– of course no one is available to help until 2pm the next workday– very convenient! When I do finally get ahold of Andre he tells me that there has been a statement credit placed back in my account for 3 months free– when I’m just asking for a charge of $ 40+ back in my account, as this makes no sense I ask for more information, he is completely unhelpful, saying one thing and then back tracking saying another. By the end of my call I was thoroughly confused and no where closer to getting money back to me, but was given a 800 number where apparently they have more oversight of the account than the place that you opened it. I am giving my account a couple more days before I call the 800 number, and my fingers are crossed but I am not hopeful due to the poor track record.
Today I gave my 30 days notice and was asked by the General Manager why, I didn’t get into details but said that I was frustrated with dealing with their unknowledgeable management/​accounts staff and it wasn’t worth it anymore, he prompted me further with questions, and had a response to everything I brought up– «oh was that Andre? I have a hard time believing that, because Andre knows his stuff” — I shouldn’t have to feel on the defense as a customer, and it shouldn’t take this much effort to have something done right! Very poor management, stay away from this location and if you do decide on WSC, good luck.

I don’t know why anyone would bother with any other gyms in the area. WSC has everything you would expect from a full featured gym at a incredibly great value. The trainers are excellent and down to earth people who really want to help you achieve your fitness goals. If you’re more into doing your own thing, you won’t be bothered either as it’s never overcrowded. The facilities are also clean and well maintained.
Check it out, you won’t be disappointed!

I had a bad experience canceling my membership.
A year ago, I moved out of the area. WSC doesn’t allow you to cancel your membership over the phone if you still live in the area. Before moving, I turned in my membership card in person. The cancellation meeting was awkward because a membership representative insisted on trying to convince me not to cancel my membership even though I was leaving the area.
Today, I noticed that my membership was never canceled and that I’ve been accidentally paying WSC for over a year. It’s my fault that I let this slip for so long but I wanted to share how sleezy WSC acted earlier when I called their national hot line.
(1) I was on hold for 30 minutes;
(2) During the call I was placed on hold three times;
(3) WSC wouldn’t refund any of the fees I mistakenly paid because I didn’t have an email confirmation of cancellation;
(4) WSC still insisted on charging me for membership through Feb. even though I’ve already been paying for a year without using the gym;
(5) WSC would not remove a one-​time Jan. 1 fee to lock in my membership rate even though I was canceling my account. Also, the rate they were charging me is apparently double the rate they are advertising in mass mailings and on the street.

WSC, what can I say about you? I signed up for this gym because I was offered a corporate rate and my office is close by. I have been consistently disappointed with my experiences here.
When you first sign up, you get a «fitness evaluation,» which essentially consists of one of trainers telling you you should sign up for the training program — definitely a sales ploy.
There are a bunch of machines at this location — treadmills, ellipticals, a cross fit section, a couple stretching areas (one of which has a very low ceiling and makes you feel like the wall is about to cave in on you), rowing machines, a whole separate floor for weights, a spin studio, yoga studio, and a multipurpose studio.
My main bone to pick with this place is the poor quality of the equipment. When one of the rowing machines had the footstraps broken, the manager told me in June that they were going to get all of the machines serviced in the next couple of weeks. It’s October. It’s still the same.
Also, they cram the machines next to each other on the back wall and while all of the machines have individual TVs on them, BARELY ANY OF THEM WORK. When I first came here, I didn’t understand that you needed to plug your headphones into the jack for the TV to turn on. I went up to the front desk and asked if someone could assist me. The front desk person said he would send someone to help me… no one came. Poor customer service.
Not to mention that few of the stride machines work well enough to keep your workout on them for more than 1 minute at a time. When I asked the front desk person about it, she replied that a technician came an hour ago… I call BS. The handle bars on every one of the machines I have tried have been grossly sticky– and YES I cleaned the handlebars off myself.
I will say that the one positive thing about this place is the group classes. I enjoy the spin classes, pilates mat classes, yoga, and zumba. They do get pretty crowded though.
The locker rooms are average and are usually kept pretty clean but the hand towels run out pretty fast.
To sum it all up, the staff at WSC really only cares about making their sales quota and not the well-​being of their members. A very disappointing club– I would rather pay double and go to Equinox.

They continued charging after we canceled, we tried to fix it over the phone, they were unhelpful and over complicated, I left a bad review on Unilocal,they contacted me to resolve the issue, after some back and forth haggling they finally admitted their mistake and refunded 80% of the overcharged fees. Hence the power of social media.
The gym is satisfactory: older machines, pretty busy, lots of machines, in the basement, expensive for what it is but very conveniently located. Works but wouldn’t sign up again — especially after the payment pain in the neck.