Holmes Place

I am going to HP in Lisbon, PT. Good range of classes but the people are a bit stuck up. Now that I am leaving Portugal they are making it impossible to end the contract, although I had told them I would leave the country and they said that would be no problem. to put it plainly they lied and expect me to pay even though I will not live in the country... draw your own conclusions!

Great if you don't go to a health club to chill out. Very child friendly. Very busy. I left at the start of 2003 and revisited about a year ago. I was taken on a tour and could see no improvements but rather it looked even busier and less relaxed than before, including needing a bit of refurbishment as some of the fixtures looked tired.

I'll start off by saying I like Holmes Place. Their range of classes is great and I've been a member of HP in both Edinburgh and East Dorset. They are both very different in size and although the Edinburgh club was huge and had modern equipment, the staff was pleasant but never particularly friendly and they also suffer from a high staff turnover, so just as you get to know an instructor, they'd leave!

HP East Dorset is quite small and their equipment is not high-tech, but the staff are friendly and enthusiastic. The equipment is adequate but hopefully the buy-out by Virgin Active will change this and not bring them down-market.

Please do not make the same mistake that I did and get pressured into signing up to Holmes Place Gym. It is an absolute headache! I think when things go wrong, it's easy to judge a gym but this gym was bad. It was an absolute rip off! They also had smelly changing rooms.

While being a member of Holmes Place was good while it lasted, a bad experience when terminating my membership left a very bitter after-taste. To cancel, you need to call the member centre, receive a reference number, then notify your club in writing with one month's notice. I did all this, and was contacted by Holmes Place to confirm I could cancel my DD. Over 3 months later, it was a bit of a shock to receive a call from a debt collecting agency telling me they were starting litigation proceedings against me for a sizable amount on behalf of Holmes Place . Despite having the correct address and my telephone number, Holmes Place themselves had not contacted me in those three months. Furthermore, the guy gave little explanation and just demanded card payment and personal details! A call to Holmes Place confirmed that they had asked the company to contact me, but that there was, in fact, no need to do so as the account was not in arrears. I would advise getting everything in writing at all stages.

Meanspirited Holmes Place members of staff with resentful attitudes,lack of respect,untrained in people skills, restaurant area has gone from wonderful to tacky, now often smells of sweat from ajoining open plan gym and is badly ventilated.

Holmes Place is pretty good value for money. Handy (right in town). A very pleasant happy atmosphere nice staff. D Lloyd are cheaper in Kingston but having read reviews on them I think I will stay where I am.