Equinox San Mateo

Positive experience: In general, the club has a good variety of classes and equipment. However, I do have issues with female rocker room. I have issued a complaint a few times, but I thought I would share it with others. Cleaners in female rocker room are not very nice. They exchange body lotion when you are using it. Happened multiple times. Also, whenever I go to use sauna, when I put a clean towel in a shower room with multiple other vacant ones and come back after 10 minutes, the towels are gone. This also happened multiple times. I commented cleaner once, asked not do that when it is not crowded and when someone is using sauna. They said it is the rules that they need to check. A cleaner starts inspecting rocker contents one by one when there are a few people using the rocker. I understand they are just doing their work. However, I see other part of the rocker room/ shower room being left dirty with hairs and trashes. The cleaners are just not attentive enough to notice that someone needs to use the rocker room uninterrupted, or needs a clean towel after sauna and shower. There are many other places to work on in the rocker room, as someone else commented. Most importantly the cleaners do not understand what it takes to make someone feel cared or welcomed. Maybe there is a rule that they have to check shower rooms and change supplies. But recently I just feel not pleasant with my experience and it only keeps happening. I think customer experience is most important in a club like this so I hope the club will consider improving it.

Fantastic experience: It's so clean! The group classes are great. Parking is easy in the lot in the back It's mostly not crowded when I go on my lunch break/middle of the day. It does seem to get busy early mornings and weekends and I think I get a better experience because I avoid those times

Negative experience: Gym smells strange and is very small, underground with no windows. One of the ‘trainers’ walking around was pretty creepy and continuously hit on me while I was trying to work out. Overall not a good experience.

Negative experience: They make fake promises about how flexible they are when canceling memberships.

Negative experience: Probably the worst gym ever. Not worth it at all. All other reviews are right. They need to renovate this equinox to bring it up to standard

Positive experience: Phenomenal classes and love the rooftop pool! The cell service is a bit spotty in the basement where the equipment is, which is my only gripe. There’s street parking or a parking lot in the back where your parking can be validated.

Negative experience: I would give it 5 stars but the Earthbar they allow to operate here is a sad waste of space. It is rarely open and even when it is, no one shows up to take orders. The “grab and go” options are super limited. Equinox, get them to operate or get them off your property. One of my favorite parts of working out at equinox- getting a smoothie after a midday workout. I will NOT be coming back to San Mateo anymore because this Earthbar location is horribly unreliable. Disappointing.

Positive experience: When was the last time this place was remodeled or an equivalent?

Negative experience: Super disappointed with my visit there. The men’s locker room is super dirty….. Which honestly I would have over looked if it wasn’t for their horrible customer service . The sales rep Rachel was nice. However, it’s becoming increasingly obvious the only person there that will help me is her because she has something to gain. The front desk has blatantly lied to me several times about her ware abouts. The first time they told me she was in a meeting all day and then she texted me and told me she wasn’t in the office. Then today I wanted to get a pass so my girlfriend and I could try out the gym but because she wasn’t there they told me that there was nobody who could help and they were all in meetings all day. This is the only luxury gym in the area, if you wanna call it that. The way they act, they might as well just say we’re the only Luxury gym in town and that’s why we don’t care. This is literally the 24 hour fitness of equinox.

Negative experience: The 1 star is relative to other high-end gyms as even the worst Equinox is still better than the best 24 Hour, Crunch, etc -the gym is underground and has zero natural light. I know this cant necessarily be helped but working out on a basement is disorienting and depressing. -missing some very basic equipment that virtually any other gym has while also have a bizzarre over abundance of other pieces that could never possibly be needed, specifically their assortment of grips for the cable stacks -the lockers do not have keypads, you need to bring your own lock or just hope you're stuff doesn't get stolen. To me this might be the most egregious thing they are lacking and is inexcusable. -the Earth Bar is virtually never open. I know Earth Bar is a separate business but it still hurts -no parking, although street parking has never been an issue when I typically go at 6am

Negative experience: Poor management. Doesn’t seem to retain amazing instructors. One of the instructors I loved before and during Covid (Nicol O & Megan) left due to issues with management and pay from what I heard through the grapevine. Sad as I only enjoyed their classes and management seems to have issues retaining talent which is Impt if you will be paying $300 a month, I’ve been a member for 4 years now. Small facility compared to other equinoxes.

