Leisure facilities often attract regulars, but how do you make your gym environment more inclusive to everyone else? After all, it is important your facilities are as inclusive as possible so that no one is left out, bolstering your revenue further. Therefore, we have put together several ideas to help create an inclusive environment for all.
Make the gym environment more inclusive to other nationalities
The world is more connected that ever before, with clients from other nationalities visiting or settling down in a new country. To help cater to them, it is worth implementing your literature in different languages, whether that is on your website or on-site. Bi-lingual or multilingual staff and personal trainers can also help make gym-goers of other nationalities feel more welcome.
Educate trainers in LGBTQIA+
An ever-expanding acronym, LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual… and more, including non-binary. This is more than a label, denoting a lifestyle that may not necessary fit into the one your gym currently offers. Oftentimes, it comes down to not feeling catered to in the correct way, such as greeting a transgender client with the incorrect gender. Or, perhaps the facilities you offer may be specific to one gender or the other, and there are no alternatives (such as toilets).
Simply by educating your staff and trainers on how to greet and respect those in the LGBTQIA+ community will make them feel much more welcome, as will implementing alternative gender-focused facilities.
Offer discounts to students, elderly and more
Clients who are retired are much more likely to visit during weekday hours, whereas students will be fitting visits around their education. Therefore, you can cater to both and make the gym environment more inclusive for them by providing discounts during set hours of the day. This encourages them to visit outside of usual evening and weekend peak hours. For students, this could be offered in the mid-afternoon, as many schools and universities will have finished for the day before most other work places.
Make the gym environment more inclusive to families
Leisure activities can extend beyond using weights and running machines, of course. In order to encourage families to use your facilities, it’s vital you provide group activities and classes. These could be family swimming sessions at set times, group dancing for children and parents, or perhaps more game-focused activities like racing or throwing.
However, in order for the gym environment to be more inclusive to families, there should also be considerations for younger children. On-site childcare is growing in many hotels and it’s beneficial to offer this in order to free parents up for leisure activities.
Provide inclusive gym options for those financially struggling
In the current financial climate, many people will be cancelling leisure and spa memberships alongside other subscription-based payments. In order to be inclusive to those financially struggling, you could provide more express-based options. This could be in the form of snackable workouts or by providing discounted online classes for exercise and wellbeing.
We have plenty more advice on how to support clients in the cost of living crisis too, should you need it.
Core by Premier Software® helps set up new leisure activities for class sessions and group activities, including applying time bands. What’s more, Core enables you to assign types of client to their client record, such as student, to offer discounts during visits for set times. To discover how Core can help your business become more inclusive, click the button below.
