As Tiv gym slots fill up instantly, people are staying up til 3am to get slots

A student stayed up until 3am in order to get a slot at Tiv gym, after the gym slots vanished in a matter of seconds from the original release.

Demand for the slots is so high that students are being threatened with a £10 fine for no-shows, as the gym reopens with a reduced capacity due to COVID restrictions.

The slots are released a week in advance and still seem to fill up instantly.

Tiverton Gym reopened on September 10th with a new booking system due to COVID limitations. This booking system releases slots seven days in advance, and restricts slots to 55 minutes, and one session per day.

Final year Psychology student Louise Trott was unable to book a slot so instead says, “I stayed up till 3am last night and managed to get a cancellation for tomorrow but that’s not exactly a sustainable way to book a gym slot.”

She believes that students are still “booking multiple sessions in one day for every day of the week whilst some people can’t get any at all.”

Louise shared a screenshot of the booking system on Fab N Fresh which showed the release of the 8pm slot for Tuesday 29th being filled within seconds.

A screenshot at 8pm showing the 8pm slot for Tuesday 29th September, fully booked seconds after release

Louise says “they don’t seem to have a system really” it is very “inconsistent.” She explained that the first three slots for next Wednesday were each released on the hour, so the 9am slot was released at 9am and so on.

However, “suddenly at 11.30 today, all of the rest of the slots were released [for next Wednesday] which were all booked within half an hour.”

Checking the app now, it states that all sessions are booked right through until 1st October, 22.15. There are no slots available for booking yet after this date.

All available bookings have been filled

Tiverton Gym emailed students last night warning that booking more than one session per day or failing to turn up to a session would leave you liable to a £10 fine. Until the fine is paid you will not be able to access the gym.

People commenting on Louise’s post suggest she moves to PureGym, however  Louise argues “I pay to be at the uni, so I want to use the facilities they provide [however] it’s a lot of money to pay for a service you can’t access.”

“They’ve clearly sold more memberships than they can sustain with the COVID limitations.”

The Birmingham Tab contacted UoB Sport & Fitness who say “there are a number of discussions and adjustments currently being tested and implemented to alleviate the pressure on Tiverton Gym bookings.”

They also say that they are constantly working to resolve issues as they go through a “testing period.”

Sports officer, Rob Hegarty also reached out to The Birmingham Tab to confirm that he “believe[s] they have sold less memberships than previous years” and he is “working tirelessly at the moment responding and collating feedback on the situation.”