Positive experience: Compared to other equinox locations in the Bay, this is probably the smallest and least equipped. It's just really small compared to Palo Alto or SF. The actual gym is in the basement which makes you feel like you're inside a dungeon. All the equinox amenities are present, but if you're looking for the true equinox experience, I would recommend going to Palo Alto instead.

Positive experience: I’ve been enjoying my time at the San Mateo Equinox Gym – the facilities are clean, well-maintained, and the Khiels products are a nice touch. I wish they had some of the cool features like the other equinoxes, but it is still worth it for a nice private gym. However, my recent equifit assessment fell short of expectations. The trainer only had me do a few lunges and arm stretches during what was supposed to be an hour-long session! I’ve been granted a makeup assessment on Monday, but the initial experience left me feeling somewhat cheated. Despite this, I appreciate the gym’s positive aspects and hope the makeup session will be more comprehensive. But I feel like they should do more than just one makeup session being that I basically got cheated out of a whole session.

Fantastic experience: It is a good place to go workout!

Negative experience: I am VERY unhappy with the opening hours! I want to be able to go to the gym after work but it’s impossible since they close at 6-9 pm!!!

Fantastic experience: Nice space with a variety of machines, kettle bells, and free weights. Clean locker room. Had sauna and steam rooms. Beautiful outdoor pool on the top deck. Shout out to Cody for the tour!

Negative experience: I’ve been an equinox member for 6 years and gone to clubs in NY, DC, TX and CA. This is by far the worse equinox club of all of them… by a long shot. The main workout area is a windowless basement that is constantly dirty and unorganized, with equipment thrown around everywhere. The management is also very unresponsive borderline incompetent. The club also frequently has AC issues and other problems that force it to close.

Negative experience: Equinox…more like Equi-swamp. The gym is nice with good equipment and nice locker rooms, but it’s hard to get a workout done because it’s always hot and humid inside. Some days the AC works, but most of the time it feels like a swamp and hasn’t been fixed despite my numerous complaints to the management. Nothing like trying to squat and breathing in what feels like a sea of other peoples’ breath and body odor. Forget about cardio, you’re already sweating before you even step on the machine! Not sure what is the point of having a nice gym when you never want to use it. Such a shame because there is a lot of potential here, but I think they care more about selling memberships than satisfying those of us who have been going here for years.

Negative experience: I've been a member of Equinox for about 4 years, and was primarily an All Access Member based in New York City. I visited the San Mateo location on occasion while visiting family, and it was dated, but management was responsive and equipment worked as expected. I recently moved to the Bay Area and switched to Single Club San Mateo. The new management team here is unable to fix major issues in the facility. The air conditioning has been broken since I returned in Late May. I was in regular contact with management, who reassured me that it would be fixed in short order. They provided a gift card, which would have been appropriate compensation if the issue did not persist for another month+. It is now July, and the air conditioning unit still does not work in the cardio area. This is a basement gym, in the summer season. The team has sent out no member-wide communication regarding timelines for the "final fix", and the cardio area remains warm and damp with no airflow. The men's locker room regularly has no towels. The lockers are dated and require you to bring your own lock. The leg press machine broke weeks ago and has not been fixed. Random pulleys are also broken, and debris and water leaks fall from the ceiling in the dumbbell areas. There appears to be no team onsite making sure equipment works. I would gladly cancel my membership if there was any other luxury club in the area, for now I am stuck paying $200+ a month for a basement swamp with broken equipment. I've been hesitant to write a review but after hearing complaints from many other members in club, I decided this should be made public. I hope corporate gets involved as soon as possible, as it has become clear the local team is unlikely to handle the issues within any reasonable timeframe. Update: I have reached out to the concierge and management multiple times yet issues still persist. A/C is still out in the cardio area, machines are broken, the ceiling is molding and collapsing. Also of note, management replies to my emails about a week after they are sent, sometimes after serious problems are mentioned to them. For example, I notified the assistant manager that a broken machine hit me on the head during a workout and she responded a week later that it was working (clearly it had been fixed in the interim). Any problem is blamed on a “facilities” team or a “cleaning” team. Update: A/C has still been out on and off, and a lot of the equipment is broken, damaged, or excessively worn. Not worth the price, decided to cancel. Not the same offering as any other Equinox location.

