The Zero-Labor Guest Policy for Unstaffed Gyms

A fellow gym owner asked me this week how I handle single drop-ins. It's a great question and the answer looks pretty different when you don't have anyone sitting at a front desk, which is the case at both of my gym locations.

He mentioned that members sometimes want to bring a friend along, or someone from out of town just wants to pop in. His instinct was to let it slide in case it turned into a membership, but he wasn't sure how to handle the ones that didn't. Or whether he was giving away too much..

Here is what I do.

Option 1: Bring a Friend

I keep this simple. Members can bring one guest along a few times. I don't advertise it aggressively. I just let members know it's available. If someone loves the gym, there's a good chance I'm getting a new member out of it. If not, no harm done. More importantly it costs me no labour time.

The guest is entirely the member's responsibility, and that's spelled out in the original waiver every member signs. I don't charge for this. The less I have to get involved, the better. Why work if I don’t have to?

Option 2: The Discounted Day Pass

I have a day pass set up in the system that is discounted and only visible to me. When someone is asking a lot of questions or wants to try the gym out, I grab that link and send it to them by text, email, or WhatsApp. They click it, sign the waiver, fill in their info, pay, and get their pass right on their phone.

My regular day pass is $15. The trial link I send is $8. I do follow up with those people, so there is a bit of work involved, but it converts reasonably well.

Option 3: Punch Passes for Seasonal Traffic

This one came out of necessity. One of my gyms sits between three lakes with a lot of cottage country traffic. People come up from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa or even parts of the northern US for weeks at a time.

A monthly membership doesn't make sense for them, so I set up 3-punch and 10-punch passes. They're valid for six months, billed once, and no recurring charges. When a member uses their app to get in, it pulls one punch off the pass. Again this membership option is only visible to me and it only takes 90 seconds to send it. I can do it while in the Timmy's drive-thru line. So Easy.

Someone up for a week might grab the 3-pass for $40. Someone staying a month will usually go for the 10-pass at $88, which works out to $8.80 per visit compared to $15 for a single day pass. I get the money upfront and if they don't use all their punches before the six months is up, that's on them.

It's a clean setup that runs itself, which is exactly how I like it.