Drop-ins, passes, courses or memberships?

The four usual ways to book and pay

Small yoga and Pilates classes are usually sold in one of four ways, or a mix of them. Each one suits a different kind of class and student, so it helps to know what each asks of the people who come, and of you. You don’t have to move from one to the next, though. Plenty of teachers run busy classes for years on drop-ins and passes alone. The prices here are only examples.

Drop-in. Someone books and pays for one class at a time, like £12 for Tuesday evening’s hatha class at the village hall. They can come one week and skip the next, and the main thing to keep track of is who’s booked for that night.

Class pass or bundle. Someone pays up front for a set number of classes and uses them over a few weeks, usually at a slightly lower price per class. A five-class pass for £50, to use within ten weeks, is a typical example for a weekly mat Pilates class. Each time they book, one class comes off the pass.

Fixed course. Someone books a set run of sessions with a start date and an end date, usually as one booking. A six-week beginners’ yoga course on Thursday evenings would be one, and so would a four-week Pilates course for stiff backs. The group tends to stay the same, and each session can build on the one before.

Membership. Someone pays a regular amount, usually monthly, and can come to classes for as long as they keep paying. That might be £40 a month for one class a week, or £65 a month for as many of your classes as they’d like. It carries on until they cancel.

How the four compare for you and your students

A membership can look like the tidiest option on paper, because the money arrives each month whether or not someone comes. But a regular payment tells you who’s signed up, not who’ll turn up, and people can usually cancel at the end of any month unless you’ve set a minimum term. Some people would also rather pay as they go than be tied in, however good the price.

Passes and memberships usually mean you take a bit less for each class someone attends. A £50 pass for five classes is £10 a class, which is £2 less than a £12 drop-in, so it’s worth checking the lower figure still covers the room.

How a pass is different from a membership

Both involve paying ahead, which is why they get mixed up. A pass is a fixed number of classes bought in one go. When it’s used up or it expires, it ends, and the person decides whether to buy another. A membership keeps going, and keeps taking payment, until someone stops it.

A pass tends to suit someone who comes most weeks but not every week, or who’d rather not sign up to a monthly payment. A membership tends to suit regulars who’d come every week anyway and like not having to think about it.

The admin is different too. With passes, you’re mostly keeping track of how many classes each person has left and when their pass runs out. With memberships, it’s things like a payment that fails, someone asking to pause over the summer, or someone who wants to cancel. Be clear from the start about how to cancel and how much notice you need, and try to make cancelling as easy as signing up was. UK rules on subscriptions have been changing, so it’s worth reading the current guidance before you start taking regular payments.

Booking a whole course, or paying for it in instalments

These two are easy to blur together, but they’re about different things. Booking a whole course is about the place: someone signs up for all six weeks, and their spot is held for the whole run. Paying in instalments is about the money. They pay for the same course in parts, like £35 when they book and £35 at the halfway point, instead of £70 up front.

Instalments can make a longer or more expensive course easier to say yes to, like a ten-week yoga foundations course or a Pilates course with only six places. The catch is that you’re holding a place for someone who hasn’t paid in full yet, so decide what happens if a later payment doesn’t arrive. Many teachers keep it to two or three payments, all due before the course ends.

A course paid in instalments isn’t a membership, even though the money comes in over time. It still has an end date, and everyone knows the total price before they book.

Expiry dates and which classes a pass covers

Without an expiry date, a pass can hang around for a year. That makes your numbers harder to plan, and it can feel awkward if your prices have gone up since it was bought. Leave enough time for normal life, though. If a five-class pass for a weekly class lasts ten weeks, someone can miss a few weeks and still use it all. If your classes stop for school holidays, you might pause the expiry date while you’re not teaching, or have passes run for a term.

If you teach a few different classes, like a 60-minute vinyasa and a 90-minute slow flow, or mat Pilates and a smaller class with equipment, decide whether one pass covers them all. A single pass is easier to explain, but someone could use it on the class that costs you most to run, like the longer one or the small class with equipment, and you’d get the same for it. Workshops and courses usually sit outside passes, and it helps to say so.

What happens when someone cancels or misses a session

Each option handles this a little differently, so say what happens in plain words wherever people book.

For drop-ins, many teachers set a cut-off, like 12 or 24 hours before the class. If someone cancels before that, they get their money back or a credit for another class, and after it the place is gone. A cut-off matters most when places are limited, like a Pilates class with six spaces and a waiting list.

For passes, cancelling before the cut-off usually puts the class back on the pass. A late cancellation or a no-show usually uses it up, as if they’d come.

For courses, missed sessions usually aren’t refunded, because the place was held and the course carried on. Some teachers send a short note on what they covered, or let people catch up at a weekly class. A catch-up like that helps most on a Pilates course where each week builds on the last, since someone who misses week two might feel lost by week three.

For memberships, a missed class is usually just missed, because the monthly price pays for being able to come rather than for particular classes. The bigger question is whether you’ll let people pause for holidays or injury, and how often.

You’ll probably bend the rules now and then for someone who’s ill or has a family emergency. That’s up to you, but it helps to have a clear written rule as well, so people know what to expect when they book.

Offering more than one option without confusing people

Lots of teachers end up with a mix, such as drop-ins and a pass for their weekly class, and a beginners’ course each term. That can work well, as long as people can quickly see which one makes sense for them.

• Keep the list short. Two or three ways to book a class is plenty for most classes, and beyond that people start doing sums.
• Make the prices line up, so each option works out a little cheaper per class the more someone commits. If a pass works out dearer than paying as a drop-in, people will probably notice.
• Say who each option is for, like “best if you come most weeks” next to the pass and “for complete beginners” next to the course.
• A monthly membership for a weekly class covers four classes in some months and five in others, so say roughly what it works out at per class.

A course often works well as a way in. A six-week beginners’ course can lead into a weekly class with drop-ins and passes, and you could offer people who finish the course their first pass at a lower price.

Where to start if you’re not sure

For most new weekly classes, drop-ins with one simple pass are probably the easiest place to start. It’s easy to explain and doesn’t take much admin, and it lets people try the class without committing while you see who keeps coming back. If you’re still setting up the class itself, the guides to starting your own yoga classes and starting your own mat Pilates classes cover the room, the timetable and finding your first students.

If you’re teaching complete beginners, or something that builds from week to week, a fixed course might be a better first step. It gives people a clear thing to sign up for, and you’ll know your numbers for that run before it starts.

Memberships tend to make more sense later, once you’ve got regulars who come every week and you know you’ll keep teaching at the same time. Even then, you don’t have to offer one. If drop-ins and passes suit you and the people who come, that’s a good way to run a class. For a sense of how your classes might add up over a year, there’s a guide to how much you can earn teaching yoga.

Signs it’s time to look at your options again

What suits a class in its first term might not suit it a year later. A few things that might suggest a rethink:

• Most of your regulars buy a new pass every few weeks, so a bigger pass or a membership might save them the bother.
• People keep asking whether they can pay monthly.
• Passes often run out with classes still left on them, which could mean the expiry is too short.
• A course fills every time, and people keep asking what comes next.
• Drop-in numbers swing so much that you can’t tell whether the room’s worth keeping.

The end of a term, or the run-up to September or January, tends to be a good time to make a change. Try changing one thing at a time and tell people well ahead. If anyone already has a pass or a membership, let it carry on under the terms they bought it on.