I’m new to submitting, but I’m very excited to start. I am looking for some clarification please on whether places like LA Fitness, Planet Fitness, and other ‘chain’ fitness centers/gyms can be submitted?
I understand that these may fall under the ‘Generic Business’ category, but as they’re a place for exercise (and potentially to socialize?) would they be actually eligible?
I’ve looked through this forum and other places on the internet, and I’m seeing a few mixed answers regarding these gyms, so I’d like some help please!
I’ve always thought of these as generic businesses, but then I thought a similar thing about plaza/shopping centre entrance signs until reading discussions here.
I’ve had consistent success with shopping centre signs (the ones that list the businesses/shops). Should I have equal success with the gyms & fitness centres?
I find that the community rejects chain businesses of any kind, but the appeals team accepts chain gyms or other exercise businesses. I plan to use an appeal every single time I submit one. Hopefully some day this won’t be the case.
Any local fitness centers or local fitness companies/buildings are the hardest nominations to get through the system, because most reviewers easily reject them as chain business or either don’t know your area and skip which leaves the people who reject them. In theory, yes, you should be succesfull, but in reality it is unfortunately a bit different. Like @cyndiepooh said, plan to use or have an appeal (ready).
Have to disagree here, as it depends on the nomination. Many are submitted with very little supporting info, and some reviewers don’t want to take the time to do a little extra research.
My last 3 nominations were all local businesses: 2 restaurants and 1 fitness studio. I made sure to do some research on them before submitting to get a good description and provide good supporting info. I found websites or social media for all 3 of the businesses, and made sure to include the links in the supporting info, so reviewers didn’t have to go digging for them. All 3 have been approved.
What irks many is the lack of info for local business submissions. Ok, so you submit a local Mexican restaurant, just put in the description that it’s local, and may put the same in the supporting info. When I review, I will look for additional info, first on Google Map, and, iff needed, do a web search. Not all reviewers do this though, so they tend to reject as the burden of proof hasn’t been met for them.
At the end of the day, the burden of proof is always on the submitter, not the reviewer. If you’re getting local businesses rejected, you may need to take a look at your nominations and how you could improve them.
@Nghuit As for chain fitness centers, they can be hard to get approved, which I why I tend not to submit them. However, where I live, there have been a few chain locations accepted, such as the Crunch Fitness, but that’s the only Crunch we have, whereas we have a few Planet Fitness locations, a few Anytime Fitness, etc. Hopefully we’ll get better clarification one day, and this will help the reviewers see that these locations may be eligible.
We have been told that chain fitness centers may be eligible as great places to exercise by staff. @AMG7070 is referring to all local businesses, not just chain fitness centers, and they didn’t provide further context as to why they may be hard to get approved, which is the lack of burden of proof from the submitter.
I believe all gyms, chain or independent, represent a great place to exercise and therefore should be submitted and accepted. Gyms can also be brilliant places to socialise and are often community hubs with additional facilities. I think they are excellent items to add as PoIs
A generic business should be a business that meets no criteria. Gyms do meet criteria, so whether they are a chain or not makes no difference
I would recommend that you submit a few gym nominations and see how your local reviewing community react to those.
To provide you with some ideas, here is an example Supplemental Information that I have successfully used in the past… “Nomination is a gym and health club. The gym provides huge health benefits to the local community by encouraging people to establish a healthy routine through a regular and challenging exercise program. It opened earlier this year and has become a great place to socialise with friends and strangers alike and make new friends as you exercise. Safe pedestrian access is evident via sealed pathway and nomination is readily accessible. It has highly positive reviews through social media and review channels such as Google where it has an average of 4.9 out of 5 star rating (based on 360 reviews) and has 1,760+ followers on Instagram. Website - ****”
