World Class Health Academy

 

Few people know that the World Class Health Academy almost completely closed its doors around this time last year, despite being a global network of over 50 successfully operating exclusive clubs in 12 countries worldwide. It would be easy to blame the unique situation in Hungary for this phenomenon, because as we know, nothing works here like it does further West. However, in this case, that's not the issue. The World Class opened its doors with a ceremonial event on May 10, 2008, starting its operations in Hungary with 3 gyms, of which only two remain today, and not by chance. World Class (from now on WCH) is known for its high-category gyms and outstanding wellness services, which are perfectly available in Budapest. The two fundamental problems with WCH are the choice of locations and the size of the gyms. The biggest tragedy of WCH lies precisely in the horrible combination of these two factors, because its largest gym, Sun Palace, is three-storied, but it's in a terribly bad location. It's in a remote part of Óbuda, next to the HÉV (suburban railway), in the middle of a housing estate, far from everything. This wouldn't be such a big problem, but within a 2 km radius, there isn't an office building or a busy street that would attract wealthier clients, because I don't think the people from the housing estate can afford the 30,000 HUF monthly passes. The proximity of Szépvölgyi út and the 2nd district is also misleading, because a true poser jerk won't go down to the housing estate next to the HÉV to work out, no matter how well-equipped the gym is. For them, there's Arnold Gym on Kolosy, or Oxygen Wellness...

Then there's the second surviving club, the gym on the first floor of the Marriott hotel. The location choice here is excellent, and the view, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful in the city. Guests are constantly arriving, as I mentioned, the club is in a 5-star hotel. The businessmen loitering here and their girlfriends, wives, lovers traveling with them as luggage, constantly feed the place, and since we are talking about the 5th district, the biggest snobs eagerly visit here. One of my buddies, a broker at BudaCash, works in the 11th district and lives in Hűvösvölgy, but still comes here to train because the place and the exclusive environment matter to him. At the Marriott, the location is good, but the gym is smaller than a Chinese dick. The weights section cannot be larger than 60 m2, which means that if more than ten people show up at once, it simply becomes impossible to train. The most basic machines are there, and I can finish the list here. If I counted correctly, there are 16 machines in total, which is simply ridiculous, especially since 6 of them are cardio machines. It's not possible to do a full workout, but I don't think that's the mission of this gym. This club is the perfect place for kept wives and paid prostitutes, as well as obese middle and upper managers, whose idea of working out consists of 55 minutes of phone calls in trainers.

The third place is Avenue Garden on Andrássy Avenue, which, as you know, gave up the ghost half a year ago. Well, this gym was in a bad location, and it wasn't a gym, but a rich guy's personal training studio. I came here for 3 months because it was close to me, and I noticed that if I went early in the morning, there was usually only 1 person besides me at most, meaning we just about fit next to each other. I loved this gym because it was cozy, and if there was no one else but you, which was likely, you could really feel like you were swimming in your house's pool with a hot tub next to it. That's enough about the gyms by way of a brief introduction, now let's examine them in a bit more detail.

Sun Palace

For a year, a close acquaintance of mine worked as a receptionist at WCH. For a while at Andrássy, then she was transferred to Sun Palace, and she also helped out at the Marriott when needed, so I have close information about the place and the processes going on behind the scenes. When WCH was still operating with three gyms, both Sun Palace and Avenue Garden were struggling with serious financial difficulties, and for months it was thought that the place would close because there weren't enough guests and the place couldn't always cover its operating costs. The demise of the Andrássy Avenue gym was eventually caused by the struggles of Sun Palace, and since much larger sums were invested in the SP, they decided to close the Andrássy Avenue club instead, thereby saving Sun Palace from closure. Since then, the situation has stabilized, and Sun Palace has pulled itself together. I don't know exactly what happened, maybe they fired their incompetent salesperson who hadn't done anything until then, or a new management arrived who started to work effectively, but now organized school groups are visiting Sun Palace, and guests are also starting to arrive.

Sun Palace is divided into three levels, and consequently into three sections. There's a weight section in the basement and on the first floor, which is ridiculous because if your workout plan requires it, you start bench pressing downstairs, but you have to take the elevator up to the first floor for the chest press machine, then back to the 45-degree bench, and if you want to do abs, you have to go up again. I don't know who the idiot was who came up with this, but you can't even do a serious workout here because if you pay attention to rest times, you can't keep to the breaks because you constantly have to take the elevator. The gym's equipment, if not a Fitness 2000, is roughly in order. There's a separate aerobic and a spinning room, and the wellness section is on the ground floor. 25-meter pool, sauna, steam, no problem with that, if only it weren't in such a bad location, and if the weights section wasn't fragmented. They are currently renovating the place, we'll see what comes of it.

The changing rooms and showers are of the usual quality, nothing special, but I saw a personal trainer working there, but I wish I hadn't, because a woman was trying to do a shoulder press, but she was doing it so badly that I think she broke her collarbone during the exercise. The trainer, or whoever the hell that was standing over her in a World Class T-shirt, just watched and didn't say a single word, like "Hey, you shouldn't be doing it like that, because an open fracture is not part of the exercise." Oh, and the reception girls regularly party there after closing, and there was hardly a place where my buddy's girlfriend hadn't had sex, but unfortunately not with me. I only took her sister out after her prom.

