Locker Rooms: Pluses & Minuses by CBI Magazine
Locker rooms. Are they necessary evils that
require constant attention and maintenance… or soothing oases that can refresh, relax,and rejuvenate your members? The industry’s foremost architects, suppliers,and health club operators believe that they’re the latter. They understand that these common spaces present a valuable opportunity to elevate and enrich the member experience.
As competition among clubs heats up, locker rooms are attracting greater attention, because management realizes just how vital they are to membership sales and member satisfaction, and, thus, to their branding and competitive edge.
“Locker rooms have changed tremendously over the years,” observes Leo Krashanoff, the sales manager of SAG North America, Inc., a locking systems manufacturer based in San Rafael, California. “Facility owners now recognize that excellence, with respect to their design and functionality, is one of the keys to member retention.”
“Because they’re an ideal spot to differentiate your facility, locker rooms should be more than just a place to secure your personal belongings,” suggests Suzanne Lee, the marketing manager for Digilock, a Petaluma, California–based manufacturer of electronic locks and security solutions. “This space, once regarded as utilitarian, has become an almost spa-like amenity.”
Brent Darden, the CEO of Brent Darden Consulting, Inc., of Dallas, concurs. “It’s important that operators understand the locker room really helps establish a club’s level of quality for the consumer. Recently, I’ve noticed an increased attention to detail and elegance, and a distinct move towards luxury.”
As more clubs, including high-volume/ low-priced (HVLP) facilities, upgrade their locker rooms, members are coming to expect something beyond simple cleanliness and utility. “The locker room is now considered more important than ever before. You can’t skimp on it and remain competitive,” warns Bruce Carter, the president of Optimal Design Systems International, a Weston, Florida–based design and consulting firm.
CBI spoke with a cross-section of industry experts—designers, consultants, and suppliers— who, each year, visit scores of locker rooms worldwide, and asked them what they’d recently noticed that clubs were doing really well … as well as what, in some cases, they were doing wrong. The following is what they had to say.
