NOCTI Guide

A 9 p.m. Text, Then Pack Your Things: How Vietnam's Biggest Gym Chain Came Apart

California Fitness & Yoga shut clubs across Vietnam while trainers say they went months without pay. What went wrong, what does not add up, and how to protect your own prepaid gym membership.

November 3, 2026 · Updated November 3, 2026 at 8:34 AM PST · 9 min read

How Big This Is

California Fitness & Yoga entered Vietnam in 2007 and became the country's dominant chain. Vietcetera reported it once ran about 50 clubs and held an estimated 72.2% of the industry's market share. VnExpress put the network at about 35 clubs in 2025. The shrinking started in August, when two Hanoi clubs, Pico Xuan Thuy and Capital Tower, stopped operating. In October the closures came in waves. Tuoi Tre listed six Ho Chi Minh City clubs that paused on October 24 and 25 alone, including Landmark 81 and Thao Dien Pearl. By October 26, the chain had no open clubs left in Hanoi. VnExpress reporters found all nine Hanoi locations locked on October 28, with the equipment still sitting inside. At two of them, security guards were turning people away, with no closure notice posted on the door. The only club in Nha Trang closed on October 25. Branches in Da Nang and Bien Hoa paused too. By the end of October, members reported only two clubs still running in the south, at Aeon Mall Binh Tan and Binh Duong Square. Znews later reported the company plans to reopen two more, in Vung Tau and Bien Hoa, from November 5.

The Members Who Paid Up Front

Members are the other half of this. Bao Phuong, 40, told VnExpress she paid 104 million dong, about $4,000, for a lifetime Iconic membership in August. It promised VIP lounges, pools, reserved parking, wellness drinks and free towels at every club. She made it to about ten sessions before her club closed. Now nobody answers when she calls her sales rep or the hotline. In Hanoi, Dang Le Anh Dung, 29, paid another 20 million dong in late August to extend his card to 2031. A week later the perks started disappearing. Smoothies became bottled water in early September. In October, the towels, workout clothes and drinking water stopped, and the pool closed. Then the club closed. He moved to another branch. It closed on October 25. His sales rep apologized and told him she would never have sold him the renewal if she had known. Some members bought their cards on installment loans. The gym got the money up front, so those members still owe the bank every month for a service they cannot use. Since October 27, members have been organizing online to collect contracts, receipts and bank statements. VnExpress counted more than 600 people in a Hanoi group and nearly 230 in Ho Chi Minh City, getting ready for possible joint legal action.

The Apology

On October 19, founder and CEO Dane Fort posted a video on the brand's Facebook page apologizing to members, staff and partners. He admitted the company chased growth at any cost and grew faster than its people and systems could handle. He said the trouble came from mistakes in strategy, management and operations, not only the market. He promised to drop extra fees on some group and yoga classes, bring back towels and drinking water, help with parking, and move toward monthly payment plans. He asked for 30 more days to finish a restructuring he said had already run about 90 days. The company is expected to announce a plan for long-term members by November 19. It has denied reports that it is dissolving. Within days of that video, nearly ten more branches announced closures.

What Does Not Add Up

Several things here are hard to defend, even with the restructuring explanation. The company kept selling expensive long-term packages while it was months behind on wages and insurance. Every prepaid card is a promise of service for years. Selling more of them while you cannot pay the people who deliver that service is borrowing from your newest customers. The staff notice was a text at 9 p.m., with about an hour of warning. A lawyer quoted by VnExpress said Vietnam's 2023 consumer protection law requires businesses to give customers written notice at least three working days before they stop providing a service. One night is not three working days. The word "temporary" was doing a lot of work. Notices told members to use "other branches" without naming a single one. Some locked clubs had no notice on the door at all. And the apology came before the biggest wave of closures, not after it. Members who decided to wait things out because of that video lost another week or two.