Virgin Active

Negative experience: Can’t get through on phone. Ridiculous - how can I book or cancel the crèche?

Negative experience: I am very disappointed with the service at Virgin Active Collingtree Park due to one staff member, Kirsty. While she doesn’t use bad language, her tone and attitude are extremely rude, coming across as arrogant and condescending. This made me feel completely disrespected as a customer, to the point where even my husband asked me why she would speak to me in such a manner ( this is not the first time). Because of this, I no longer feel comfortable going to this gym. Unfortunately, I still have to visit weekly as my child attends swimming lessons there. However, as soon as I find an alternative swimming class for my child or when our membership expires, I will cancel all of our memberships with Virgin. We come to the gym to enjoy ourselves, not to be treated with disrespect. That being said, the rest of the reception staff are very friendly and professional, even when customers have questions. Their approach is how customer service should be, and it’s a shame that Kirsty’s behavior negatively impacts the overall experience.

Fantastic experience: Definitely one of the best gyms in Northamptonshire. Great facilities overall, always nice and clean, friendly staff , fantastic selection of classes.

Positive experience: a bit busy otherwise great place

Fantastic experience: Nice facilities, well maintained, great service, the staff are really welcoming, good atmosphere with lots of friendly and respectful people.

Negative experience: Used to be good, but gone completely downhill. Made gym really dull, made all the pools colder, closed the massage and treatment area, and now also closing the outside pool for a third of the year. Service and facilities down and price up. I think under new management which seems to be destroying the club. Very sad :-(

Negative experience: Going downhill fast. Cleanliness, facilities not working, membership hiked up 20% and the day after announce they are closing the outdoor pool for 4 months. I’d love to pay more for less. Thanks for consulting us

Negative experience: Expensive

Negative experience: Absolutely shocking Business practices displayed by Virgin Active Head Office at Collingtree Park Club. Total disregard for their Customers, particularly those whom recently decided to Commit for another 12 months when they were out of Contract / on the rolling monthly basis. Received an email stating the Outdoor pool will be closing for a third of the year due to first of all “Very low usage” then in subsequent emails “to conserve energy, reduce environmental impact, blah blah bla”. The outdoor pool has historically seen very high usage throughout the winter months, indeed the indoor pool is so small that the outdoor pool is vital in order to provide enough space for all members to Swim. I and many others had the chance to commit to 12 months here or save a considerable amount of money each month and change to Riverside if we wanted to remain with Virgin Active. Based solely on the existence of the Outdoor pool we chose to spend more and stay at Collingtree park… Only for that one benefit to now be swiftly taken away without warning! At first, nothing was offered in terms of compensation etc… After taking time to write and complain, the response was incredibly poor! First of all I received a standard cut and paste email only to then receive another stating that in fact they had got their figures wrong and I would be getting even less of a reduction in monthly fees - an insulting pittance based on a randomly made up average usage formula for the month of September extrapolated through the winter. So now we are apparently stuck at a much inferior Gym / Indoor pool facility (when compared to Riverside) and paying a lot more money for the privilege each month. This Club has done nothing but cut costs and increase prices over the last few years. Just off the top of my head, they started supplying towels and increased everyone’s monthly fees for doing so, refurbished the gym area but removed all Televisions etc - never to be replaced again, closed other facilities located by reception, reduced staffing levels, reduced the frequency of cleaning on the gym floor, the list goes on. I would personally recommend either saving a considerable amount of money and join another local independent Gym or spend a very small amount more and join the newly opened Gym off Junction 18 M1 which has fantastic facilities that remain open all year. Such a shame to see the decline at Virgin Active, I have been a member almost continuously since Virgin Active took over Esporta in Rugby many years ago. Back then Virgin Active were Fantastic and like nothing else, how times change - so sad.

Negative experience: Closing the outdoor pool for 4 months over the winter despite members paying a monthly fee on fixed term contracts. No mention of those plans when renewing the contract and the outdoor pool was open all year last year. Absolutely disgusting. Complained to head office and was offered a pittance in ‘compensation’ not the clubs decision so this review is aimed at the poor business practices of Virgin Active group. Beware if you are thinking of joining.

Positive experience: Nice facilities, could do With a few additional places to hang the towels around the pool area

Fantastic experience: I have had 2 PT sessions with Andy a personal trainer from Virgin Collingtreee Northampton. I just want to thank him for giving me confidence and the boost I needed in these two sessions I have had, he has been fantastic. Thanks John

Fantastic experience: Great gym ! Can’t wait for the new cafe to be opened very clean good equipment all round

Fantastic experience: The whole family love it here. It’s immaculately clean and the staff are always lovely.

