Pricing is the most important product decision a yoga or Pilates studio makes, and it is usually made in an afternoon, copied from the studio down the road. The result is a price list with nine options that customers find confusing, packages that expire with a third of their classes unused, and a front desk that spends its day explaining the difference between the 8-class and the 10-class pack.
This guide is about getting the structure right: when a class pack works better than a membership, how long each should last, when it should start counting down, and how to know from your own numbers whether the price list is working.
Class packs and memberships do different jobs
The debate about packs versus memberships misses the point. They are not competing products; they are two steps in a customer's life at your studio.
A class pack, 5, 8 or 10 classes to use within a period, is the easiest first purchase. It feels low-risk, it fits customers whose week is unpredictable, and it lets someone find out whether reformer Pilates is for them without committing to a month.
A membership, a monthly package with a fixed number of classes or unlimited classes, is a habit product. It suits the customer who already comes twice a week and wants to stop counting. It gives you steadier monthly revenue and gives them a reason to keep coming.
The healthy pattern is simple: packs bring people in, memberships keep them. Your price list should make that path obvious: a good per-class price on the membership compared with the pack, so that a customer who comes often sees the step up.
Private sessions are a third product
Private and duet sessions are priced differently, taught differently and often paid to the instructor differently. Keep them as their own packages, so a private package books private sessions and nothing else. In Owelz, packages and sessions are either group or private, and a package pays only for its own type.
Keep the range small
Every extra option on a price list costs you twice: once in the decision a customer has to make, and again in the reports you can no longer read.
- Two or three packs: for example a 5-class and a 10-class pack.
- One or two memberships: for example 8 classes a month and unlimited.
- Privates as their own line.
Use what the package covers to create range instead of more class counts. "8 Reformer classes" and "8 classes of anything" at different prices is a clearer choice than 6, 8, 10 and 12 of the same thing. In Owelz, each package names the classes it pays for, and customers only see the classes their packages cover, so a mat package can never be spent on a reformer class.
When the price list changes, duplicate last season's package, change the price, publish the new one and deactivate the old one. Customers on the old package keep exactly what they bought, and your history stays intact.
Expiry: realistic, not optimistic
A pack that expires too soon breeds resentment; one that never expires turns into a liability, and a customer who drifts away with classes they never use. A useful rule of thumb: enough time to use the classes at the customer's normal rhythm, plus a few weeks of slack for a missed week, a trip or a cold.
| Package | Realistic rhythm | A sensible validity |
|---|---|---|
| 5 classes | Once a week | 6–8 weeks |
| 10 classes | Twice a week | 8–12 weeks |
| 8 classes a month | Twice a week | 4 weeks |
| Unlimited monthly | Three or more a week | 4 weeks |
These are starting points, not rules. Your own data is the better guide, as the next section shows.
Freezes belong in the package, not in favours
Customers travel, get injured and have busy months. Decide up front how many times a package can be frozen and for how long, and print it on the package. A customer who knows they can pause twice for up to two weeks does not need to ask the desk for a favour. In Owelz, every package carries a freeze action limit and a max freeze duration; customers can freeze and unfreeze from the app within those limits, and the end date moves by the days frozen. See freezing and adjusting packages.
When does the clock start?
This is the question most price lists forget, and it causes more desk arguments than price. A customer buys a 10-class pack in December, for January. Did their eight weeks start when they paid?
There are three sensible answers, and each fits a different product:
At the first booking, with an automatic start as a safety net
The best default for packs and most memberships. The package starts counting down when it pays for its first class, so customers can buy ahead and lose nothing. But a package bought and never used should not sit there for ever: after a set number of days, it starts on its own.
In Owelz this is the default start rule: the package starts at the first booking, or automatically 30 days after purchase if the customer has not booked, whichever comes first. You can change the 30 to anything from 1 to 365 days, per package. Customers see the rule before they buy (Starts at your first booking, or on 1 Dec at the latest) and get a reminder three days before an automatic start, so nobody is surprised.
