VIDA - Gallery Place - CLOSED

Negative experience: I really wanted to like this gym. I came in on travel and had high hopes. They were touted as a nice gym for professionals and charged a high price for a day pass. I showed up. No one working the front desk, and then they wanted more money for the day pass after same day text message confirmation of cost. I went upstairs to use the equipment, jump on the pool and use the steam room. Come to find out, all pools are down and the steam room isn't working. Machines are missing screws and bolts and some pieces are bent or broken. Save your money. Go somewhere that appreciates your business and takes care of theirs. I can't give 0 stars or I would

Negative experience: The asian guy hat backwards ( john or something) early morning rude , attitude and why hes working customer service no clue . This gym is 90% gay males , so be prepared for that if its not your lifestyle. 3 stories , equipment is well planned out . Hard to get around , much better options

Fantastic experience: Best gym in DC...

Negative experience: Low class gym chain . They think they are Equinox . Not even close . No Applepay, terrible old punch card system . Horrible untrained management. Terrible low class owner.

Fantastic experience: It's one of the best Gym in the City. I like it. I just wish that all the staffs will be more friendly and just say Hellos.

Negative experience: Dishonest Terrible management and owner!

Negative experience: Too pricey they want mortgage money and to treat you bad.....I don't think so

Fantastic experience: Clean gym, friendly staff, and it is my go-to when I visit DC.

Fantastic experience: Went here at the last minute before catching a flight. Unlike other nearby gyms, allowed for visitor pass without knowing a member. Staff was extremely pleasant and helpful. Great facility and equipment as well.

Fantastic experience: Very nice environment, kind staff and good housekeeping. Not usually crowded and a very flexible operating hours. It doesn’t hurt to have a salon there which I also visited. I would like some more leg exercise equipment but, regarding the rest, is very complete. I am really enjoying my membership here. The location is also very convenient!

Fantastic experience: Good facilities kind staff

Negative experience: They banned me for being unvaccinated against COVID, even though (1) I medically cannot receive the COVID vaccination and (2) I already had and recovered from COVID. They flat out rejected my medical exemption without providing any reason, and they didn't refund me for the personal training sessions I had already purchased. Demanding and segregating members based on COVID vaccination status is as disgusting as it is medically unwarranted. Based on what occurs in the sauna, they'd have more impact against disease by mandating proof of antibiotics.

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym. The facilities are always clean and the staff is very friendly!

Fantastic experience: Great location and team. Highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Great club, great experience. This location is a little older than some of the other ones, but still meets VIDA's high quality standards. The location is great for commuting.

Fantastic experience: Excellent equipment and amenities, friendly staff, and cut a very attractive rate for the soldiers staying in DC to assist at the Capital. Thank you for your support!

Positive experience: Ok

Fantastic experience: Nice staff, and now, new pools. Your safety is their concern.

Fantastic experience: Very friendly staff. And the facilities are clean. Very clean. The staff is also thoughtful about making sure your visit is comfortable particularly because of covid. I appreciate them.

Positive experience: With so many gyms to choose from, VIDA has really stood out to me as one of the best for a number of reasons. Since the pandemic, they really took member's safety seriously and have taken a number of great steps to keep us safe. To be able to go to the gym and feel safe during these trying times is a huge improvement in my quality of life!

Fantastic experience: Great gym, the front desk staff are friendly and very helpful. Also great facility to work out in.

Negative experience: During COVID they charged you even though the gym was closed! YOU WERE CHARGED FOR A PRODUCT THAT WAS NOT AVAILABLE TO YOU, .,I lost $900 and impossible to negotiate with them

Fantastic experience: Utmost levels of concern for the well being of members. I feel safer in Vida than anywhere else.

Fantastic experience: Gallery Place is the crown jewel of the VIDA family. Huge windows, so it's always bright and airy. Wonderful staff. Great place to spend an hour or two sweating.

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym, great facilities and friendly, helpful staff! Personal trainer Brian Kolb is outstanding--he is the best!!

Fantastic experience: Vida Gallery Place has kept me sane during the pandemic - my personal trainer kept me on track and now that the club is open, I love going in. It’s extremely clean, equipment is all in great shape, everyone respects the mask policy, and it’s just really a great place to work out.

Fantastic experience: Well-maintained gym with a variety of equipment. Staff is friendly and helpful. The COVID cleaning is top notch. Good communications throughout the COVID crisis has also been much appreciated.

Fantastic experience: Overall really great gym. They have handled reopening during the pandemic even better than my high expectations. I feel extremely safe with their well thought out cleaning and social distancing procedures.

Positive experience: Staff is very friendly! However the gym layout is not the most easy to navigate through as you work out. Since there isn’t too much horizontally the gym is 3 stories high with many different machine areas on 2 different floors which isn’t convenient for super-setting. The individual pools were broken for a long time, and equipment doesn’t seem to get fixed with any sense of urgency. Steam room is coed and pretty spacious.