Positive experience: Very good experience, facilities very good, staff friendly and knowledgable, enjoyable all round

Positive experience: New member and the gym is nice and the crèche is amazing. Pools and hot tub a lot cooler than I thought it would be. Would be 5 stars if the pools were warmer

Fantastic experience: The staff here are always friendly, the gym is always well maintained and the equipment is always clean. We live locally and complete lots of window cleaning services near by, popping into for workout, swim and yummy coffees all the time. Always good to pop by and say hello, thanks to all the staff for a safe and friendly environment.

Fantastic experience: From our first engagement we knew we'd found the right fitness centre for us and our belief has only been strengthened the more we attend the club. Friendly staff, friendly environment and plenty of equipment to select from.

Negative experience: Amazing facilities and reception staff. My whole family are members, and were welcomed beautifully, finding our happy place at the club, for relaxation and to let off some steam. My daughter particularly loves the pools. Unfortunately, a recent awful experience in the gym area with my niece has put us off returning. She is 17 and visited club with me on a guest pass, with a view of joining with her cousins and I, and finding a safe space to train. She has SEN so has some sensory related challenges, but did well to overcome these and we managed to get a good work out in once she felt comfortable.(helped by the amazing reception staff.) Unfortunately, whilst on the floor working out together, we were approached by a very stand off-ish gym manager - Jackie - who not only accused us of doing a 'paid PT session' but was extremely unapproachable and intimidating. Not only was she very rude, but unaccommodating when I asked to speak with her privately as she was upsetting my niece. To which she refused and began to mock me. Not the nice customer experience we are used to! I am so embarrassed to have built my nieces confidence and trust in the club, only for it to be the worst experience that I have ever had in 15 years of attending gyms. My niece now wont return to the club, or any other gym for that matter. And I will no longer allow my daughters to use the gym area. No manager has called or emailed me to discuss or resolve this matter.

Positive experience: Please start making your members put their weights back! So much equipment is left with Weight's on and it's ridiculous and off putting to come to the gym. Pool area is good and on the whole the equipment is good. But the weights being ALLOWED to be left on equipment is annoying!

Negative experience: New fitness equipment , all dirty, no one monitors their cleanliness, you can see that the dirt did not appear in one day

Fantastic experience: Great place to work out with a wide variety of activity classes running throughout the day. Handy if the gym opens a bit early at 6am.

Positive experience: Very good staff that lead the sessions...equipment can be limited when busy though and pool is freezing...but staff always amazing

Positive experience: Lovely spa and pool. Friendly staff and a nice atmosphere, big outdoor pool, a small sauna, and a little jacuzzi. The gym is a wall of bland, dark grey, a bank of machines and not very inviting, I didn't want to stay long. Go for the pool and spa.

Negative experience: If I could give this Virgin Health Club 0 stars I would. Had a spa day booked today for my Mother In Law for her birthday, turned up to be told that the spa shut at the end of October and I was never notified. A 1hr journey wasted, annual leave from work wasted & a spa day with a massage we never got to have. The manager Jody Lewis is rude, took no responsibility for the fact it was his staff that hadn’t notified us of the spa closure & simply blamed the booking operator instead of owning the fact it was their mistake. No complementary service or an apology given, just excuses which is bad manager skills & shockingly poor customer service skills. No food was available at 11.10am apart from stale dry rock hard flapjacks on the counter. Shocking how this place even has any customers or members. I will never be booking or returning to this bad leisure centre again!

Positive experience: Virgin at Riverside is much better, and cheaper, which doesn't make sense.

Fantastic experience: Good gym if you are after leisure as well . If you are a bodybuilder and take your weight training seriously you won’t be very happy with weight equipment. Very clean , good classes and big cardio section.

Fantastic experience: Very nice, such a shame health and beauty is closing won't be going back.

Fantastic experience: I had an amazing back and leg massage, which was very needed. Beforehand we had a bite to eat and a smoothie which was really nice. After the massage we went for a swim and a relaxation in the jacuzzi which was lovely, it wasn't busy and the jacuzzi is big, not one of those small round ones. The changing rooms and showers were really clean and well kept. I walked past the gym, and that looked fab too but had no time to use it, unfortunately. The staff were really professional and helpful, which made the experience really great. Altho I'm saddened to hear that virgin are closing all their treatment areas so even though I would really recommend going for a message they won't be available from 31st Oct.

