Santa Barbara Athletic Club

Great job! I had a full highlighst and a haircut done yesterday for only $ 107, can’t beat that price by far! And the quality was outstanding! The hairdresser did exactly what I wanted, and I look the same way or better after paying $ 250 for the same service a private expensive salon! Great job Monica! I am your regular now if you didn’t realize it yesterday

Amazing gym… my boyfriend has been here for 20+ years and thanks to him I’m a committed member and enthusiast as well now!
It’s the best in Santa Barbara… no doubt about it. I’ve been here for about 2 years, and the cleanliness, respectful members and staff just thrill me. Ample parking, great location, plenitude of machines and classes… as well as amazing juices, salads and snacks… even a bar with champagne on hand… I’m sold!
The sauna, jacuzzi, steam room and locker rooms are a wellness destination for me.
My boyfriend and I enjoy working out on the weekend then jumping in the out door jacuzzi and having a cold pitcher of beer to share…
This place is just amazing… not to mention it rightly so best gym this year in the Indy. Kudos to Swell!!!

Hygiene is not so good here. Always got athletes foot any time I used the showers, so stopped that. Pool was over used by dancing fat ladies non stop so cloudy and disgusting pool. Final straw was nasty flea/​bedbug bites from the lounge couches. they said they would «look into it». did nothing. Glad to leave. Nice people there mostly, but the management don’t care for customers much.

Great gym, I love the pool and the group classes. I especially love Tamarr’s classes — please please please schedule him more for lunchtime lift classes, I would go everyday and bring my friends!

I signed up for a 6 month contract back in March. I explained to the guy that I would be moving and I would have to cancel right after that. I moved to LA sooner than I thought and I have been getting charged each month because I was bound by contract. I had tried to cancel in July but the guy (can’t remember his name) said I was unable to cancel due to my contract. I’m low on funds and I called to see if they could cancel me one month early and I found out that they charged me for September. The General Manger told me that I could have just paid a $ 100 cancellation fee in July instead of paying the membership fee each month. He said that I was already charged and he couldn’t refund me for September (keep in mind I moved in July) Seriously??? I moved 2 months ago and used the club maybe 5 times (visiting) in 3 months and you just tell me now. I WAS NEVER INFORMED OF CANCELLATION FEE. I would have had no problem canceling in July and paying the fee. ON TOP OF THAT I GOT CHARGED FOR SEPTEMBER. MY GYM MEMBERSHIP WAS SUPPOSED TO END IN AUGUST. Just trying to get one over on a kid. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. Go to Goleta valley athletic club. They have much more weights, the pool is hardly used and is half the price.

Joined in January 2015. Great gym. Group classes are excellent. Love the fact that there is a dry and wet steam room. The gym always seems clean to me, Housekeeping staff is always busy doing something. Kudos to the housekeeping staff thank you for dealing with our sweatiness!

I have been a member for three years. I only spin at the club 2x/​week due to my busy schedule and the relatively limited group spinning classes. I was very disappointed to learn that the Friday 5:30 pm spin class was cut at the beginning of 2015 for low attendance. This is a class that I regularly attended, along with 5 or 6 other regulars. I counted on this class to start my weekend off right. When I inquired with the owners if they would reconsider, and add the Friday eve class back, the answer was no. Now I can only attend one class per week which is difficult to justify for the membership dues. Management did not seen to value my feedback or have any alternatives– I asked about paying per class (answer no), even offered to teach the class, as I am a certified spinning instructor and understand this time slot can be challenging to fill (answer no). I likely will drop my membership altogether and spin elsewhere.

This used to be the best gym in Santa Barbara. No more. I think they deliberately limit the prime time group training, weighted workout, and bootcamp class offerings in order to push clients into signing up for the fee-​based small group training classes. The dance classes are very limited too. If you don’t work a regular 8 to 5 job, there are more classes available during the daytime — but for people with regular working hours it is not a great option.

Am I in the crystal azure waters of the Cayman Islands, or the pool at the Athletic Club. Staff is wonderful and one even ignited the engine to my latest romantic dalliance. A gym for the classy Hercules or elegant Wonder Woman. Every experience here has left me positively thunderstruck and refreshed.

I have been going to Santa Barbara athletic club for years. Excellent classes and the staff is wonderful. I pretty much tried out all the other clubs in town. I have found that the people that work out here as well as the staff are the friendliest around.

Great club awesome party staff is amazing thanks to knuckles Horne for keeping it enjoyable for everyone.

I am a member and attended the party — which was amazing! While I didn’t witness the event in question I do know that Tom is an awesome manager, and trust that he handled the situation in a professional manner. I have been a member at a couple of other gyms, but SBAC is by far the best Santa Barbara has to offer. Keep up the great work!

The member party was awesome! A big thank you to all those that put this together. Every year it gets bigger and better! DJ Fab rocked the house and the «drone» was super cool!

