November 2023 by raymond diez
This place is so far from what you'd expect when paying their membership prices. You want a good example? Go to dukes meadows tennis & golf literally around the corner. They just invested over 200k in 5 fantastic indoor courts. Their outdoor piraglex courts are unreal, it's like playing on a cloud. Even king's tennis centre about 100m away has great out door courts with no cracks or bumps. Virgin Active is happy to take your money and sell you a beautiful picture but make 0 investment into the club or at least their tennis courts which is the main part of the club.Very disappointed in how I was treated after being a member for over 7 years. Now a happy member of David Lloyd's Acton, different level 100%.I could go on & on about this place but it's not even worth my time.
October 2023 by CurrencyFm
My second week is over and I am very satisfied. I would recommend it to anyone who is considering it. If you play tennis, I think this is one of the best places in the city (By the way, I'm not playing yet but I'll take lessons). The gym area is very large, spacious and generally not busy. The sauna and steam room, pools and jacuzzi are also very spacious and clean. The employees are very friendly and good people. I can say that I found it better than I expected. I would also like to thank Ms. Inas. (Ali K. OZ)
October 2023 by Julian Tanner
This club has great swimming pools - if only you could use them. They frequently close the outdoor pool on Saturday and Sunday mornings due to lack of lifeguards, and then you can't swim indoors as it is too crowded.What is odd is that none of the local council pools suffer this problem (yes, I checked with Pools on the Park, Chiswick New Pool and Brentford Fountains Leisure Centre and none of them has ever had to close a pool for even one session due to lack of lifeguards) which means that it is a management problem that Virgin Active is either oblivious to, or refusing to solve.With membership fees of near £3000 a year, it really is a problem that you feel the management could solve if they wanted to.
October 2023 by Daniel Shore
This is their flagship gym but we have just cancelled our family membership after 10+ years.Fees are £250+ per adult so you would expect something pretty high end. The location and site are amazing, but it feels like they are in a death spiral, where revenues are down, service is deteriorating, people are leaving as they are unhappy, so even less revenues, causing them to cut services more.Reasons for us cancelling include:- Classes are regularly cancelled last minute- They closed the kitchen for two weeks to change provider. New menus are expensive and pretentious and kids couldn't find anything they liked. Anything deemed unhealthy is now off limits. No diet coke for you - just raw juice shots. No potatoes in any form allowed, even for kids. Healthy options are great, but people should be able to choose- They changed the freeze policy to make it much more inflexible. We were on (paid) freeze a lot but that meant they were getting money each month for nothing, and we would regularly rejoin. Now they get nothing from us each month and we aren't going to pay rejoining fees.- The WiFi has been terrible for weeks with them constantly saying 'someone came last week but couldn't fix it'. At this level and expense that's simply not good enough. I don't get a mobile signal inside so I can't work from there severely reducing the number of visits I make- Teenage life guards are more interested in flirting than guarding lives- Constant billing problems (taking too much money, forgetting to put kids on freeze when adults on freeze etc) and their billing system and invoices are completely incomprehensible. I'm sure we have paid hundreds more than we should despite have many separate calls with the billing department- I was promised guest passes for recent billing mistakes by a manger but they haven't appeared despite repeated chasing- Some electronic readouts on machines in the gym have been broken for weeks- When we cancelled after 10+ years nobody seemed interested at all in understanding whyIf you are paying this amount of money you expect exceptional service, and what you actually get is over-priced pretentious food, rubbish WiFi, constant billing problems, limited flexibility on memberships and disinterested staff.
September 2023 by Marcus Taylor
This club is, on the face of it, lovely and rich with facilities. However, lift the bonnet and it?s a decaying sprawl of land with skeletal staffing. £300 a month plus joining fee for a health club that?s dirty in the changing rooms, shuts early, has awful food and essentially 0 drink options. Awfully run. No care for its members. - who are a lovely set of people. Welcome to the 80?s should be this clubs strap line as that?s the era it represents. The staff that are present are wonderful, pleasant and attentive but are young and mainly short term which just adds to the clubs MO of 'maintain' and not 'improve'. Ball machines out of action for 2 years and the same set of balls in them for the last 3 - such a high priced club should offer more. Oh and the brilliant working lounge which has great views over the courts lacks Wifi....... the work lounge... does not have wifi... £300 a month.. Join the harbour club or Foxhills if you want value and a club trying to impress its members.
August 2023 by David Pagliari
5 reasons why this club is in steep?5 reasons why this club is in steep decline. (Member of the Virgin Riverside Club in Chiswick).1) Broadband is incredibly slow and despite numerous complaints, not improved2) They cancel classes in summer despite it being their premium club in network. I pay almost £400 a month for my wife and I and would expect them to find replacement instructors3) Turn up for a class and there is no instructor present.4) The food has degraded over the last few years. There are no healthy foods despite it being a gym.5) when you make a complaint they either don't reply or palm you off with guest passesFor their premium club, their head office needs to invest and not take customers for granted. I know for a fact that many other customers feel the same!