Marriott

Now, this is a very interesting gym, as it's on the first floor of a hotel, which I personally only found after two sets of directions. The place screams "facility for foreigners" so loudly they might as well put up a sign. The gym offers a beautiful view of Gellért Hill and Buda Castle, it's really beautiful, but it's a shame we're talking about a gym and not a Hop On Hop Off sightseeing bus. I personally visited the place because I hadn't been there before, and I was given a tour and shown everything, but when I wanted to take photos, they didn't allow it, even though their wellness section is worth seeing. The whole thing is like a cave. Dim lights everywhere, a well-hidden sauna section; I imagine Hugh Hefner's "playboy mansion cave" would look something like this too. I also had a feeling here that this wasn't originally conceived as a gym for the general public, but rather a small, private club, which would be perfectly fine, but it doesn't attract enough customers to sustain the place, and the entrance fees aren't high enough for 40-50 people to generate a profit. Especially if we're talking about casual guests who only come weekly, at best once. A significant portion of a gym's revenue comes from the counter and other services, for which it's good to have at least 20 regular customers. The passes and daily tickets might cover the millions in overhead bills, just as at parties, the entrance fee isn't the big business but the bar. But honestly, I don't really see how the place makes a profit, not that I deeply care, it would just be a shame if the Marriott ended up like Avenue Garden. Besides the weight room, there's only one aerobic room, it can fit about 15 people, there's a sauna, jacuzzi, steam, and the changing rooms, which made me feel like I was in a ship's cabin. The gym is flawless at its level, but it's small, and that kills the whole thing. As for the personal trainers, there's a young girl named Fanny who works there as a personal trainer, and she has a damn good ass.

Andrássy Avenue Garden

The popular common proverb of the common folk says, "Of the dead, say nothing but good," so I shouldn't write anything here. I truly loved this place because if I was alone, it was the perfect gym. In 2008, I wasn't paying attention to things like the equipment setup or whether I could complete a full program with the right machines. Back then, the feeling of swimming in a dimly lit pool in the garden of a luxury apartment, with free towels that everyone, of course, stole mercilessly, was perfectly enough for me. From a distance, Avenue Garden looked like a concept store, like the Budapest branch of Louis Vuitton or Gucci. The essence of such stores is their prestigious appearance, their very presence. One more line on WorldClass.com. They don't produce anything, but they need to establish a presence on a European capital's avenue. Well, this club was something similar, because when I went in, I always felt like I was in some kind of exhibition hall where the machines weren't meant to be exercised on, but to stand there, in a certain posture, at a certain angle, and how good that looked combined with the grey marble tiles as the lights from the pool reflected on them. The opening party perfectly reflected this spirit, only the idea was flawed in that it wasn't a damn gallery but a gym. It was only a matter of time before it closed, and the Lehmann Brothers-like situation of Sun Palace eventually brought down the verdict on Avenue Garden. (not like on Stohl "Cocaine" András)

 Prices

We're talking about premium gyms. This is reflected in both the prices and the clientele. I like going to such places because I'm a superficial jerk such places are guaranteed not to have Roma people, but what's even more important, if that's even possible to say, is that you're with cultured, sophisticated, well-socialized people three times a week for an hour and a half, which doesn't seem like much, but if you go to the same place regularly, it really matters.

At Sun Palace, the annual pass is 112,000 HUF (a year ago they were trying for 160-180 thousand), the 6-month pass is 67,200 HUF, and the 3-month pass is 44,800 HUF. They don't like it in any of the places if you only buy a monthly pass, they don't really promote it, and they only reluctantly admit that yes, there is a monthly pass if you specifically ask about it. Otherwise, it's 27,000 HUF.

The Marriott has a summer promotion, which is a sure sign that hardly anyone is going there anymore, but summer is generally considered weak in almost all gyms. As part of the promotion, the annual pass is 111,000 HUF instead of 122,000 HUF, the 6-month pass is a steady 80,000 HUF, while the 3-month pass has also been adjusted and is now 46,000 HUF instead of 55,000 HUF. At the Marriott, they dislike monthly pass holders even more than at Sun Palace. They specifically don't sell monthly passes; that is, there's a trial month during which you can try the gym for 20,000 forints for one month, but if you promise not to show your cheap face before 4 PM, then it's only 16,000. They don't deal with day passes, student discounts, or other such nonsense.

The World Class Health Academy Hungary is thus flawed in its basic concept, because a place can be as sophisticated and exclusive as it wants, but if it's in a bad location and professional factors are ignored, it cannot be a well-functioning, profitable system in the long run. Despite this, the two remaining units are starting to gain a foothold on both banks of the Danube after 3 years, and we'll see what happens next, because next time there won't be an Avenue Garden to sacrifice if there's trouble...