I’m upset to see that Unilocal posted the below review /​attack by Joel G. I am a long time member and was at the club party last evening. The Club is the nicest in town and has fantastic events. Of the 600 or so attendees Joel was the 1 person that had to be asked to leave the party due to his very apparent intoxication. The manager was very professional but Joel was belligerent and uncooperative. He was never pushed or assaulted as his flagged Unilocal review states. Unilocal is not a tool for idle fights and threatening emails. The Santa Barbara Athletic Club is an amazing club and the party last night was top notch. Cheers to the Club for not tolerating his drunken behavior. Shame on Unilocal for even posting that ridiculous «review»!

Wow! How this place has down hill on a very slippery slope… very disappointing, first off, amazing trainers being fired, and then management just says, oh well, and then classes cut, in order to promote the indoor small group training classes, club parties used to be for the members (which gave it a very exclusive feel, now club parties are to bring the rif raf in and promote the club, not the same overall feel for this place at all, management does not treat members with respect, and if members aren’t there, then neither is the club, interesting how some people forget that! Go to another club…: (

The gym itself is very nice and clean as well as the front desk staff, but watch out for the people at the juice bar… they have serious attitude problems… first the guy wouldn’t let me add protein to a shake, then when I asked the lady the next day she got upset that I wasn’t going to add their protein and pay for it. It’s one thing if that’s all I’m getting, but I also got 2 drinks in addition. She even said that she couldn’t charge me because it was my own protein and that I was putting her out by not paying for it… finally, after she makes me the drink, she sits there cleaning the blender with a rag before handing it over.

I have been a member for almost 20 years and I just love the Athletic Club. I really like the recent remodel, and I am addicted to the smoothies at the Earth Bar. I love the yoga, dance and boot camp classes. The teachers are all fantastic. This is the place where I can swim, do yoga, socialize, do fun classes or just simply use the cardio room for my workout. I really like the outdoor spinning and the outdoor pool. I spend a lot of time at the Club, and recommend it to all my friends!

well here it is a year later and the club, no gym now, continues to slide down to a low level of common gyms. The classes are cut, best teachers fired, still no new spin bikes after two years of waiting. The whole purpose of the gym now is to sell small group classes. The new management removed the board which was made up of members because they didn’t like the input. They are running it into the ground, offering freebies on facebook as the clientele gets younger and broker and the locker rooms get more and more crowded. No more fresh flowers, sweaty yoga floors and old mats… what a shame. what a loss…

We are newish members of the Santa Barbara Athletic Club but after what we witnessed today won’t be going back. I was sitting by the pool and saw a large man aggress a small pregnant lady in the pool and when her mother went to complain Beth with Managment came out and acted so unprofessionally it was shocking. A number of people saw this man come into the lane the pregnant lady was sharing with an older lady doing their exercise.
He tripled up on them when there were other lanes with just one other person swimming. He swam in a belligerent way and knocked the pregnant lady with his big flailing arm. When she asked him to move to the empty lanes next door because he almost kicked her he verbally assaulted her and told her to go to the waddlers lane because he was exercising and then called her a bitch. Towering over her like he was going to hit her.
The worst part was how he continued swimming and smiling at the lady in a very aggressive way. Two other members told Beth that he had called the woman a bitch and she still did absolutely nothing. This is a club that does not provide a safe environment for women and condones a large aggressive man who’s name I believe is Charles nickname crash bullying a little very pregnant lady.
Terrible display of corporate robotic service that does not care about the safety of its members. As for charles crash, I think he must be pretty small minded and small something else to resort to bullying pregnant women.

If you’re looking to join an Athletic Club in Santa Barbara I would continue looking.
Moments ago I received confirmation from Beth at SBAC that their club would not be honoring an internet promotion that was posted on their website and that I took a screenshot of. Apparently «Some restrictions apply» means they do not actually have to honor the full promotion. Their only reason for not honoring the deal was that supposedly part of the promotion applied to their Cathedral Oaks location and part of the promotion applied the Santa Barbara location. There is no mention of this distinction on their promotion but I suppose that is how a bate and switch works. When I presented my screenshot and demanded that the promotion be honored in early January the promotion was immediately pulled from their website.
I understand that people can make mistakes. A web designer can make a typo, a sales person can speak incorrectly or a business can misjudge the potential response to a promotion. What I don’t understand is why absolutely no concession is being made and when I question the ethics of their behavior I am laughed at. Beth in membership actually laughed at me today on the phone! She asked whether I seriously thought that I could pay no dues for 6 months and join their club for 75% of the signup fee. Yes, Beth, when your promotion of which I have a screenshot advertises such I very much expect you to honor it.
How much would it really cost them to honor their promotion? How much would they stand to gain by having an additional member after the promotional 6 months had passed?
To make things worse this is the second time I have fallen victim to their poor business ethics. In mid-​2011, I spoke with John Youngblood at SBAC about signing up my fiancé and he offered a discounted sign-​up fee yet when we returned the following week John Youngblood was no longer there and the price was not honored. At that time, Robert Graham had the decency to take me seriously and made a generous offer of guest and class passes in exchange for my fiancé signing up at the full price.
If it’s happened to me twice then chances are it’s just a matter of time until it happens to you.
Santa Barbara is too small of town for this.