An interesting story is playing out in Dubai’s red-hot fitness market, where the city’s top boutique brands are running studios like luxury hotels. Pilates is the exception, however
Dubai’s barre studios are crushing it. Pilates studios, not so much.
So finds The Fit Guide (TFG), the independent rating system that anonymously evaluates top boutique gyms and studios worldwide across more than 250 standards. No detail is overlooked, as TFG rates reception service, class experience, facilities and equipment, public areas and technology.
The platform has returned to Dubai for the second time, with the city now ranked second globally, trailing only Los Angeles.
The city posted an average experience score of 83.6%, produced eight Fit Guide 5-Star Award winners and claimed the top spot worldwide in public areas, a category covering reception spaces, retail, bathrooms, showers, cleanliness and design. Dubai also recorded the third-highest Class Experience scores globally, trailing only New York and LA.
Storm Cycling earned The Fit Guide’s 5-Star award (credit: Storm Cycling)
It’s a win for the UAE city, especially as other sectors of Dubai’s economy face challenges and its boutique fitness market is absorbing an above-average number of club closures.
A market of extremes, TFG co-founder Jack Thomas noted, that is both fast-moving and highly competitive.
“We’ve seen some of the highest-scoring clubs anywhere in the world here, but also some of the lowest,” he said. “It’s a tough market, but one with huge opportunity for operators who get it right.”
And getting it right may mean pulling inspiration from the hospitality sector.
Matt Lavender, co-founder of TFG and a hospitality veteran, pointed out that the city’s strongest studios are operating to a different standard.
“What stood out in Dubai was that the best studios were not only delivering strong classes, but also creating the kind of polished, end-to-end experience you would expect from leading hospitality brands,” he said. “The welcome, the environment, the coaching and the final interaction all matter and Dubai’s strongest operators are showing how powerful it can be when those elements come together.”
5-Star Winners
Clubs scoring above 90% earn the 5-Star Award, and this year, the winners are Bare in Business Bay, Barre Effect Al Ferdous 4, Barry’s in Dubai Marina, Crank in Town Square, Motion in Mercato Mall, Karve in Al Quoz, Shimis Yoga in Al Quoz and Storm Cycling in Mirdif.
Cycling Shines, Pilates Studios Still Have Work To Do
Cycling dominated the list with three winners. Shimis Yoga became the first yoga studio anywhere in the world to earn a Fit Guide 5-Star Award, while barre was Dubai’s highest-scoring modality overall.
Pilates was the lowest, a finding TFG says reflects a consistent global trend. Karve in Al Quoz was the outlier, hitting 5-Star status.
TFG is preparing to launch the fitness industry’s first hospitality certification, endorsed by the Institute of Hospitality in the U.K.
The platform will also release its 2026 reports soon, with data from across the global boutique fitness industry, and is preparing an evaluation process for full-service, big-box players.