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Several local fitness studios have claimed that ClassPass Malaysia has yet to pay them for classes attended by their members in August, causing financial strain on their businesses
A viral Threads post published yesterday, 20 September, shows a user coming across at least five studios claiming they have not received payments from the US-based fitness booking platform for the month of August.
A check by SAYS found that seven pilates and muay thai studios have released similar statements over the past few days, saying they have stopped accepting ClassPass bookings until the payment issue is resolved.
"Due to the outstanding ClassPass payment for August, which we have yet to receive despite our repeated efforts to contact ClassPass, we will temporarily suspend all classes for ClassPass clients until the outstanding payment has been received.
"Unfortunately, we are unable to take on another financial risk following our experience with the 1Fit payment issue in 2025," said Lionheart Pilates & Wellness, a fitness studio in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, ATDAWN Pilates, a studio in Shah Alam, said that as a small independent studio, it could not take on the financial risk of covering instructor fees and operating costs while waiting for payment.
They said they will resume ClassPass bookings once the outstanding payment has been received.
Merican Muay Thai Gym, Luma Flow Studio, Bliss Society KL, and many more studios have released similar statements
SAYS has reached out to ClassPass' international operations for a response after attempts to contact the company's local management were unsuccessful.
While the payment delays have raised concerns among affected studios, one studio owner said on Threads that she did not believe ClassPass was facing liquidity issues, noting that the reported delays appeared to be limited to Malaysia.
She pointed to ClassPass's recent USD7.5 billion (about RM30.5 billion) merger and the USD785 million (RM3.2 billion) it raised in March as reasons for her view.
The studio owner instead speculated that the delays could be related to banking issues involving a US bank. However, this has not been independently confirmed.
She encouraged other affected studios to raise tickets with ClassPass and contact the US bank to investigate the matter further.
SAYS has also raised the possibility of banking issues with ClassPass' global team and asked the company to confirm whether this is the cause of the payment delays.
