Chicago offers a lot of exercise options and choosing just one studio is hard.
One company offers a variety of classes across the city, but how much is this luxury worth?
Last week ClassPass, a company that provides a monthly subscription to exercises studios across the city, raised its monthly rates from $119 to $175. This is the second price increase in the past year. As of last fall, the service’s fees were $99.
For some, the price hike is a deal breaker.
“I will miss being able to try classes that are outside of my financial reach,” said Katy Trcka, 34, a technical recruiter in Chicago. “I used to just do Pure Barre and after a while doing three Pure Barre classes in one week, it can get really boring.”
She began subscribing to ClassPass in June 2015, with a break between December to March, and canceled her membership after the latest price hike.
In comparison, the monthly fee for unlimited classes at Pure Barre is $250, with some discounts for recurring members. A single session at the studio costs $30.
The range of class options with ClassPass still is cheaper than some studios’ monthly unlimited options. For example, an unlimited month at Flywheel runs $270 for spin classes only, or $370 for spin and barre classes. Similarly, at Studio Three, a monthly unlimited pass for interval, spin and yoga runs $225.
ClassPass has offered a new option of 10 classes per month for $110. But for some previous members, this doesn’t provide enough opportunities.
“I don’t want to cancel, but I just can’t go enough times to make it worth it,” said Sarah Allen, 26, an accountant in Chicago.
She said she needs to go more than 10 times a month during the summer but can’t justify sending the extra money at this time.
“My current plan is to cancel for the next few months, and then I will probably give in and rejoin in October [when it becomes too cold to exercise outdoors],” Allen said.
However, for some members the fee increase is a small price to pay for the amount of options available.
“I’m a big fan, and I’ve been hearing a lot of flak for it but I thought it was coming,” said Dana Probst, 32, an accountant in Chicago. She joined in October 2014 and said she’s taken more than 300 classes in two and a half years.
“I use it a lot, I probably take five to six classes a week,” Probst said.
She also appreciates that ClassPass charges a fee if users fail to cancel a class more than 12 hours before should they opt not to attend.
“I actually used to be really overweight; this has been the best for me,” Probst said. “They could probably raise it $50 and I would stay with it.”
Current and former subscribers offered several suggestions for the service.
“It would be great if they could up it to four times a month,” Probst said, so she could make a weekly schedule and not be out of choices by the end of the month.
Other suggestions from past members included being able to book more than four classes at once and having the more popular times at studios available for ClassPass members instead of being reserved for the specific studio’s members only.
