Keeping fitness centres clean can be quite challenging. For one, sweat and body oils can quickly build up into hard-to-remove films on surfaces and fitness equipment. Even just a couple of uses can make a weight bench gross enough to be unusable.
What’s more, any number of people come and go to a gym at all hours. Worse is that different people have different attitudes towards cleanliness. Some gym goers are more conscientious and try their best to pick up after themselves; others, not so much. All of these make it difficult to keep up with cleaning and sanitisation routines.
Despite the challenge, however, it’s crucial to keep gyms clean for two reasons: aesthetics and safety. A clean fitness facility attracts customers, because they know that they can count on well-maintained equipment and hygienic surroundings.
The Challenges of Cleaning a Gym
One of the biggest challenges in cleaning a fitness centre, even for a professional cleaning company like Crewcare, is that it’s often warm and humid. With people exerting themselves physically and sweating more than usual, a gym is the perfect environment for the growth of mould, mildew, and all other sorts of germs.
The presence of mould and mildew in a fitness centre can cause a variety of respiratory issues. For gym members who have allergies, their conditions may be unwittingly triggered. Depending on the severity of the infestation, you may even have to close down the gym to handle the clean-up.
Even just traces of mould and mildew can leave an unpleasant musty odour that can spread quickly from area to area. There’s also the risk of cross-contamination. Every exercise machine and equipment in a gym is shared with tens if not hundreds of users; because of this, it’s very easy for anyone to pick up microbes in such a space.
Speaking of exercise machines and equipment, cleaning all of these can take a lot of time. Some machines, for example, have multiple parts and corners where sweat and dust can accumulate. If you don’t conduct regular cleaning and disinfection procedures, these apparatuses can become health and safety hazards.
Things to Remember When Cleaning a Gym
Fortunately, cleaning a gym is simple enough in that you don’t need any special appliances or products to do it. If you can spare the time, you can even clean your gym yourself. That being said, if you want the best results, you can hire a professional cleaning company to do it for you.
Larger gyms, in particular, can benefit from hiring commercial cleaners because the sheer size of the space alone can take up most of the gym crew’s time. Having the experts handle the cleaning for you also means you’ll have more time and effort to dedicate to other aspects of managing your gym.
Some crucial cleaning tasks for fitness centres include the following:
- Wiping (sometimes washing) and disinfecting surfaces
- Vacuuming and mopping floors
- Disinfecting exercise equipment
- Disinfecting sport accessories (e.g., boxing gloves)
- Cleaning bathrooms and locker rooms
- Emptying trash bins
Ideally, a fitness centre should be cleaned thoroughly once a week. However, certain tasks such as disinfecting gym equipment, should be done more often. Try to find some pockets of time during the day to wipe down exercise benches so they don’t get too sticky with sweat. In addition, bathrooms, locker rooms, and saunas should be cleaned more often.
Benefits of Having A Clean Gym
There are many benefits of having a clean gym, many of which are related to better business. Here are just a few:
A Better Workout Experience
It can be difficult or even discouraging to workout in a poorly maintained fitness centre. When your gym is well-managed and kept clean at all times, people are more likely to come back and feel energised.
Also, clean facilities can boost customer trust because they can be sure that they won’t get sick when using your gym.
Longer-Lasting Equipment
Keeping your fitness centre’s equipment clean can make them last longer. This can result in huge savings, since you don’t have to repair or replace items as often. Of course, clean equipment also minimises the risk of accidents and the spread of disease—which means your customers can come back more often.
Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
When your fitness centre is clean, customers will feel safer, more comfortable, and happier working out. In short, they’re going to be satisfied with the services you offer. A clean gym is also a reflection of your professionalism: if you take care of your facilities, then you can also be expected to treat your customers in the same way.
All of these result in better member retention. This is a huge deal, especially with regard to acquisition effort and costs—it’s so much more difficult and expensive to entice a new customer to sign up than to work towards retaining existing clients.
Ultimately, a fitness centre is a place that should be dedicated to health and wellness. As such, cleanliness should be an integral part of your management routine. This will ensure that you’re able to provide good customer service and comply with any and all health-related labour laws—both of which are good for business!