Positive experience: Have been going here forever and a day always great service and very relaxing, sadly though learnt today 20th Sept there will be no more tranquility at Virgin Collingtree come the end of October

Positive experience: Gone down hill, skanky showers, cracked tiles etc. Flaking paint looking tired and in need of a revamp. Absolutely crammed gym lots of young people hogging equipment.

Fantastic experience: It's a great gym. I like it more than the Riverside one. The outdoor pool is great for when I'm with the kids and when I am alone. It has its quiet periods which I enjoy too. I have no issues with Virgin but I'm thankful I get the membership through Vitality

Positive experience: I’ve been a longtime member over 10 years and left twice for another gym, and returned purely because it really does have the best facilities and spa in the area. The last time I left was because of several issues from health and safety, to cleanliness, but they had a refit of a few things and since I have returned it is a little better. Although there’s still a few things they could do better on, especially the toilets and showers… aside from that I’m pretty satisfied, especially seeing as I keep returning as a repeat member!!

Fantastic experience: Very supportive staff

Fantastic experience: Very clean and very friendly staff.

Negative experience: Such a bad experience at Virgin Active Collingtree Park, endless phone calls on why I want to cancel my membership , charged for membership when cancelled , someone needs to oversee customer service at this Gym.

Negative experience: This review is based purely on the actual gym, not it’s staff, who were very nice. The gym itself is so tired and frankly very dirty. The women’s changing room floors were awful, dirty and strewn with towels. There was a very unpleasant smell in the toilet and also coming from the swimsuit drier. Not nice. The gym floor itself is ok, but just ok. It hasn’t been updated in a very long time and so lacks that premium feel you would hope for when paying such a high membership fee. I think it’s also a real shame that they are no longer serving food begging the question what is the high fee for exactly? No food available, dirty changing rooms, generally tired facilities and just really a drab and old feeling about the place. I came along with my partner with the thought of possibly rejoining but at £70-80 a month I really can’t justify it. Riverside costs less and has been continuously updated over the years. Sadly it’s just a little out the way. Just to reiterate the staff were lovely.

Fantastic experience: Took my son to a birthday party at the Virgin Active, never been before and was pleased surprised how lovely it was. Very nice location near a golf club, good parking and very quiet. The birthday party area was lovely and well separated from the main facilities, lovely toilets and lots of toys indoor and a lovely outside area and staff were very helpful. I wish I knew about the place before. Perfect for birthday parties.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic gym and friendly staff

Fantastic experience: Premium health club experience

Positive experience: Really enjoyed the treatments at the Spa and the time in the leisure centre! Only reason not giving 5* is because the massage bed was not exactly relaxing, felt somehow uncomfortable. Other than that it was really good! Left from there like brand new felt like an experience to have at least once a week, shame it's a little pricey to do that...

Positive experience: Good service but loads of amenities were closed.

Positive experience: Lovely facilities. Too hot in indoor pool area. Outside pool area nice, good pool temperature Not much choice of food. No healthy option. No salad. White bread sandwiches etc

Fantastic experience: Excellent in every capacity. Friendly and polite staff coupled with excellent facilities. I feel most relaxed when using the facilities especially the pool and steam room/sauna.

Positive experience: Joined this gym few weeks and quite impressive with facilities it provides but only downside is parking this can be challenging during the busy time.

Fantastic experience: Good health and fitness club, probably most expensive in Northampton but it's worth money

Fantastic experience: Bardzo fajny klub . Polecam

Positive experience: Excellent staff .well done .

Fantastic experience: The best gym in Northampton, staff so friendly, equipment all new and swimming area is always clean, water is so warm is just all so nice.

Negative experience: EDIT- downgraded to one star because the AC STILL doesn't work. Even when it's cold outside the gym temperature is still 22c. This seems to be a cost cutting measure. Avoid and go to a cheaper gym with working AC. The gym air conditioning has been broken for several months now, and I've asked about it being fixed a few times. Unfortunately, this is still broken, I don't know if it's just a cost saving measure, but it's keeping the gym at an uncomfortable temperature. Most days it's around 23c degrees, which I find far too hot to do a proper workout. I've been told this was due to be fixed a couple of weeks ago but it's still the same. I couldn't recommend the gym at the moment because of this. There are far cheaper gyms that manage to keep their gyms cool and for a premium gym, I'd expect more.

