Planet Fitness will raise price 50%

1st boost since ’98 won’t affect existing members

New members of Planet Fitness will have a heavier lift this summer: The fitness chain is raising its basic membership price for the first time since 1998.

One of the nation’s largest gym chains, Planet Fitness will raise the price of its Classic Card membership from $10 to $15 per month this summer, the company said.

Planet Fitness will also do price testing for its Black Card, which currently costs $24.99 monthly. Black Card members can bring a guest, use any Planet Fitness location, and get other perks such as use of massage tables.

“It is not going to come as a shock to anybody that we are moving a price that’s been in effect for a long, long time, 25 years,” interim CEO Craig Benson said Thursday during a call with analysts about the company’s financial results in the first quarter of 2024.

The gym chain’s Classic monthly membership has been priced at $10 since 1998, six years after the company was founded in Dover, New Hampshire.

“We think it is the right time to do it,” Benson said. “We also think it’s the right time to look at different options on the Black Card, which may or may not change.”

The company expects to offer “a few different iterations” of Black Card membership, Benson said, perhaps swapping perks in and out at different price levels.

Current Classic members paying $10 per month will not see a price change “for the duration of their membership,” Chief Financial Officer Thomas Fitzgerald said. But new members will pay the higher amount.

The price change for the Classic monthly membership goes into effect this summer, Fitzgerald said. The company executives did not give a specific date.

Fewer sign-ups than expected

With 2,599 locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama, Mexico and Australia, Planet Fitness reported first-quarter revenue of $248 million, about what analysts expected. But the company lowered its full-year revenue projection to a 4%-6% increase, down from 6%-7%.

As with most corporate decisions, the bottom line is the reason for a price increase.

For starters, it’s costing Planet Fitness more to provide the facilities for its members than in the past. Based on inflation, the $10 monthly membership would be about $20 today, Fitzgerald said.

Planet Fitness added 900,000 members in the first three months of 2024, below what investors expected – typically, New Year’s resolutions spark new memberships.

A rise in respiratory diseases during January, including RSV and COVID-19, may have hindered new members, Benson said.