If you are a gym owner and want to be up to par with the best, read this article. What is the most expensive gym in the USA? We will tell you about 20 of these across the country and their ideas worth following.
We will also tell you how a gym management software can bring your gym closer to those facilities with the best standards and image.
Key takeaways
- There are many expensive gyms in locations throughout the US. Each of them can give you inspiration on how to strategize your fitness business.
- Advice for gym owners to start working towards premium status is to start by introducing the best Gym Software.
- Some of the ideas of successful gym owners are: additional elements in the offer, exquisite equipment, amazing interior design, well-known trainers, beautiful natural surroundings.
How Do We Define Most Expensive Gyms In This Article
We are going to provide you with a list of 20 gyms which we consider the most expensive in the United States. An exclusive gym or the most successful gym can be a synonym of an expensive one.
Here are the main criteria used to define the most expensive gyms and the premium fitness experience they offer:
1. Membership Fees
- High Initial Costs: Expensive gyms often have significant initiation fees, sometimes reaching tens of thousands of dollars.
- Monthly or Annual Fees: Expensive gym memberships are a hallmark of such fitness facilities. Ongoing gym membership price can be several hundred to several thousand dollars per month, or tens of thousands annually.
2. Exclusive Amenities
- State-of-the-Art Equipment: These gyms feature the latest fitness technology and advanced equipment.
- Spa Services: As part of the gym membership, customers have access not only to fitness classes but also luxurious spa treatments, such as massages, facials, and hydrotherapy.
- Private Facilities: This kind of fitness center offers private pools, saunas, steam rooms, and exclusive locker rooms.
3. Personalized Services
- Personal Training: High-end gyms offer personalized training sessions with top trainers.
- Nutrition and Wellness Coaching: Comprehensive health programs including not only physical fitness, but also nutrition plans and wellness coaching.
4. Luxurious Environment
- Design and Ambiance: These gyms often have aesthetically pleasing and luxurious interiors designed to create a relaxing and motivating atmosphere.
- Exclusive Access: Limited membership ensures privacy and a less crowded environment.
20 Most Expensive Gyms in 2024
1. Core Club (New York City)
- Cost: $50,000 initiation fee + annual dues
- Description: Luxury lifestyle club with fitness facilities
- Strategy: Exclusive membership, high-end amenities, networking focus, expert trainers
Source: thecoreclub.com
Source: thecoreclub.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Offer not only fitness classes but a whole lifestyle. Let your members identify with the brand and come not only to exercise, but also to spend time in luxurious rooms, lounges and bars.
2. Yellowstone Club (Montana)
- Cost: Extremely high (membership tied to property ownership)
- Description: Exclusive private ski and golf club with fitness facilities, situated in the spectacular Rocky Mountains.
- Strategy: Ultra-high-net-worth clientele, exclusive resort amenities, privacy
Source: yellowstoneclub.com
Source: yellowstoneclub.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Come up with a slogan that describes your offer as catchy as Yellowstone Club’s: “The world’s only private ski, golf and adventure community.”
3. E by Equinox
- Cost: Up to $26,000 per year
- Description: Ultra-exclusive luxury gym chain
- Strategy: Retina scanner entry, personalized training, nutrition plans, limited membership, additional amenities like sauna barrels on the terrace with a spectacular view.
Source: interiordesign.net
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Consider introducing additional services to your offerings, as this can enhance your gym’s reputation. For example, Equinox provides not only fitness classes but also sauna barrels with a pleasant view from their windows.
4. Tracy Anderson Studios
- Cost: Varies, premium pricing
- Description: Celebrity trainer’s exclusive fitness studios
- Strategy: Proprietary method, celebrity endorsements, personal training with a personalized approach, online studio
Source: tracyanderson.com
Source: tracyanderson.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Offer not only stationary classes but also an online studio or create a fitness app for your members.
5. EXOS
- Cost: $30,000 per year, payments collected weekly
- Description: High-end performance training center, the most expensive gym with specialized training like high jumping
- Strategy: Individualized programs of personal training, dietitians, psychologists, high-tech equipment like underwater treadmills and soft-tissue massages
Source: teamexos.com
Source: teamexos.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
You may want to rethink your gym pricing strategy based on weekly billing. This guarantees smoother financial flows.