July 2023 by Josephine Perry
The gym facilities, equipment and building are lovely but the organisation and communication can be really poor. I had my joining fee taken 4 times (an over payment of over £800) which took weeks (and many phonecalls and emails) to get returned. The gym manager doesn't answer any emails and seems to hide from phone calls. The staff say all the right things - but don't seem to take action. It isn't the type of customer service you would expect from such an expensive gym which is incredibly frustrating.
June 2023 by Al Brew
The website states ?pristine pool and spa facilities? - didn?t realise that unclean windows, limescale covered recliners, disgusting rotting grouting, rusted cornicing, filth on doors and shower floors all falls under the category of ?pristine? it?s also 31 degree heat today and there is not a single parasol in the entire building (literally not one) let alone pool area. Reason is ?being replaced?. Cool, are they replacing the cleaners too becuase that?s serious wanting too. It?s Understaffed everywhere so expect to wait in queues for anything that involves food/drink. And for a family you get to pay over £600 a month for these pleasures. It?s appalling value save your money and go to a better place.
April 2023 by Andrew Robinson
Chiswick Riverside is a mess. It is extremely expensive for what it delivers and constantly makes bad decisions in its management.? All of the nets between the court are riddled with holes.? None of the outside courts are EVER cleaned properly.? The clay courts are the only ones that dry in time for outside usage after rain, because nobody sees fit to send out the cleaning machine to quickly suck up the wet.? The clay courts are now being taken away and replaced with Padel when there is a huge elephants graveyard area within the club that would have meant no loss of courts and surfaces.? The club has been weak and slow in leveraging the removal of the planters stopping cars accessing the club. It adds up to 30 minutes extra journey time. The council has just launched a huge bridge around the area which removes any need for traffic calming but the club seem not to care.It is so frustrating to see the flagship £300+ per month club rinse members for no services or attention to detail, when proper clubs like Queens, charge you less and maintain the club in a proper manner.Shame. Employ a fisherman for a few days and start repairing the nets. Ask members whether THEY want the club ruined by mis-management and take some action towards the council and at the very least.....keep it clean.
April 2023 by The One
Nice and spacy place but!!! It?s too cold inside, especially in changing rooms. I feel very uncomfortable in my sports clothes when I don?t workout hard. The worse is that managers are not helping. If I need to book classes for myself or for my children I have to send a mail. This is too slow. I hope the management pay attention to this moments.
April 2023 by Roman K
I recently visited the Virgin sports club, and I must say I'm quite disappointed with my experience there. Despite positioning themselves as a 5-star facility, they failed to provide decent internet access for their clients. Many customers, including myself, had to step outside to catch our mobile data while in the relaxation area, which is far from ideal.It's baffling that the owner, Branson, runs a technology company, Virgin Media, which is an internet service provider, yet their own sports club cannot offer adequate Wi-Fi coverage. The situation is even worse in the spa area, where there is no Wi-Fi at all, making it impossible for clients to read the news or browse the web during their leisure time.In this day and age, it's quite surprising that such a club fails to provide a basic necessity like a proper Wi-Fi connection. I hope they address this issue soon, as it significantly detracts from the overall experience at the facility.
February 2023 by GLS
I have been a member for more than 20 years. It used to be a very good club. Now it is really deteriorating. There are very few indoor courts available for members. The club is giving so many courts for coaches and classes to make more money. The quality of the indoor courts is deteriorating rapidly. Between cracks and bumps is very hard to play. I am afraid Virgin needs to invest more and soon.
February 2023 by Kirsty McLean
Beautifully clean, excellent customer service. I enjoyed a quiet swim in the morning. Delicious coffee in the large lounge area. Highly recommend!
February 2023 by Sean Richards
Waste of money. Pay 250 a month for the tennis which you can never book and the club v which is always full. Club is often dirty and it's overall tatty. Staff generally v nice.
January 2023 by Durdana Achakzai
I?m a believer of praising in public and criticising in private . In this case, I?m reluctantly going public as there have been repeated failures ( a mess up that?s repeated) over the past couple of months. Club management have said sorry on all occasions but the failures have continued. I hope this will get attention of those at VA that can solve the issues! Recent issues;- a class full of members and no show of yoga teacher on Fridays two rows in a week. Reception / mgmt wasn?t aware that people had been waiting- being booked into tennis class only to be told after 5 mins on the court that I wasn?t on the instructors list! The instructors have different lists to the club?- previous ones ( last year) have included lifeguards shouting at children and inconsistent communication about club policies and repeated instructor no shows at yogaAll instructors at the club are lovely and diligent so if I was to guess it?s an operational/ scheduling and management issue. Disappointedly, they don?t seem to care.So why am I still here? Actively looking for an alternative.
