Gym Location, how much does it matter?

Brois

Hi All,

From the point of view of your average gym goer outside of Dublin. What matters more?

1) Central location (To small town) with smaller space.
2) A larger gym but you have to travel 5 miles to get there.

I'm purely tackling this question from a location point of view, better coaching should always win, but unfortunately that isn't always the case. But I'd like your opinions and maybe if you've experienced something similar you could let me know?
Are the general population willing to hop in their cars, travel 10/15 minutes (potentially out of their way) for better coaching, equipment, a better space etc? Or do you generally go with what is closest and convenient to you regardless of the coaches, space and equipment available?

I know maybe a smaller % of the gym going population would be willing to drive 30mins out of their way for the best place to train for them, but I'd like to know what the general feeling is?

Thanks

Hanley

It depends what else is around... If there's a competitor who does an ok job, but is convenient, it'll be much harder for you to gain traction.

Teyla Emmagan

My gym is amazing. It's also 2 minutes away on foot. For me that makes all the difference between going and not going at times. If I had to get in the car and drive then I know I'd be up against traffic etc. Then again if I had no choice I'd have to drive the 15 mins. But for me, convenience trumps everything else.

Jimmy Iovine

I do a 38km round trip four times a week in Dublin to get to Hanley's gym. Takes 25 - 30 minutes to get there everyday. For me, it's worth the travel as the gym is brilliant and there is nothing within 10 minutes of me anyway.

IvoryTower

I always go with what's closest/handiest. So something on the way to work or close to the running track. There are better gyms in the area but I prefer the handiness.

Limestone Cowboy

Live in the sticks and it takes 30 minutes to drive to the gym. Just a bog standard hotel one, would be 45 minutes to get to the next gym.

coffee_cake

One of my gyms is beside work and the other is about 20min drive each way

Greenmachine

Depends on what your training goals are really. Maybe you don't need a personal trainer to show you how to use everything. Most of them wouldn't know their ass from their elbow in a lot of places anyway.

The Davestator

Most IHRSA research shows that your market is within 12 minutes of your club. Obviously there will be some exceptions, but in general terms, its correct in my opinion.

zoobizoo

For me it has to be close to home or close to work. At present, the one I'm in is very close to work - I can go before, during or after.

I wouldn't travel for coaching over convenience.

That is the question you'd need to ask - "What percentage of gym members are using a personal trainer?"

In the gyms I've been to (hotel & Ben Dunnes), very few do (from what I can see).

Now, the other model of gyms which completely revolve around Bootcamp / Personal training - but is the town big enough to support that kind of gym? So if 500 people are members of a hotel gym, and 10% use personal trainers there..........

Add in the additional benefits of a hotel style gym - pool, jacuzzi, sauna etc..

Mellor

Being closer to your member base makes way more sense to me.
The people willing to travel longer distances for a good service, and probably greatly out numbered by the people who need a convient service to commit,

NiallBoo

Might be good to clarify how rural you mean(I'm thinking you mean rural county-town or something like that) but for most people in the country they're so used to diving that even if it's just a 5min walk, they'll drive anyway.

That said they won't actually want to drive very far - 30 min is probably more than a lot will do regularly. 5 miles will usually be a lot less than this so you should be fine.

Depending on what part of the country you're in, they might not be used to having good gyms and won't know the difference at first.
Whatever location you choose you'll need to get out and about and get as many people involved/interested as possible.

Doing stuff like setting up a stall on streets where people can try exercises, inviting in local clubs and school and doing programmes for them should really help get people in.

Tl:Dr I'd go for the bigger location but out a big emphasis on marketing.

Brois

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses, really appreciate the honest feedback.
I'm looking at a 5mile radius around a town of about 15k population. It's about a 15min drive at worst.

Am looking at a group based S&C facility so probably won't be able to move lots of people out of hotel leisure center type places anyways. Some people prefer those set-ups where having a pool, sauna and steam room etc are important, that's not something I'll change too easily. It's more the people who sit on the fence and are looking for this type of training that will benefit most, so just trying to gauge if with a good marketing campaign people will hop in the car for 10mins to get to their gym.

Interesting way of looking at it Zoobizoo; "What percentage of gym members are using a personal trainer?"
I don't believe that there is a direct correlation between people who use a personal trainer and those who'd go for group based training.
My feel is that a PT session costs more and can be a little more intimidating, whereas a group session costs less per session and there is the comfort of being in a group (not hiding in the group and not getting attention I'd be hoping!)

Thanks again everyone, very interesting discussion, so anymore feedback is greatly appreciated.