The official shortlist has been announced for the third annual Members’ Choice Health Club Awards, in partnership with Leisure Media’s Health Club Management magazine.

The awards aim to find out which clubs offer the best all-round customer experience based purely on ratings from members, and this year 350 clubs took part, with a total of 40,000 member questionnaires being completed during the three-month voting period.

Simon Brown, MD of Health Club Awards, says: “We’re absolutely delighted that the effort being put in by the participating health clubs has paid off. The competition is all about engaging members and motivating staff, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing in the feedback.”

New categories
This year, for the first time, clubs are competing in three categories – Budget, Mid-Market and Premium – in their respective UK regions, thereby ensuring a level playing field.

The énergie group has entered clubs across its three brands. “Of all of the sector awards schemes, the Members’ Choice Health Club Awards are the only ones that reflect the views of the members themselves rather than a committee,” says énergie CEO Jan Spaticchia. “I’m particularly proud of the fact that we won 17 awards last year and are nominated for over 30 this year. I feel it genuinely reflects the excellent work of our franchisees across the network.

“Our members demand consistently high standards from their clubs, and the Health Club Awards provide an excellent means of measuring how we meet, and exceed, their expectations.”

The awards have always been open to leisure centres as well as private clubs, and Everyone Active has done particularly well in this year’s Mid-Market regional shortlists.

“Everyone Active enters the Health Club Awards because they are voted for by the general public. This is a fantastic way of assessing how well the centres are doing in the eyes of our members,” says Rachel Shelton, group marketing manager for SLM. “This year we have 24 leisure centres shortlisted, which is a great achievement for the company as a whole, demonstrating the strength of our brand across the areas in which we operate.”

The unique scoring system also allows smaller, independent clubs to compete fairly with the bigger brands. Pulse 8 and Nirvana Spa – both run by Barry Ashton – have entered for the first time, and both have made the shortlist. Ashton says “We’re absolutely delighted that both clubs have made it through in our first year of entering. We’re especially proud because the Health Club Awards are based purely on feedback from members, and that says everything about how we run the clubs.”

Awards ceremony
Gold, silver and bronze winners for the regions will be acknowledged, as well as winners in the national chain categories and the Grand Prix categories for Best Club in the UK (Budget, Mid Market and Premium). Outstanding efforts by individual staff members will also be recognised in the People Awards, again based on feedback from members.

Winners will be announced at a gala dinner, which will take place at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on 24 September, alongside Leisure Industry Week. The black tie event will be attended by 400 guests and will include an exclusive after-dinner party.

For further details about the awards and to purchase tickets for the gala dinner, please visit www.healthclubawards.co.uk