Negative experience: A real trap. They charge a fortune for a poor gym that has almost no equipment, no parking, and when you try to leave they keep saving your card and trying to charge high amounts of your account without authorization! Don't fall into that trap!!

Fantastic experience: Trained with Jenya, she is amazing. We do every week. Also gym is clean and staff super friendly!

Fantastic experience: I love this gym. Very friendly staff. Never to crowded two hour free parking no problem. I use Machines hardly have to wait as I circuit train. Steam bath really nice, private showers. Shampoo, conditioner body wash. Razors if you forget your own. Kinda pricy but so is your health. Oh did I mention salt water pool on roof if your into swimming. Cool personal trainers...I'm renewing..

Negative experience: One of the most obnoxious gyms I’ve ever been to. Poor service, overpriced, and management is not running things with members as top of mind. It was my first day and I had a worker yell at me not to use the showers 15min minutes before closing. She then told me I could shower but by that time I had already decided to leave, cancel my membership and use a different gym. I then asked to cancel and heard radio silence from the Equinox team for 2 weeks. Strange, when previously they had been very responsive with texts and calls to ensure I signed up for their membership. Avoid this gym. Go to CSM gym if you want a nice and elegant place to work out.

Negative experience: The most obnoxious gym! I came here once as a guest by an invitation from a friend. Ever since then, I kept getting blasted with emails to join from the same person. 8 emails in the the past 2 weeks! For such a gym that’s supposedly luxurious, desperation is not an attractive quality! And this gym is not worth it. Probably should be $100/mo at best.

Negative experience: I worked out at this gym for awhile and I can say that if you are looking for a luxurious experience this gym may not be the right one for you. The gym smells like $#%% and there’s no air circulation there. If you’re spending 200 dollars on a gym membership it has to be at least clean and fresh. They make you sign a one year contract cause you’ll find out later it was a bad decision and there’s no way back.

Positive experience: This gym has the most incompetent staff and I never write reviews but they are so lazy and horrible that I am actually leaving a review. First, my family has been going here for years. During the pandemic they were impossible to cancel with - IMPOSSIBLE. We had to e-mail over and over again and send irritating messages for them to even respond. Next, I reinstated my membership recently because the gym IS clean and the instructors are cool. The app on my phone from their end is not updated and I am unable to use it at all. Instead of helping, they just asked me to try tech support when no such option even exists. Why not just ask someone who knows in the facility if you have no idea how to do your job?? Now I have to waste more time tomorrow demanding to see someone to fix something super uncomplicated. Good grief! Update: The corporate management team does reach out right away to get your feedback and Tim resolved my issues immediately.

Fantastic experience: AMAZING!!

Fantastic experience: Love this gym. Close to my house, clean and great employees.

Fantastic experience: Excited to be back, gym has always been clean, now it's cleaner than ever!!!

Fantastic experience: Fabulous team in San Mateo! Members love the rooftop pool and The Shop has all the gear you need!!

Fantastic experience: This EQX location is held in my heart for helping me to achieve and maintain my fitness/health goals. I’m very thankful to the whole staff (cleaners, trainers, class leaders and management) for maintaining wonderful standards for its members.

Fantastic experience: Worth the money. I am an executive member (all gyms).. I have been to Equinox gyms across the country for over a decade. They do a good job here like the others. It is a worthwhile investment. This location has a slightly older but fit and health conscious membership. I like it because if they make it easy to enjoy trips to the gym. Its clean, the staff and members are courteous, and parking is free.

Negative experience: Disclaimer: I’m not one of the scrubs that doesn’t pay and then complains about their debt via reviews. The team truly provides atrocious service. Incredibly salesy and aggressive until you’re a member, then you’ll never receive support again. Good luck trying to buy a water or anything for that matter, it’s staffed like 1 hour per day. Been trying to cancel my account for over a week. Can’t walk in without an appointment and also can’t make an appointment without accepting terms that lock you into accepting prohibitive “COVID” reopening protocols (no amenities, less hours, masks and an appointment system) and resumed billing. Buy a home gym and a peloton — avoid this place like the plague.

