Soho House is over: Members ‘only go because everything else is closed’ as Wall Street bets on collapse
It was once the epitome of cool, drawing celebrities including Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, and Leonardo DiCaprio to hang out by a rooftop pool first endorsed by the ladies of “Sex and the City.”
But Soho House is “facing an existential crisis” according to a damning report from a Wall Street short selling firm that is betting the company’s stock price could fall to zero.
And worse, more than a dozen New Yorkers interviewed by The Post say the situation is dire: The up-to $5,163-a-year club is now uncool.
“Vibe is off. Mostly crowded and the scene feels oddly the opposite of creative,” one New Yorker in the fashion industry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said of the current club.
“You need a flare gun to get a waiter’s attention,” another source in the music business said of his ability to order cocktails that cost more than $20 a pop.
Another source who works in politics suggested late night drinks at the Meatpacking location to meet a young woman with questionable taste, “She’s far from a bastion of culture and even she called it basic.”
“I have a friend who is an analyst at a bank and he still likes it,” the source in the music business added. “But he’s a finance guy so he doesn’t really know what’s cool.”
The new threat to its finances came earlier this month from Wall Street research company Glass House, a shortseller which said it believed the company’s shares could eventually become worthless.
Following the prediction, reports surfaced Soho House, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, could be taken private by controlling shareholder and billionaire film producer Ron Burkle. It also rejected the Glass House report alleging it was riddled with inaccuracies.
Posh New Yorkers have disparaged Soho House for years but it has reached a new low after the company went public in 2021 and made revenue its priority.
The members club, which requires aspiring members to submit an application and list existing members as referrals, ballooned by more than 100,000 people during Covid.
It now has a total of 255,363 members including those at Soho Works and Soho friends worldwide at the end of 2023 — which long-term members say eliminated the club’s aura of exclusivity.
While Glass House doesn’t break down the cities where most new members live, New Yorkers feel they are bearing the brunt of the hoi polloi’s invasion.
At the same time as Soho House “opened the floodgates” as one member describes it, a handful of shiny, new, aspirational clubs opened in NYC like ZZs, Zero Bond, Casa Cipriani and Aman — creating a stark contrast between hot and not.
In December 2023, Soho House announced it was no longer admitting new members in New York, LA, or London after locations became too crowded and service suffered. But New Yorkers are skeptical that it will bring the club back to life.
A member suggested, the older locations need to be “totally refreshed and cancel all the members they accepted during Covid.”
“Slashing members would help the brand but hurts profit… seems like a broken business model,” a director at Glass House Research, the firm behind the report, told The Post.
And despite allowing the hordes to invade, Soho House has remained unprofitable.
While the majority of those interviewed by The Post were quick to pan New York’s Soho House locations in the Meatpacking District, Lower East Side and Dumbo in Brooklyn, they noted the European locations made membership worth the price of admission.
One source in the marketing business explained Soho house is “domestically dead but internationally on fire” — and the European spots have been the reason he’s held onto a membership.
“It’s nice to just have one membership that’s global instead of a patchwork network of more expensive, niche memberships.”
“You go to a Soho House in London and you see actual A-listers like Harry Styles having lunch,” a source in media who has visited locations in London and NYC said. “Here, you wait half an hour for a drink and see absolutely nobody memorable.”
Soho pushed back and told The Post that it was committed to keeping members in New York happy.
“New York has been our home for over 20 years – a decision that was led by our members and the reason we remain here today,” a spokesperson said.
“Thanks to their loyalty and support, we have opened three Houses in the city, come through uncertain times such as two recessions and the pandemic, and are designing a Soho Farmhouse style experience in upstate New York.
“What matters to us the most is making our New York members happy. Soho House is their home away from home and we strive to make their experience in the Houses the best it can be.”
Soho House first opened in London in 1995 with just one location. An additional 9 locations have opened in London since then.
Other European locations — Paris and Copenhagen opened in 2022, Rome in 2021, Mykonos in 2020, and Barcelona in 2016 — feel fresher than their droopier domestic peers, sources add.
The Club’s expansion to second-tier cities like Toronto and Chicago, and in the future Charleston, South Carolina, has further called into question its exclusivity.
Meghan Markle went on her first date with Harry at one of the London locations but spent more time at the Toronto location when she was on television show “Suits.”
But whether those denouncing Soho House will actually cancel memberships is unclear.
One source in the tech industry, said the club was “not cool” but acknowledged it was “convenient” since it provided a place other than Starbucks for meetings during the day and was near his apartment.
Other New Yorkers said they genuinely were enthusiastic about the club.
“I love it because I’m a creative director and it’s a chance for me to network… and they have fun parties,” one pro-Soho source said.
“I think of Soho House as an extension of my living room,” one member of more than two decades said. “There is an instant sense of community and it makes me feel like I always have a place to go.”