Fantastic experience: This is one of my favorite gyms anywhere. It’s a perfect size for a central, downtown location. They have the latest equipment including the Woodway treadmills which are great for those with knee joint issues. They have lots of rubber plate weights & platforms for deadlifts & cleans. They have my spin bikes with Coach by Color system which is great in a spin class or using alone sigh the bike app. The gym is clean & well designed. It can get crowded during before 9am & after 5pm rush, but nothing too bad. Friendly staff make it my gym of choice in DC.

Fantastic experience: Light and love

Fantastic experience: I started off going to the U St location because I read bad reviews here for Gallery Place, but honestly was very satisfied and happy with my experience at this location! Locker rooms are very nice, there’s ample space in the stretching area, a lot of cardio machines, and overall very nice employees. Ignore the bad reviews here and give it shot yourself visiting this location/using this gym! It made me happy and I am now going to this location instead U St moving forward!

Fantastic experience: Love this place. I'm a member and can go to any location. This is my favorite by far. The atmosphere, staff and amenities are top notch. Not to mention the location.

Negative experience: Can't understand why manager N. Burnham would not allow me to use my valid guest pass. Possible age discrimination? I would never join this gym after how I was treated.

Negative experience: This place was great a year ago but it turned into a big disappointment lately. it is frustrating to keep paying full price (well over 100) for many months while swimming pool and steam room have been under repair and not available. Worst of all they suggest customers have no choice to use their other locations while they are fixing these issues. May be time to consider other options.

Fantastic experience: Great space conveniently located by metro

Negative experience: I rarely leave negative reviews; however after my horrendous experience here I felt compelled to warn everyone to absolutely STAY AWAY from this place! I signed up at this location with Avery Brandes after being contacted multiple times to come in for a free workout. I shared my hesitations about signing up (a bit far from apt, may be moving, etc.) and he said that we could have the “official/contractual” start date set at a future date and I could work out at the gym before then at anytime. He also specified that I could cancel for a full refund within their 15 day cancellation policy starting from my “official/contractual” start date. So I thought why not and signed up. Fast forward a week, I get an email from Avery with his manger cc’d (Jaramis Wallace) indicating that I have been going in before my contracts official start date and I cannot do that. I thought that was odd as he clearly told me that it was okay for me to do so. Another week later after my official start date passed (and days before their 15 day cancellation policy), I requested (through their website’s form) to cancel the membership as I realized it was not the best option for me. I get a response from “Scot Kendall” indicating I am past the cancellation window as I went into the facility before my official/contractual start date. I tried explaining that Avery clearly specified that it was okay for me to do so. Scot was no help whatsoever and passive aggressively was very rude and insulting. Of course Avery does not provide any support whatsoever. I even ran into Avery out one night and he apologized for the situation and once again said “I’ll talk to my manager.” Months later I’ve been disputing this charge with my credit card company to finally have been awarded a refund (thankfully I had written evidence/emails of everything that was promised). However, Vida Fitness/Scott is threatening to send the “balance” to collections and I will need to fight that as well. This has been the absolute worst experience with any business in my entire life. Not only was I lied to, but there was absolutely no one that wanted to offer any sort of help or assistance to getting this matter resolved and every response consisted of passive aggressiveness and insults (LOOKING AT YOU SCOT). Just check their reviews on the various social platforms AND the Better Business Bureau (BBB). There’s a reason why they have numerous complaints and allegations of being a scam and lying to their members. Absolutely trash management. STAY AWAY!

Negative experience: Vida consistently tries to rip people off when they try to upgrade their membership. I specifically asked to upgrade to Full Access Membership but more than one associate directed me to upgrade to Penthouse Pool Membership, something that costs more than $50/month more than Full Access Membership. Very disingenuous organization, even when you are asking for something by name, so be careful. It’s unfortunate because some of the personal trainers here are the best you can find.

Positive experience: Great gym, a bit crowded. Good mix of classes and spinning classes with unique bikes that move with your body. Monthly gym rates are expensive though, closer to $150

Positive experience: A beautiful gym with a hospitable staff!

