Missed our presentation at the HFA Show in Las Vegas?

Worry not—we've featured all the slides here with stats and data from our Year One and Year Two visits. We've focused on our first launch city of 2025, New York, but the stats feature all global markets that we've visited.

For New Yorkers, we're happy to report that in Year One, New York was our highest scoring city, narrowly pipping London to the top spot.

In our Year Two evaluations, released in March 2025, we're happy to report that New York saw an increase in average scores for both the overall experience, as well as the Class Experience category.

Barre was our highest scoring modality worldwide in Year One, with New York placing second out of five cities. London's Barre experiences are currently leading the pack.

Zoning in on individual modalities next, Barre clubs in New York saw a strong increase in both overall and class experience. Already our highest scoring modality in Year One, strong brands such as Physique 57 and Barre3 helped bring the average score up in Year Two.

For Cycling experiences, New York didn't fare as well, especially seeing as the city was the birthplace of rhythm cycling. Coming fourth out of five cities, our data highlights an opportunity for improvement.

In our Year Two evaluations for Cycling clubs in New York, we saw a decrease in both the overall score and also the class experience.

New York's HIIT, Strength and Conditioning clubs were global leaders, beating London into first place. Standout mentions in this category include OrangeTheory with numerous high-scoring locaitons in the city, MADabolic Brooklyn and F45 Flatiron.

We're happy to report that, already a strong modality in New York, the city's HIIT and strength clubs saw a rise in the standard of both the overall experience, as well as the class experience in 2025.

An underperforming modality globally, New York's yoga clubs were middle of the pack globally, with an average overall experience score of 77.8%

In yoga, despite seeing a small increase in overall and class experience in our second year, the standard of Reception Services—that's the pre- and post-class service, dropped.

Pilates was our second-lowest scoring modality worldwide, with a strong showing from New York as the top scoring city. The average overall evaluation score was 79.4%

As with Yoga, Pilates clubs saw a small increase in the quality of the overall experience and the class, but our Reception Services category, like yoga, saw a drop in standards.

Zooming in on Reception Services, New York saw a slight increase of 0.2% in this category at 74.9%

At The Fit Guide we want clubs to aim for our award winning 80%+ tier, so we hope to see an improvement in next year's evaluations.

We're now highlighting some individual stats in an underperforming category, Reception Services.

First up, is name usage. We talk about this a lot at The Fit Guide as being an 'easy win', but only 34% of New York clubs used our experience evaluators' name during pre- and post-class service interactions.

Another staple of five-star service is anticipatory service—which means seeing what our members need before they even have to ask. This is a great way to really separate yourself from the crowd, with only 34.7% of New York clubs doing this.

For first time visitors, a check in after the class is an essential part of the experience. Simply asking "how was the session?" shows that you care and can start a good conversation that can lead to a sale. Simple, but effective.

We have nine standards around sales during our evaluation process, and the boutique fitness industry has scored poorly in this category. Around one in four clubs in New York asked questions to establish the client's need, with a tiny 6.5% making a strong attempt to make the sale.

When visiting a club, especially for the first time, members should know exactly where they need to be and when. Knowing which station, reformer or mat you're on helps first timers feel comfortable. Free choice? No problem—just make sure you let members know, rather than have them wondering where they're supposed to be.

It's a fitness industry fundamental to conduct some kind of injury check or invitation to inform the trainer. During our New York visits, seven out of ten clubs didn't perform an injury check.

When a first time member visits you're club it's make or break, so we need to make sure they have a great experience from start to finish. One touch point we look for is the coach or instructor checking in with members before the class, which was only done in three out of ten New York club visits.

We've looked at name usage from reception staff, but what about coaches? Industry-wide, less than half of coaches were using members' names, with New York slightly above the average at 48%

A crucial part of a premium boutique fitness experience is paying attention to individual form and technique. Whilst the industry scored well overall, around one in four clubs did not do this during our anonymous visits and evaluations.

This should be an easy one to score—using meaningful words or expressions of encouragement. It could be as simple as "great work, Mary!" or "looking good on the squat there" to score this standard.

After talking to hundreds of gym owners and operators around the world, an interesting common trait amongst the most successful has been an understanding that, for an industry-leading class experience, we should connect with everyone in the room at least once. New York clubs did well in this area, with four out of five scoring this standard.

Our experience evaluators will always give ample opportunity for each standard to be scored. For example, for this standard they will hang around the studio for some time after the class to see if the instructor follows up with them. Worldwide, less than half of clubs followed up with first timers after the session.

Finally, we analyzed a few of our Digital & Technology category standards, which help round off a great member journey. We look for a message to a club, often the very first touch point with the brand, to be responded to within two hours. Against a global average of 39.9%, only 20% of New York clubs scored this standard.

We must let first timers know exactly what to expect when visiting our club for the first time. One of our standards is whether digital communications, typically an email, outline whether there's an onboarding process and when the client should arrive.

A great way to welcome new members before they join is by letting them check out your instructor or coach bios on your website. It gives them a chance to get to know your team beforehand.