Experience
The Work of Being a Member
The work of reporting, explaining and checking, and how it changed an experience I had enjoyed.
Read the openingCulture/Field StudiesFirst-person case study
An editorial series by Haru Eli
The Conditions
of Belonging.
Membership, recognition and trust.
A Soho House experience, seen from the member’s side.
The essays
Three perspectives, one experienceOpening draft
Representation
The Member in the Record
How an institution represents a member, what context falls away, and what it takes to put that context back.
Essay outline
A profile note, a technical assessment and an internal explanation of why I left describe different aspects of the same person. Reading them alongside my own correspondence, I consider how an institution represents a member, what context falls away, and what it takes to put that context back.
Responsibility
What Listening Requires
The passage from acknowledging a concern to correcting a record and making the outcome clear.
Essay outline
There were helpful conversations, apologies and actions taken. What remained difficult was following how those individual responses connected. This essay examines the passage from acknowledging a concern to assigning responsibility, correcting a record and making the outcome clear to the person who raised it.
About this account
The places,
and the experience
around them.
I enjoyed being at Soho House. I used the gym, the spa and sauna, and the Houses in different cities. The atmosphere and the access were valuable to me. I also spent months reporting problems with my membership, gathering the relevant records and following up on what would happen next.
These essays begin with that experience. They follow a recurring account error, a disputed note on my profile, and the work involved in having both understood. Alongside my correspondence, I read records Soho House later supplied in response to my request for access to my personal data. Some confirm what I already knew. Others introduce explanations I had not seen at the time.
My own work involves bringing people together and considering what helps them feel at ease. Here, I am looking from the other side: as a member who valued the places and gradually lost confidence in the administration around them. The question is how that confidence is maintained, repaired, or allowed to wear away while the physical spaces remain appealing.
Haru Eli
Position & method
I write as the former member involved in these events.
The series draws on my correspondence, screenshots and records supplied by Soho House. My recollections and interpretations are distinguished from what the documents establish. It is a personal, document-based study, not a commissioned project for Soho House or an independent investigation of its whole operation.
Where matters stand
Working information cut-off: 26 September 2026
Soho House confirmed that my membership ended with effect from 1 August. The agreed partial refund arrived in August. No money was taken from my card or bank account for the incorrectly associated Copenhagen tabs. Soho House has since supplied a data-access response, attributed all three associations to a short-code entry error, apologised, and said additional controls were being implemented. My questions now concern the response's completeness, the reconciliation of different accounts, and the scope of the corrections.