Clinics and studios sell appointment or class capacity through drop-ins, packs, packages, courses and memberships. Each model needs to cover delivery costs, contribute to overheads and profit, and work within available room and practitioner capacity. What decides a model's worth is whether it adds visits the business would not otherwise have had, or simply discounts visits clients were already buying at full price. Earlier cash is one consideration, not the profitability test.
Which model to lead with depends on the behaviour the owner wants to change: more frequent visits, money earlier, a committed run of treatment, or fewer missed appointments.
Price per session
The single-session price is the reference every other model is read against, so moving it changes what a pack, package or membership appears to save.
Spare capacity at a given price is not proof the price is wrong. The slot may be at an awkward time, the class or treatment may appeal to fewer people, or availability may be patchy. Compare demand, waiting lists and reasons for not booking, slot by slot, before changing it. Where demand really does differ by hour, pricing peak and quiet slots differently is the alternative to one price across the week. A low price that fills the diary can also, over time, become the volume trap.
Against that price, each model splits the risk differently between client and business.
Drop-in. What the client buys: One visit at the full price. When the cash arrives: At each visit. What the client risks: Nothing beyond the visit. What the business risks: Empty slots it cannot sell
Pack. What the client buys: A set number of sessions, paid once. When the cash arrives: Up front. What the client risks: Sessions left unused at expiry. What the business risks: Delivering every session owed, possibly at peak
Package. What the client buys: Several named services at one price. When the cash arrives: Up front or in stages. What the client risks: Paying for a service not wanted. What the business risks: Discount spread across services of different cost
Course. What the client buys: A planned sequence of appointments. When the cash arrives: Up front or in stages. What the client risks: Committing before seeing a result. What the business risks: Practitioner time reserved over weeks
Membership, billed monthly. What the client buys: Ongoing access on stated terms. When the cash arrives: Monthly. What the client risks: Paying in months of low use. What the business risks: Heavy use at peak costing more than it brings in
Pack size and expiry
Pack size decides how much cash arrives up front; expiry decides how long the business owes the sessions. Neither decides what the pack has earned, which happens only as sessions are delivered.
Keep three figures apart for each pack size: cash received, sessions delivered and sessions still owed. Then compare the pack's receipts with the cost of delivering the sessions it is likely to be used for, including practitioner or instructor time and consumables. Unused sessions at expiry can look like profit, though a pack priced on clients not turning up is priced on the wrong thing. A shorter expiry can protect capacity, or it can push redemptions into the weeks before expiry and crowd the peak, so look at redemption timing and peak availability before tightening it. If it tightens, watch renewals, unused sessions and feedback afterwards.
Membership terms
Membership terms decide what the monthly payment buys: how many visits, at which times, with what minimum term and what freedom to pause. A membership priced on average use, with no limit on peak bookings, can lose money on its keenest members, who book the busiest hours most.
Test the revenue against expected use and against heavier use, and check peak capacity separately from the weekly average. What a membership, pack or drop-in actually sells sets out who carries the usage risk. Early rebooking is one signal worth reading alongside later attendance and cancellation reasons, and the role of the second booking in retention explains why. A pause option can hold on to members or simply defer their leaving; track who resumes, who cancels afterwards and the income deferred or lost. The wording of minimum terms and cancellation belongs with a legal adviser; the commercial question is what the terms do to behaviour.
Deposits
A deposit moves some or all of the cost of a missed appointment to the client, depending on its size against the appointment's value.
The choices are when to ask for one: for every booking, for longer or higher-value appointments, for first-time clients, or at peak only. Each adds a step at the moment a new client decides whether to book. Before and after introducing one, compare missed appointments, slots refilled at short notice and booking completion, by appointment type and by new or repeat client. That shows whether it saves more than it loses at payment. Name one person who decides exceptions, so the rule holds the same way every day.
The treatment menu structure
How the menu is built, in tiers, add-ons and combinations, decides how much a single visit can be worth without a price cut.
A clear entry treatment, a premium version and relevant add-ons help clients choose the right level of treatment while creating opportunities to increase spend where there is a clear benefit. The same logic shapes product ranges, and designing a range that lifts order value sets out the principles. Each tier takes training, stock and room time, so add one where clients ask for something between two options, and remove one nobody chooses.
Price rises
A price rise is the lever that decides whether each session, pack and member rate still covers its delivery cost and the capacity it uses. Choose the rates that need to move, and the order, before anything is announced.
Compare the options against current usage, contribution and how many clients each would affect. Then decide what is explained, how much notice is given, and which clients hear it in person rather than on a statement. Afterwards, track cancellation reasons and the contribution actually retained, not just headcount, since people leave for reasons beyond price.
What the pricing work starts from
Pricing & Profitability starts from four inputs: last year's sales by model, the visits each model was actually used for, the cost of delivering a visit, and the hours each room and practitioner can offer at peak. From those it settles which models stay, at what price, and in what order any change happens. Kirsty Newman leads pricing for clinics, studios and product ranges alike, drawing on four years running an aesthetics clinic as well as her commercial years at L'Oréal Group and Coty; Gaia Gabiati looks at the rota and room use each price depends on. For a focused pricing challenge, THE90 offers a 90-day sprint. You don't need perfect data to begin—start a conversation with what you have.
Questions about pricing packs and memberships
Should a pack be cheaper per session than paying each time?
Not necessarily. A pack discount is worth giving when the earlier cash, any real saving in admin, and genuinely additional visits outweigh the discount on visits the client would have bought anyway. A regular full-price client who switches to a discounted pack brings the same visits for less.
What does it cost to keep existing members on their old rate after a price rise?
The gap between the old and new rate, multiplied by the members kept on it and the months it runs. Holding a rate for a set period can soften a rise, but it creates two prices for the same access, which gets harder to end the longer it runs. Set an end date from the start, and compare the contribution kept with the contribution given up.
Can a membership work for treatments rather than classes?
It can, where the treatment recurs at a predictable interval and the business can count how many members each room and practitioner can serve. Price it from that capacity, the cost of the treatment mix it covers, and how often members actually book. Consider a peak limit only after checking whether members are displacing full-price bookings.
What a model has really earned
Before any price changes, work out what each model earns per delivered session. Use completed pack cohorts, or allocate receipts to the sessions they paid for, and show unused entitlements and sessions still owed separately. Set the result beside the cost of delivering a session. It is one input, not the verdict: the decision also depends on whether the model displaces peak bookings, and on how many of its visits would have been bought at full price anyway.