6. The Peninsula Spa and Club (New York)
- Cost: Premium hotel gym membership
- Description: Luxury hotel fitness center and award winning spa
- Strategy: High-end machinery like the latest cardiovascular and strengthening equipment, exclusive access, spa services
Source: peninsula.com
Source: peninsula.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Apply for a prestigious award or obtain certificates or distinctions that will distinguish you from the competition.
7. La Palestra (New York)
- Cost: Premium pricing
- Description: Holistic health and fitness center; their principles are: health first and exercise as a process, not an aim.
- Strategy: Medical-based approach, personalized programs, luxury setting, a wide variety of projects, from 2,500 sq. ft. pool, spa and wellness center to 45,000 sq. ft. luxury residential athletic club with multiple amenities
Source: lapalestra.com
Source: lapalestra.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Create a clear vision of your offer to encourage the clients. Palestra does it like that on their website: “Exercise programs at LA PALESTRA are driven by two fundamental principles: First, a focus on Health and function, rather than aesthetic goals, and second, a deep conviction that exercise should be viewed as a process, not as a means to an end.”
8. Sitaras Fitness (New York)
- Cost: Premium pricing
- Description: Exclusive, by-invitation-only gym
- Strategy: Highly personalized training, limited membership, data-driven approach
Source: Sitaras Gym website.
Source: Sitaras Gym website.
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Create your own training method and register it with the patent office. Offering a modern, personalized service (like through a gym CRM) greatly benefits your customers and adds significant value.
9. TMPL Gym (New York)
- Cost: Premium pricing
- Description: High-tech luxury fitness center
- Strategy: Advanced technology integration, metabolic analysis, personalized programs, yoga, expert staff
source: TMPL website
source: focuslighting.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Introduce your own unique nomenclature for workouts and programs. This way you will be remembered and stand out from the competition. In TMPL they have, for example, Pain & Pleasure, Saints & Sinners, FIRE & Flow. Remember that you can have your white label fitness app which shows your gym name, your logo and your nomenclature.
10. David Barton Gym
- Cost: gym membership costs $150-$200 monthly.
- Description: A gym with luxury amenities and amazing interior design in each of its locations.
- Strategy: high-tech equipment, AI-driven health profiling and unique architectural designs of a luxury gym
Source: David Barton’s gym Instagram.
Source: ratto.cl
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Use technology in the service of fitness, these two industries work perfectly together. Your image will grow as a modern and user friendly fitness facility. David Barton Gym is well known for this kind of association.
11. Midtown Athletic Club (Chicago)
- Cost: $200+/month
- Description: Luxury fitness and lifestyle club
- Features: 16 indoor tennis courts, spa treatments, boutique hotel, multiple fitness studios
Source: midtown.com
Source: midtown.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Offer various services in one place. Maybe you won’t have eight tennis courts right away, but why not try a mini spa, aromatherapy and a universal court?
12. The Houstonian Club (Houston, TX)
- Cost: $33,000 initiation fee + $500/month
- Description: Elite club with extensive amenities
- Strategy: Exclusive membership, luxury facilities (oak lockers, gate-access parking and play areas for children/ family membership), diverse programs
Source: houstonian.com
Source: houstonian.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
You may not be able to afford to build a hotel with a spa and a gym yet. But maybe it would be worth entering into cooperation with a luxury hotel and organizing your gym on their premises. This way, you benefit from the luxurious image of the place and gain high end clientele of this hotel. They will have the gym nearby and conveniently accessible. Your company can become one of the popular and expensive gyms thanks to this trick.
13. Dogpound
- Cost: Varies, high-end pricing
- Description: Celebrity-favored boutique gym
- Strategy: High-intensity workouts, personalized training, yoga, exclusive clientele, not typical elements of offer: pre- and postnatal exercise
Source: Dogpound website.
Source: Dogpound website.
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Direct your offer to a wealthy clientele. Assume such a target audience and adjust advertising campaigns, visual identification and a prestigious image to these assumptions (expensive gym memberships, famous personal trainer among your staff, upscale environment).