Negative experience: I joined when it opened 15 years ago. It's steadily become more corporateand less interested in providing the good fitness instructors that it used to have. Classes are shorter and changed all the time, without letting members know. Props and weights aren't available reliably. The instructors are always friendly and cheerful, and usually good. It's a nice building, and has been well decorated and maintained, but has some serious flaws, probably since the building is old: lights flicker on and off, the heat seems to go on at random times, the water fountains and showers sometimes have pressure and sometimes don't. I stay because I have some instructors I like, and there are some very good classes. The weight room is extensive and usually there is space on machines for you to use. But I would never join now at the rates they have raised them to.

Fantastic experience: While this is one of the smallest Equinox locations I've been to and is a bit older, I absolutely love it. The dance classes are fun, there's never a wait for a shower/amenities, and Cody and the front desk staff are super friendly. The only limitations are the parking limit of 2 hours and the cafe tends to be closed in the evenings. Otherwise love love love this location and hope they add more classes.

Negative experience: It seems nice when you sign up but just like other reviewers say, the management does not do their job and purposely ignore your request. I was supposed to get refund 3 months ago becauae I was relocated. I had to visit/call/email the manager countless times (not exaggerating at all) and I have not received the refund yet. Do not sign up if you ever need to move. You will never get your money back contrary to what’s written on terms and conditions.

Negative experience: What bothers me the most are the people who will take up 3 pieces of equipment to do a circuit and WILL NOT let you work in. I’ve experienced this 3 or 4 times over the last month. It’s not worth the $300 a month price tag. Gym is lacking.

Negative experience: I felt good at the beginning. But they looked nice just because you paid extra. When i had to stop membership because of moving and called them, immediately something changed. Someone talked rudely over the phone, hang the call even without letting me say thank you or bye !

Negative experience: I am editing my review and changing from 2 stars to one star. Since I went through too much trouble cancelling my membership. First of all I have been told I can cancel my memeberahip whenever I want which was not correct. Second of all they sent me the agreement couple weeks later which ended up to have a 14month agreement with Equinox. 2months after I actually I started my membership. It sounds like their trick to keep people for longer time in their program. I cancelled my membership 7weeka before the deadline(at this point I have not used the gym for 5month BC of my travel schedules). Now I see I have been charged for one more month and they told me there is no note in your account. I decided to dispute the charge through my bank. Old review: Nice and clean gym but not for the price you are paying. It’s definitely overpriced! Staff are nice. Like other places it’s nice when there is money going into their pocket! I am traveling a lot and sometime for couple month, I asked multiple times to see if I can freeze my membership when I’m out of state, a simple “No” would do it for me! But they have never responded!!!!!!

Negative experience: Most of the competent staff has left. Manager Brian is super rude. Helpful only when they can get your money, otherwise will ignore you. Gym is packed most hours of the day you wont be able to use things, trainers will be using it with clients. Wifi sucks (if you want to use your phone for music) since the gym is a dark basement and the equipment seems pretty old. Just increased the dues to $170 a month but you will need to fight to use the squat rack or weights. When the corporate Equinox people come and tour everyone will be nice and clean up for a day. Dont bother there are better gyms in the area.

Fantastic experience: love the personal trainer experience and and vinyasa yoga class

Negative experience: Overpriced and incompetent staff. Signed up and immediately had buyers remorse. The gym is just as packed as any other gym in San Mateo at about 4x the price. You are given a 5 day period to opt out of service once service agreement is signed which I did. 20 days later I am still waiting for a refund(they are supposed to refund in 10). Management is completely useless and incompetent, unable to do basic things like follow up, return phone calls, or respond to emails. If you like to save money and want a good gym, check out crunch. If you like to spend money and want a good gym, sign up at crunch and throw the $100 dollars you saved in the trash.