On a set date
For courses, challenges, teacher trainings and term-based programmes, everyone should start together. A set start date does that: bought early, the package can book classes from that date on; bought after it, it starts on the day it is bought.
When the desk says so
Sometimes the right start date is a decision: a goodwill gesture, an import from your old system. Setting the dates by hand on a customer's package overrides the rule for that package.
One more detail protects you and your customers: a sale keeps the rule it was sold with. If you change a package's start rule in March, packages sold in February keep February's rule. Owelz applies this automatically, so a price-list change never rewrites what someone already paid for.
Read your own numbers
Your price list is a hypothesis. The data tells you whether it holds.
Unused classes are a churn signal, not margin
Look at the packages that ended last quarter and count the classes that went unused. Owners often see that as profit. It is the opposite: a customer who finishes a package renews; a customer who leaves classes on the table quietly stops coming. Our earlier post on pricing class packages customers actually finish goes deeper on why.
Owelz shows this directly. Analytics → Packages shows what sells, what gets used, what expires unused and what gets bought again. The Retention report shows the packages that ended in each period, how many were renewed within 30 days, and how many ended with unused classes. And the customer risk score counts a package ending unused as one of its four warning signs, with a suggested action such as "Call and help them book the remaining 5: the package ends in 6 days."
Spot the customer who needs a bigger package
The reverse problem is just as useful. A customer on 8 classes a month who regularly comes more often than that is paying more per class than they would on the next package up. Owelz's upsell playbook finds customers who attend more classes than their package includes and estimates what moving them is worth: "They save 40 a class, you gain 600 a month." That is an easy, honest conversation, because it saves the customer money.
Let reminders do the renewal work
The renewal decision is made around the end of a package, so that is when a reminder counts. Owelz reminds customers automatically when they have two classes left and three days before a package ends, in the app and by push, in their own language. In Owelz a membership is a package with a duration that the customer renews by buying again, at the desk or in the app by transfer with a proof, so those reminders are what keep renewals on time.
A price list that works
- Packs to start, memberships to stay, privates as their own product.
- Two or three of each, differentiated by what they cover.
- Validity based on a realistic rhythm, with freezes written into the package.
- A start rule for every package: first booking with an automatic start, or a set date.
- A monthly look at unused classes, renewals and upsell candidates.
Owelz was built around this way of selling classes: packages that cover the right classes, start rules that protect your revenue, and reports that tell you what is working, in Arabic and English. Book a demo below, or see the pricing: one plan, every feature, and we migrate your current packages and the classes your customers have left.
Common questions
- Should a Pilates studio sell class packs or memberships?
- Usually both. Class packs are the easier first purchase for a new customer; monthly memberships suit regulars who come every week. Keep the range small, two or three products of each, so customers can choose quickly and your reports stay readable.
- How long should a 10-class pack be valid?
- Long enough for a realistic rhythm, short enough to keep the habit. For a customer who comes once or twice a week, two to three months is a sensible start. If customers routinely let classes expire unused, the pack is dated too tightly or priced for a rhythm they do not have.
- When should a class package start: when it is bought or at the first class?
- For most packs, at the first booking, with an automatic start after a set number of days if the customer has not booked. Customers can buy ahead without losing time, and a package nobody uses still starts and ends. Courses and challenges suit a fixed start date.
- Are unused classes good for a studio's revenue?
- Only in the short term. A customer who leaves classes unused rarely renews. Unused classes at expiry are one of the strongest signs a customer is about to leave, so treat them as a retention problem, not as margin.
- Does Owelz charge customers automatically every month?
- No. In Owelz a membership is a package with a duration that the customer renews by buying again, at the desk or in the app by transfer, prompted by reminders before it ends.
Run your studio on Owelz
Booking and waiting lists, class packs and transfer payments, instructor pay plans and analytics you can check line by line, in Arabic and English. One plan, every feature.