Negative experience: Ive bought a buyagift for a spa day here and have been trying to contcat them for 3 months. They never answer the phone or respond to emails

Fantastic experience: Absolutely fantastic experience. We booked a 55 minute indulgent massage and 25 minute facial and it was the best massage I have ever had. Marisa you have magic hands. My friend was looked after by Louise who was equally amazing. The whole experience was pergect - calm, relaxing, enjoyable and we will certainly be back asap. The facilities are clean and comfortable, parking is very good with plenty on site. Lovely little cafe if you want a quick snack or coffee. Deffo recommend- once again Marisa and Louise thank you for a great day

Fantastic experience: Went here for a massage and to use the facilities as I had a voucher - thr massage was amazing 55mins and it was so worth it. The jacuzzi , spa and sauna area was clean and spacious really enjoyed my stay , would definitely go back! And the outdoor pool was warm! Was expecting to be freezing so was pleasantly surprised!

Fantastic experience: Bit too pricey but loved it , invited as a guest staff very helpful if had the money would join

Fantastic experience: I always go there nice staff i have been a member for almost 7 years since i was 10 years old

Fantastic experience: On my way to becoming an aesthetic body builder like Zyzz and trying to become a Greek God, Shout out to my role models out there that has inspired me to hit the gym 6 days a week which enabled me to become absolutely shredded like ChestBrah, Jeff Seid, David Laid, Chris Bumstead, Alex Eubank and many more. This gym allows me to become an absolute alpha male and I recommend it to anyone out there - It has truly changed my life for the better, I can't wait until I keep this up for another 10 years so that I look like an absolute god. Zyzz would be proud of me. Thank you for your service. (also remember to control your reps, be realistic, and don't lift heavy with bad form, keep the weight light and maintain good form throughout your sets, You will improve.)

Negative experience: I'm sad to write this as I was a big fan of Virgin Active for years. My experience at this club has been very poor. I have been misled regarding cooling off period when I joined earlier in the month and now existing membership Kirsty refuses to deal with my issue. Assistant general manager passed me to head of membership at the club and I am yet to get a response. Very poor customer service. No one wants to take any responsibility. Hope they will reflect on their actions and fix this speedily.

Positive experience: Great first experience. Clean. Well maintained staff are so friendly without being OTT.

Fantastic experience: At first I was very reluctant to pay so much for a gym membership, but I'm pleased I did. Love this gym. A lot of different classes suited for all levels of fitness. Great friendly staff and instructors. Lovely big clean changing rooms.

Fantastic experience: Love my local gym. Outdoor pool, stacks of equipment and toys to play with in the gym, friendly staff and stacks of classes.

Fantastic experience: Amazing place,outdoor heated pool,staff are super friendly and members too

Fantastic experience: Great classes and great gym. Very friendly staff

Negative experience: Not very user friendly at all

Fantastic experience: Just a wonderful friendly professional gym.

Fantastic experience: It's good.

Fantastic experience: We had a spa voucher and had a great time. It's always really clean and friendly and we are regular day visitors. We were disappointed there was not the full menu at the cafe but were warned in advance. I wonder if this is a staffing issue? No newspapers which I usually enjoy too but i understand thats not possible with covid. A massive thank you to Viktoria in the spa who was superb, very professional, knowledgeable and made me feel really comfortable. We really loved our treatments. Viktoria is real asset to Virgin Collingtree!! We will definitely be back

Fantastic experience: Lovely and clean. Beautiful outdoor pool

Negative experience: Not the best, here is why: 1. Staff need a level of attitude adjustment, I think they feel they are working in some type of exclusive gym for the mega rich so they adopt a bit if a pompous attitude 2. One particular staff interaction I experienced was actually aggressive 3. Equipment not best maintained repair times take ages 4. Standards of hygiene in the toilets are shocking, someone needs to go to Specsavers and toilet bowls are meant to be bright and white, and urine stains over the walls is not normal 5. The sauna and spa have lots of rust here and there 6. A Manager who committed to deal with my complaint previously and failed to deliver Even with the failures in the fabrics of the building and equipment the largest failure is the people attitude. Not what I would expect from the Virgin brand. A few people's behaviours have in my opinion not done the brand any favours.

Fantastic experience: So glad to be back

Positive experience: Nice health club

Fantastic experience: Loved coming here. The staff are fantastic, made me feel really welcome and comfortable. I had had some issues with a voucher and they helped me and made me feel calm. What a lovely site with fantastic facilities. I will be back.

Positive experience: Nice and clean, lovely facilities, enjoyed the sauna

Positive experience: Good health club with gym classe in door and outdoor pool.