Fantastic experience: Disclaimer: I am not employed by, or paid by, Equinox, but I am a happy member, so if you are looking for a Rage review, keep scrolling. TL;DR - You get what you pay for Equinox is a gym that tends to be mired in controversy, both because it is in fact the most expensive gym, and also because their ads are super weird. Seriously, tandem breast feeding is super cool, and white haired phantom-esque models are somewhat interesting, but really? Facilities: In a single word: Perfect. The locker rooms are clean, lit in a flattering light, and rarely very crowded. Both Men and Women's locker room have a steam room (heavenly after a heavy workout). All of the Showers are private, tastefully tiled, and stocked with Kiehl's soaps (Oh So Good). The club supplies Shave Soap, Razors, cotton swabs, and mouthwash. Personally, I always shower and get ready at Equinox, instead of at home, because the Club is so nice, and you emerge feeling strong! Upstairs: Consists of an average-size studio for Yoga, and other classes, the Spa, and the outdoor deck and pool. The Yoga studio is stocked with everything you would need for classes: mats, straps, blocks, blankets, bolsters, small weights, etc. Spa: No clue, (I'm a typical dude, and don't Spa much). Pool: The deck and pool area are fairly compact, (Half length pool maybe?), but actually a nice place to hang out during the summer, especially given the two small shades. Downstairs: The goods. The downstairs consists of a split main floor, with cardio equipment on one side, and free-weights and cable machines on the other. Surrounding this floor is the cycling room, another studio for cardio-muscle classes, the weight machines (in the corner next to the Cardio equipment), and the trainer stretch room. The weight floor essentially has 4 of everything, a wall of free weights, 5 bench press racks, a center cable machine with 8 places, 4-5 adjustable and fixed benches for free weights, a smith machine, and 2 squat racks. The center of the weight area is an open floor for TRX strap exercises, and typically where people do dead lifts, and other olympic style power lifts. The cardio side has a row of stationary bikes, a row of elliptical style machines, 3 rowing machines, a row of treadmills, and a row of stair steppers. There is also a spattering of interesting cardio equipment such as climbers, "Road" runners, etc. Adjacent to the cardio area is a soft mat stretch area, and opposite the soft mat is the classic weight machines (most full motion). Every piece of equipment, space, etc is always clean, and in perfect working order. If a door breaks, it will be fixed by the time your workout is done, I've never seen a machine out of order, and even during the busiest of times, the locker rooms, and equipment are clean (as in, make grandma proud clean). The facilities are great, but where equinox really shines is their class selection. Each day there are typically 20ish classes a day, consisting, on average, of 3 Yoga Classes, 3 Spin classes, several running classes, and the rest being cardio, cardio-muscular, pilates etc. All of the classes are top notch, and the instructors are professionals. They really excel at spin and Yoga classes. A special shoutout belongs to Dana Sweeney who is hands down the best Yoga instructor I have ever encountered! This is where the real value is, seeing as paying for classes at other gym's or facilities adds up to far more than your Equinox membership, especially if you go several times a week. Trust me on this, you will find your fit, your class, and your workout at Equinox. The other shining star at Equinox is the trainers, who are all consummate professionals, and can really take you to your next level of fitness, or help you achieve your goals. Equinox is the perfect example of "You get what you pay for", and at Equinox you get a lot! If you are serious about improving yourself, Equinox is the answer. If you want a cheap gym that is always dirty, and easy to convince yourself to skip, go to 24 hour fitness. And above all else: GET OUT AND LIFT!

Fantastic experience: Beautiful gym, the staff is super friendly and it's always very clean.

Positive experience: Equinox is a great gym, you get what you pay for. It's clean, equipment is always working and organized, and even at its busiest times it's not obnoxiously crowded. The San Mateo location probably has the least curb appeal of any of the Equinox's in the Bay Area (and the several other ones I've been to around the country). My biggest gripe is that the weight/fitness room is in the basement, so there are no windows and no natural light.

Negative experience: $50 for a one-day visit! They might as well publish on their website that guest (traveling) visitors are unwelcome!

Fantastic experience: Equinox makes it a pleasure to get back into shape. As a physician, l know that without good health, you don't have a good life! Thank you, Equinox!