14. The California Club (Los Angeles)
- Cost: Premium pricing
- Description: Private social and athletic club
- Strategy: Exclusive membership, luxury facilities, networking opportunities
Source: californiaclub.org
Source: californiaclub.org
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Offer closed events, meetings and training sessions to make your clients feel special. Engage them in your gym social media channels, but only in closed groups to make them feel exceptional.
15. Zenergy Health Club & Spa (Ketchum, Idaho)
- Cost: Premium pricing
- Description: Luxury mountain resort fitness club
- Strategy: Comprehensive wellness approach, stunning location, diverse amenities
Source: Zenergy website.
Source: Zenergy website.
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
If you are just choosing a location for your gym, look for one that offers amazing views of the landscape.
16. Performix House (New York City)
- Cost: $900/month for top-tier membership
- Description: High-end, members-only fitness club
- Features: State-of-the-art equipment, celebrity trainers, recovery services
Source: performixhouse.com
Source: performixhouse.com
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
To increase the brand’s prestige, provide all your trainers with clothes with the gym logo. Just like Performix does. Read more about gym staff management software.
17. Lifetime Fitness (Various locations)
- Cost: $100-300/month depending on location and tier
- Description: High-end fitness chain with resort-style amenities
- Features: Indoor/outdoor pools, spa, cafes, child care, sports courts
Source: lifetime.life
Source: lifetime.life
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Check it out and you may find that renovating your interiors and giving them a slightly more luxurious character will not be that expensive.
18. Body by Simone
- Cost: BBS is positioned as a premium fitness experience with likely expensive gym memberships, some sources say about the price of $325 monthly.
- Description: Body by Simone offers a unique fusion of dance, Pilates, and functional strength training, designed to empower women.
- Features: dance cardio, interval training, low-impact options, for women only
Source: BBS Instagram.
Source: BBS streaming
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Target a specific audience with your offer, such as women, similar to the approach taken by Body by Simone. You will then attract a particular type of target audience that is willing to pay more for such personalized classes.
19. The Olympic Club (San Francisco)
- Cost: High initiation fee + monthly dues
- Description: Historic private athletic club
- Strategy: Exclusive membership, diverse sports facilities, social networking, youth support foundation
Source: olyclub.com
Source: foundsf.org
20. The Bay Club
- Cost: varies by location and type of membership, with monthly fees ranging from $160 to $325. The initial enrollment fee can be around $500, but specific costs should be confirmed directly with the club.
- Description: a premier lifestyle and fitness club offering state-of-the-art facilities, exclusive services, and a community-focused environment. For individuals and families seeking a holistic approach to fitness, wellness, and recreation.
- Features: multiple pools, tennis courts, golf courses, childcare services, family membership and luxury spa facilities. They also offer a wide range of fitness classes, social events, and personalized wellness programs tailored to individual needs and preferences.
Source: BC website
Source: BC website
What to Take For Your Gym From Their Strategy?
Set up a play area for children. This will be an excellent way to attract parents who otherwise cannot attend training sessions due to childcare constraints.
How To Successfully Follow the Expensive Gyms’ Ideas?
By each gym, we have provided examples of how to improve your strategies. Some of them may be easy, others more difficult. Now it’s time for something you can implement immediately.
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FAQ
Those are the most popular gyms with most expensive gym memberships:
- Madison Square Club, NY – $35,000/year. Personal training with David Kirsch, private studios, and luxurious amenities.
- E at Equinox, Various Locations – Over $26,000/year. Elite trainers, private training studios, global amenities.
- EXOS, Phoenix, AZ – $30,000/year. Athletic-focused, high-tech equipment, custom training plans.
- East Bank Club, Chicago, IL – $600 initiation + $250/month. Spanning 450,000 square feet, East Bank Club includes extensive fitness facilities, pools, dining options, and amenities like a salon and spa, making it one of Chicago’s most sought-after clubs.
The most expensive gym memberships are:
Madison Square Club – $35,000 per year. E at Equinox, Various Locations – over $26,000 per year, EXOS – $30,000 per year, The Houstonian – where monthly memberships start from $348 plus $25,000 initiation fee.
Many celebrities often visit Dogpound and Tracy Anderson Studios, renowned for their high-profile clientele and customized, high-intensity workouts designed to meet the demands of the entertainment industry.
