Unprofessional treatment - Planet Fitness Queens Quarter

On Saturday 14 June 2025 (3:20pm), once again I experienced ill-treatment from a janitor at the Planet Fitness Gym in Queenswood, Pretoria in the men’s bathroom. Unfortunately, while this particular Planet Fitness announced sometime last year of the revision of its closing hours (which on some days are now much earlier than what they were previously) my conclusion and that of other clients in the men’s bathroom in this entity is that some cleaning staff seem to be in a hurry to leave the premises at the same time as clients when the establishment closes.

I have never seen this behaviour of hurried departures anywhere before when big established businesses such as this are involved. The absurdity of this thinking process is that if you dare to go to the men’s bathroom 40 mins before closing time then “woe betides you”. You cannot use the steam room and shower even if you need to use each for 5 mins. The closing time is then a lie unfortunately because strictly speaking it is not adhered to. Some of the cleaning staff are more interested in wiping the floors or surfaces than in ensuring that clients have access to facilities until the advertised closing times.

I have experienced this unprofessional behaviour for many months (since December 2024) and decided to rather bite my tongue with the hope that the behaviour was temporary and will change. I therefore never formally registered my concern in the hope that things will change for the better but the situation seems to not improve at all. Planet Fitness can undertake an independent survey to confirm/dispel my allegations. A survey will show that other customers have a similar awful experience. People go to a gym to among others exercise and relax but increasingly this place is becoming a heart wrenching and tortuous experience for me and others when you are treated as the **** of the earth. Many times the cleaning staff have even confronted clients to leave, closing off showers and directing a person where to go. I have often felt that I am inconveniencing them by being in here. I bear witness to this.

In my case the sole cleaner who covered his name tag as I tried to get his name (thankfully I finally got his name at the reception) came and opened the steam room door and it got cold as he had switched off the steam room 40 mins before closure. He then proceeded to rudely ask whether I intended to take a shower and he said I had to choose one or the other. It felt so insulting. The cleaner seemed to be the king at this Queens Quarter facility on that day. I have have seen many clients of different age groups complaining about the shabby treatment.

On the day of my latest experience a female client told me of an incident where she was harassed in a similar fashion. Some people forget or fail to connect the dots that they are employed because the entity has a client base and that we are all dependent on each other somehow - (they are employed because clients frequent the place and clients go there because the clean the place). If this ill-treatment of clients goes on unchecked, it will only be a matter of time before another business’ success is threatened through poor service.

Perhaps some of these characters are ill-trained or ill-supervised or sadly both.

I trust that urgent measures are taken to correct this sad state of affairs. A simple requirement can start with requiring staff not to leave the facility earlier than 30 mins after official closing time - hopefully through such a change cleaners can do there work without harassing paying clients.