Negative experience: I am extremely disappointed with my experience with the customer service staff at this location. Yesterday, I set up an appointment with a gentleman at the front desk for a facility tour this morning. I told him I wanted to come in at 8:15am since I have work at 9. He offered 8:30 but I again told him 8:15, so he said he would make the appointment for 8am & put a note saying 8:15 (I take the metro so I wanted a little bit of leeway if I arrived a little late). This morning, I arrived early at 8 & told the front desk I was here for my tour. The woman told me that the staff member who would be giving my tour had not yet arrived & would not be in until 8:30. Then the gentleman who set up the appointment pops up from behind the desk & goes, "Oh I made your appointment for 8:30, remember?" To which I replied, "You didn't make it for 8?" He said, "No, you said 8:30." So, I said okay & no one at the front desk tried to assist me so I left. After a few minutes I returned & told the gentleman who originally made my appointment that I distinctly remember him telling me that he would make it for 8am & put a note for 8:15 & that I told him I couldn't do 8:30 because of work (30 minutes is not enough time for a gym tour because I had also planned on purchasing a membership afterwards). He replied, "No you didn't tell me that." I wanted to say, "Check your video footage & turn the volume on," but I did not. Instead I told him to tell the staff member who was going to give me a tour not to worry about it. I was not given an apology, just an, "Okay." I am truly baffled and frustrated at the level of unprofessionalism I was shown. I worked in customer service for 6 years and would NEVER tell a customer that they were wrong. Instead, I would say, "I apologize for the miscommunication." There are scenarios where the customer is in fact wrong but still you try to assist them, that is your job! I was so excited to get a tour because the facility looked nice but if I am shown this amount of unprofessionalism as a prospective member then I don't even want to know how they treat their current members. EDIT: I did receive a friendly email from the staff member who was supposed to give me a tour. He apologized for the miscommunication & offered to reschedule. Will update if need be.

Negative experience: I had over two nice years with this gym, but unfortunately, VIDA is a lot like dating someone who seems great until there's that first moment of conflict and then you see how crazy and unreasonable they really are. While VIDA presents itself as a high market gym and they do some things really well, don't let the veneer fool you. This is just another fitness center engaging in unethical and predatory business practices, no matter how much lipstick they put on that pig. That said, it's very pretty and clean if you keep your service expectations low.

Negative experience: The seats on the spin bike are very uncomfortable. My butt still hurts 2 days later from taking the spin class. Also the spin instructor played all heavy rock music the whole class instead of playing a variety of music genres. Will not be joining.

Negative experience: This place is the worst. The training staff have absolutely zero professionalism, I've overheard them making fun of the physical appearance of their members and clients.

Positive experience: I was convinced by my wife to make a contract with this gym, not only because it had good reviews and people had recommended it but because i really need to start doing some exercise to get in shape, for health reasons. I have never exercised consistently before , so i dont understand most of the workouts i have to do. The staff here is incredible at helping out with this. The fair is according to their service and everyone tries to help everyone, great environment.

Negative experience: VIDA are a bunch of snobs...I don't like the atmosphere at all

Fantastic experience: Great gym. The only thing it lacks is a real swimming pool, but it has two small with a motor that creates a current

Fantastic experience: Super cool gym. I had a membership here through work, and was able to stop in during lunch to change before and after going for a run on the mall

Fantastic experience: Clean facility. Friendly staff. Great variety of equipment and services. What else ya need

Positive experience: Great gym. Always clean and plenty of equipment. Friendly staff. Pricey though.

Positive experience: Love VIDA overall but I'd say that Navy Yard and City Center have better locker rooms and space to lift/workout etc.

Fantastic experience: [bicep emoji]

Positive experience: Good coach and excellent staff

Fantastic experience: Best gym in DC! Great equipment and facilities.

Positive experience: Coconut water is pretty good

Fantastic experience: I love it

Fantastic experience: Best gym in DC. Instructors are pros, classes are upbeat and fun - they'll leave you wanting to come back! Brand new machines and sleek, modern contour make for a pump-you-up gym experience. Entire third floor is an awesome weight room. This Vida gym does a great job asking for feedback -- and acting on it. Those class surveys aren't just ignored, they're read and acted upon. Can't say enough good things about this gym.

Positive experience: I didn't like this gym that much when I tried it out with a buddy. I noticed that in relevance to other reviews, the staff are very polite and the facilities look very clean. However the mos important ingredient in a gym is the trainers and boy, do these trainers suck. Okay they don't suck, they all have some knowledge to their profession but I noticed that when I asked them question they just tell me stuff like "You aren't ready for that yet" or "Oh that's not important" they cant seem to give me an explanation or a short reason as to why. It felt like they were avoiding answering technical questions because when it came to stuff they told me to do they could have talked my ears off. Good staff and facilitates bad trainers.

Negative experience: Friendly and professional front desk staff, this stands out. Unfortunately the gym isn't always managed that well, with some of the managers handling client issues inappropriately. Also, the clientele, in general, and some of the trainers, aren't well versed on basic gym etiquette, another 'management' failure. Other Vida locations are run much better. That said, the front desk staff and some of the trainers are among the best in town.

Negative experience: Didn't let my 8-month pregnant wife use the restroom. That tells me everything I need to know about a place.

Fantastic experience: Great equipment, the staff is really friendly, the location is suitable for me!