24 Hour Gyms: The Future of Fitness?
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The Fitness Industry is one of the strongest going at the moment. It continuously evolves and branches out into new territories. The 24 Hour Gym is a relatively new concept but is quickly becoming the go to option for many Gym owners.
There is a multitude of reasons why some people may prefer to exercise at 3am rather than 7pm. Whether it is modesty or a preference to full availability of machines and equipment.
Changing your business practices does come with some challenges to overcome. These include ensuring the safety of your members as well as obtaining comprehensive insurance for a 24 hour gym.
Is there a demand?
The first thing to remember, is that you do not want to alienate your current members. Whilst a 24 hour unmanned gym might bring in new customers, it might not be what your loyal customers want.
Why not hand out questionnaires or surveys to your members and see whether they would feel a benefit from the change in operations?
Whilst some members may like the idea of utilizing the premises at 3am, others may prefer the gym to function with available staff.
Staffed or Unattended?
There are two sides to a potential 24 hour gym. Will you be operating staffed or unattended?
If you decide to operate staffed, you continue to spend on wages. However, obtaining insurance for a 24 hour gym can become an easier job if there is someone always on site to ensure the safety of your members.
Alternatively, if you are choosing to operate completely un-staffed, you do save on wages. However, there then comes the risk of a sole participant injuring themselves with no employees available to come to their aid.
To counteract this, there is equipment and procedures that you may want to put in place to ensure the safety of your members.
Your Members and Their Safety
The first piece of kit that you can implement to ensure your member’s safety is CCTV. More often than not, insurers will insist of CCTV being recorded and retained for a minimum of 30 days. To further protect your participants from serious incidents, you can install CCTV that digitally connect to yours or your manager’s mobile devices, or even opt for fully monitored CCTV.
Panic Buttons are essentially a must when it comes to 24 hour, unmanned, gyms. Panic Buttons (also referred to as assistance alarms) tend to be wall mounted and can connect to a central station, the emergency services or yourself/your manager. These can become a vital roll in keeping your participants safe.
If there is one member utilizing your facilities alone at 4 o’clock in the morning and they suffer an incident, there is a chance that they may not be able to reach for the panic buttons. In this instance, the Panic Button Necklaces, could potentially be the difference between life and death.
Insurance For A 24 Hour Gym
Here at David J Miller’s, we pride ourselves in becoming specialists in the more niche insurance markets. Insurance for 24 hour gyms is a community pot and a single, albeit sizable, incident at one establishment can have a ripple effect throughout the entire industry. We are determined to keep premiums low and cover comprehensive.