Positive experience: I liked it, my dad brought me with him, it was good service and they gave people swimming pool toys to play with, I all around liked it.

Positive experience: Bit outdated.

Fantastic experience: OMG I ❤️❤️❤️❤️ VIRGIN ACTIVE SOO MUCH

Fantastic experience: Lovely . Feel good place .

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym with lots of good classes, great gym equipment and really nice pool and spa.

Fantastic experience: Really nice gym and very clean

Fantastic experience: Very clean, great equipment and loads of well run classes. Outdoor pool a nice addition.

Positive experience: After your reply I thought it’s worth giving more details. I would have given it 5 stars as the place is decent, but it’s too small…like there are not enough machines to work on, let along having 2 of each (similar to the riverside one). Especially now with COVID measures in place we are left with 6 machines that are actually usable… the place isn’t far to be the best in the area, but it really needs an extension. Thanks

Negative experience: When comparing to Virgin Active near Billing Aquadrome it seems really tiny in comparison. Single bedroom vs double bedroom feeling. They have sauna, large swimming pool and a place to sit by the water. Less busy and more local?

Fantastic experience: Really good health club with excellent facilities, high standards of cleaning and very nice staff. This really lives up to the Virgin Active brand and worth the membership price.

Negative experience: Was expected to pay full membership price despite stopping half of the services initially offered in my contract pre COVID-19 situation. Would not cancel the membership free of charge and did not reply to cancelation requests for 6 months. Also, hanged up the phone during the conversation more than once. Bunch of crooks.

Fantastic experience:

Negative experience: Poor value

Fantastic experience: Great service. Great entertaining music. Clean place. Very clean pool

Negative experience: For some reason they are unable to answer the phone in relation to joining! After 8 minutes I phoned the central number to be put through by them which they did so and then a voice operator told me there is no one to answer your call GOODBYE!! No option to leave a message, REALLY, I say you've lost a potential member, GOODBYE!!

Fantastic experience: AMAZING

Negative experience: Only giving one star as there isn’t the option for a zero rating, when we arrived for our relaxing spa day treat, we were under the impression it would be just that, relaxing, however nothing was explained to us by members of staff and basically left to our devices. When we booked I was told it was a relaxing atmosphere but what they failed to omit was that the “relaxing pool” would be full of children !!! (And before you get on your high horses I have young children of my own) had we known this, instead of paying £130 for the so called relaxing spa day we may as well have paid £10 and took the kids swimming at Danes Camp !!!!!! We complained to the staff at the time and all they said was email us, which I’ve done, and basically they’ve said we should’ve checked the website Definitely not recommend for the spa day, avoid if you want to relax.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic Gym with nice pool facilities

Fantastic experience: I have joined this gym 2 years ago, is really friendly stuff and really clean to compare with other gyms, strong classes only almost of them are full one downside but all the rest is good Thanks

Positive experience: It's a lovely place but we wont be joining as for 2 adults you pay more than a family of 4. So you being penalised for bot having children

Positive experience: Bonus if you live within the area free membership

Negative experience: Would you believe it, Virgin active claim to back England rugby at the world cup and advertise that. When the world cup started we went to watch the first England group game but the cinema screen did not work so we complained. The next game it did not work again so we complained. The next game the screen worked but the sound did not so we complained. Today after our workout we went into the bar area and surprise surprise we had to watch 80% of the quarter final between England and Australia with no sound. So if your thinking of joining Virgin active the most expensive gym in town by far to enjoy the rugby. Think again.

Positive experience: generally pretty good gym overall, though rather expensive. the general gym grounds are not too large but have a satisfactory variety of machines, and multiple sets of loose weights. recently machines have been in disrepair but have been fixed rather quickly. also the woman who sent me an email about my club card had very poor writing skills.

Fantastic experience: I like the virgin active gym at Collingtree because of the friendly and 'countryclub' type atmosphere. The gym equipment is state of the art, the personal trainers are well qualified and there is lots going on. There are heated pools (indoor and out) second to none, complete with steam room, sauna and jacuzzi. There is also a café and lounge area, a perfect place to relax after a workout and catch up with emails. Towels are complimentary and there is plenty of parking.

Fantastic experience: Great gym

Fantastic experience: Great family gym in good surroundings

Fantastic experience: Recently joined and so far found the gym perfect for my needs with a good atmosphere and very family friendly. The staff all seem nice in particular Kirsty on Reception who has been very helpful and made me feel very welcome on my first few visits and Jess who carried out my induction with a great knowledge of the equipment and how to use it correctly. Thank you!