How much to charge for a gym membership
A membership price is worked out from four numbers. What an hour costs, the spots in the class, real occupancy and how many classes each member does. Three of them are already in your attendance history. This is the sum, step by step.
The sum starts with the hour
A membership is the price of access, and what you sell is hours of room with someone coaching. The hour is what costs money, so that is where the sum starts.
An hour costs four things: the coach, the share of rent that hour takes up, the share of fixed costs, and wear on the equipment. Added up, that is what the hour costs you whether it is full or empty.
- 1.The cost of the hour. If a coach costs 15 € an hour, and rent plus fixed costs come to 2400 € a month across 260 open hours, that is another 9,20 € an hour. The hour costs around 24 €.
- 2.The spots. Twelve spots in an hour that costs 24 € puts 2 € of cost on each spot.
- 3.How full it actually is. If the average is eight and not twelve, the cost per occupied spot goes up to 3 €. That is the number that matters, not the capacity.
- 4.Classes per member. Someone training three times a week does about thirteen classes a month. Thirteen spots at 3 € is 39 € of cost per member.
39 €
The numbers in the example are examples. The shape is not: cost of the hour, spots, real occupancy, classes per member. Swap in your own and the price appears.
Real occupancy decides whether the price is enough
Capacity is what fits. Occupancy is who was there. The gap between the two decides whether your price is enough.
There is a second gap too, between bookings and attendance. Twenty bookings with fourteen people in the room is not a full hour. It is an hour that looks full on a booking screen.
Price against the occupancy you have, not the capacity that fits.
How many classes people actually do
On an unlimited plan this is the number that moves the sum the most, and it lives in your attendance history. Someone coming three times a week and someone coming six cost you twice as much as each other, and pay the same.
That number is in your attendance history, per person and per month. Without it, the price of an unlimited plan is a guess about your own cost.
Why the same space has different prices
Because not every hour costs the same or is worth the same. Three things justify a different price, and each one can be explained in a sentence to whoever asks:
- The hour. 10:00 and 19:00 do not have the same demand, and a plan that only opens the quiet hours fills them without taking spots from anyone.
- The frequency. Twice a week costs you less than unlimited, and should cost less to buy.
- The commitment. Someone paying a year up front gives you cash you can plan around, and that is worth a price.
What does not justify a different price is the person having asked. A discount negotiated at the door is a price you can no longer explain, and it comes back from whoever heard about it.
Changing the price without losing the people you have
An increase applied to everyone on the same day is the worst possible moment to find out who was undecided. The version that holds is different: the new price applies to whoever joins from a date, and the people already there keep what they had.
That means being able to have two people on the same plan at different prices, recorded as such. If your system cannot do it, your only way to raise prices is to raise everyone at once.
Memberships, packs and credits are set up once, and each balance adds up its entries. Plans, memberships and class packs
Frequently asked
- Should I charge what the gym down the road charges?
- Their price was worked out on their rent, their room and their occupancy. It tells you what the market bears, not whether your own sum adds up.
- Is an unlimited plan worth having?
- It is, once you know how many classes people actually do. Without that number you are selling a cost you do not know. With it, unlimited is often the easiest plan to sell and to explain.
- What about family or student discounts?
- They work when they are a written rule that applies to everyone who fits it. They stop working when they are decided case by case, because then the price depends on who asks.
- How often should prices be reviewed?
- Once a year is enough, in the same month every year. A fixed date turns the review into a routine instead of a reaction, and makes the increase easier to explain.
Rummo team
Written by the people who build Rummo, management software for gyms, boxes and studios: classes, bookings, members and payments.
Reviewed
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