I joined Urban Active Fitness in Toledo and must admit I was purposely lied to by the sales associate. I signed up before the facility was completed and had opened for business. Let me just say BUYER BEWARE. Today, the facility is open and people can experience it first hand before obligating themselves to a membership. I strongly suggest that people think about their first impressions before signing on the dotted line. Look around and see how many fitness experts are helping members?, is there anyone wiping down the machines? , can you talk normally or do you have to raise your voice to be heard because the music is so loud?, does the sales associate pressure you to sign up and pay today?,

Now, I joined at the preview center before the facility was open. A couple of questions that I had asked were:

Question: How many lanes is the pool?
Response: 5.
Reality: The pool has 3 lanes total

Question: Will there be a locker room attendant?
Response: yes, we'll have a full time locker room attendant.
Reality: I've been to the facility 4 times - 3 times in the evening and once at lunchtime and at no time was there ever a locker room attendant.

Question: Will there be music throughout the facility and will the volume be kept low?
Response: Yes, and yes.
Reality: As advertised, there is music throughout the facility however, the volume is not low, it is obnoxiously loud.

As a 42 year old female who has has belonged to different fitness facilities over the years, here are my observations - note these are based on 4 visits to the facility. I'll update my observations as time permits in the coming weeks/months. I'm hoping the music volume will be lowered, but I have my doubts.

1. The facility is nice. It should be... it's brand new. It consists of 2 floors - completely open to one another.

2. There is plenty of equipment both weight machines and aerobic machines located on 2 floors.

3. Some of the tv's attached to the aerobic machines do not work, the volume doesn't work or the pictures are very fuzzy. Some of the aerobic machines don't work. Maybe this will be fixed - only time will tell.

4. The locker rooms are nice...again, they are new. There are two wall mounted hair dryers in the woman's locker room. There is NO towel service - so if you shower, make sure you bring your own towel. There is not any shampoo, conditioner or lotion (in case you're used to these amenities, they don't exist at Urban Active Fitness). They do however have soap in the soap dispensers. There are no paper towels anywhere in the locker rooms. There is a hand dryer on the wall that when activated that sounds like a jet engine upon takeoff. The theme at Urban Active seems to be "the louder the better".

5. The music is extremely loud. If you like hard rock and grunge, then this is the place for you. There is not one room in the facility where music is not blaring. Most of the aerobic machines have tv screens attached, no matter how high you put the tv volume, you cannot block out the other music. If you're on the 2nd floor, you can yell down to the first floor and no one will hear you because the music is so loud. I would hate to think what their response time is if there is an emergency. (I'd seriously be worried from a liability standpoint if I was their insurance provider). Since I specifically asked about the volume level of the music and was told by the sales associated the volume would be kept low, one can only classify this as being purposively misled.

6. Besides the music and the tv monitors, there are also large flat panel tv's all over the place displaying the hard rock bands and grunge bands. I'm not sure how much stimulation people need, but obviously Urban Active thinks that loud blaring music and tv's will enhance your workout.

7. They claim they get 100 cable channels. WRONG. The cable channels go to channel 62, and then skip 63-99. There are about 8 channels above 100 all devoted to the "Urban (grunge) Active Fitness" message. No big deal here - I just feel that if you advertise 100 channels, there should be 100 channels.

8. There are 2 - yes 2 - drinking fountains in the facility. One on the first floor and one on the 2nd floor....for a $13 million, 53,000 square foot fitness facility, I find this amazing. The fountains are not suitable to filling water bottles, nor is the water that comes out of them chilled. Both fountains are hidden in little cubby holes. On the other hand, there is a juice bar on the 1st floor that will willingly sell you something to drink!

9. There are fitness "experts" located on the 1st floor. I've asked a couple of facility related questions and each and every time I've been told "I don't know, maybe you should ask at the front desk". So, rather than them saying "I don't know, let me go find out", I'm being given the task of asking my question to another person for a 2nd time. I'm not sure what purpose the people on the 1st floor serve, but their knowledge is limited and they seem to possess no incentive to broaden their knowledge. My guess is that this is due to poor training, but I honestly don't know. I just hope none of them are confronted with an emergency at the facility, as they'd probably direct the person needing help to the front desk.

Conclusion: It appears that Urban Active Fitness is targeting the 14-25 year old crowd. I joined because the price was right. However, I regret my decision. The music is too loud and too obnoxious. They'll have my money for one year and after that I'm going back to Wildwood Athletic. I'm fairly sure that they'll do fine for the first couple of years, because that's what people's agreements are for, but after that, I'm betting there will be a huge migration out of there. I hope people complain about the music being too loud - if they lower the volume - or just turn it off completely (doesn't everyone have an mp3 player anyway?) I'll be a much happier member. Again, only time will tell.