That’s not to say boutique fitness is not growing. But this is the slow and steady approach. Berliners (I grew up there, so I’m allowed to say this) are skeptical by nature but fiercely loyal once they believe in something. The fitness market reflects this.

I ran an analysis of more than 1300 studios (full dashboard). Here are my biggest takeaways:

Holy Yoga

Yoga isn’t just a little bit dominant. Yoga towers above everything else. There are about twice as many yoga studios as there are studios offering pilates (#2), strength (#3), or boxing (#4).

The reasoning for this I imagine is twofold:

1. Yoga studios are the origin story of boutique fitness, so being early in a market where people are hesitant to switch routines is an advantage in itself.

2. Yoga was the one modality that felt both countercultural and accessible before boutique fitness even existed as a concept, which makes it a natural fit for the organic-minded, new-age-hippie Berlin sensibility. Overly chic or high intensity models just don’t land as well as they might in other cities.

Pilates Taking the Lead?

For more than 20 years, yoga has seen more studio openings than any other modality. But pilates is catching on. Whereas historically there have often been twice as many yoga openings as pilates openings, pilates has nearly matched yoga over the past three years.

Interestingly, Joseph Pilates, the inventor of pilates, was German. There’s something fitting about that: the practice’s emphasis on precision, controlled movement, and body mechanics resonates with a certain German sensibility. It will be interesting to see whether pilates starts to outgrow yoga the way it has in other European capitals.

Cycling - Few but Mighty

Cycling is dominated by chains. Not just in Berlin – this is actually a very consistent observation. It’s almost as if in every major city someone decided to copy-paste the SoulCycle model (often down to the colors) and has succeeded in capturing the cycling demand so strongly that new entry is very rare. This, coupled with the fact that cycling studios generally have a much higher capacity than other modalities, means that the modality remains small despite its favorable economic structure (see my Paris Pricing Dashboard for a profitability analysis of different modalities).

Yet despite this consolidation, the segment is still expanding. With 15% of cycling studios opening in the past 16 months, cycling is one of the top growing modalities in Berlin.

Kreuzberg is the Hub of Boutique Fitness

With 188 studios, Kreuzberg outshines every other neighborhood. Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte follow with roughly 50 fewer studios, and the next tier falls another 50 below that.

The gap isn’t random. Kreuzberg has long been Berlin’s creative and alternative-lifestyle heartland – young, international, counter-cultural – which made it the natural landing spot for early yoga studios before boutique fitness was even a category. And the data confirms this: looking at studio openings over time, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, and Mitte were roughly even through 2011, after which Kreuzberg pulled decisively ahead. The more recently affluent districts tell a later story. Mitte began its boutique fitness wave around 2019, and Prenzlauer Berg’s surge is more recent still. Kreuzberg’s lead isn’t just numerical; it’s structural, built on a decade of early adoption.

Boxing vs. Yoga as a Gentrification Proxy

In-depth district/modality analysis reveals that there is more than just numbers at play. The modalities that are popular also mirror the level of gentrification of the neighborhood, and the pattern is consistent enough to work almost as a proxy.

Working-class and mixed-income districts – Wedding, Lichtenberg, Schöneberg – show boxing rates two to three times higher than the city average of roughly 13%. Affluent and heavily gentrified districts – Prenzlauer Berg, Charlottenburg, Friedrichshain – skew strongly toward yoga and pilates.

Neukölln is the most interesting case: its 60% yoga rate is the highest in the city, reflecting the rapid gentrification that has reshaped the district over the past decade. Yet it still has a meaningful boxing presence (19%) that its more thoroughly gentrified neighbors have largely lost. Charlottenburg tells a different story: high pilates, high strength training (25%), and very low boxing – the premium, functional profile of a district that was never working-class to begin with.

So where is Berlin boutique fitness headed?

I left Berlin in 2012 and since then the city has become much more expensive, international, tech-y. Berlin’s counter-culture has in some places turned into a performative rough-around-the-edges vibe while actual taste and price points have begun to match other major European cities.

For boutique fitness, this means trending modalities will likely shift to match other markets – in the near future, reformer pilates and HYROX-style strength training. The data already points in this direction: pilates nearly matching yoga in new openings, cycling accelerating, and studio density climbing in the newly gentrified districts.

What’s genuinely exciting is the brand opportunity this creates. Berlin’s aesthetic – gritty, unpretentious, a little raw – hasn’t been seriously leveraged by a premium fitness concept yet. The brand that cracks this would look something like the opposite of a polished Parisian or London operator: exposed concrete instead of beige, community-driven programming, pricing that feels earned rather than aspirational, but with the operational quality and retention mechanics of a growth-stage chain underneath. That fingerprint could travel. Berlin has exported its cultural identity before; there’s no reason boutique fitness can’t be next.

For the full dashboard: https://tamar-portfolio-phi.vercel.app/work/berlin-boutique-fitness-2025

1. Running Clubs

Within the past few months, I’ve seen at least 5 studios launch running clubs. And I mean this in two ways: studios for runners (shoutout to InPulse Club, already open, and BOLD, opening soon), and studios that have nothing to do with running but are now organizing occasional group runs (Monday Sports Club, Social Reformers).

What I find particularly smart is the timing. Several studios are doing this pre-opening – building a community before they even have a space to bring people into. And for studios that are already open, it’s a low-cost touchpoint. No class pack required. Just show up.

I think there’s something bigger lurking here too. Boutique fitness has an accessibility problem, and the industry is starting to know it. Running is free (or almost free). A group run organized by your favorite studio keeps you connected without asking you to spend €30 on a class. In Paris especially, where the cost of living is brutal and salaries don’t always follow, that matters.

2. Demolition Parties

This is a fun one and I wish I had thought of it myself when I was opening my studios. More and more studios are going all-in on public builds. Sneak-peek events, “come see the chaos before it becomes beautiful” energy. And yes, it makes great content. Influencers showing up to a half-finished space with exposed concrete and a mood board? That’s a reel.

But the smarter play is what’s underneath the content: these studios are acquiring customers before day one. One of the most persistent challenges in boutique fitness, especially in Paris, where studios often have to hit the ground running just to cover rent, is the pre-sales problem. Most studios open their doors having sold almost nothing in advance. A demolition party doesn’t fix that entirely, but it builds anticipation, creates belonging, and turns future clients into invested followers before a single class has been taught.

3. Women-Only Studios

While the other two trends feel forward-looking, this one actually feels a little retro. We already know that women make up a huge portion of the boutique fitness population. Walk into any pilates, yoga, barre, dance, or cycling studio and there’s a good chance it’ll be all women. But that hasn’t been made explicit. In fact, boutique fitness has generally prided itself on being progressive and gender-inclusive.

The messaging doesn’t particularly speak to me personally. But I’ll be honest: I think it’s actually a smart business move. “Everyone is welcome” can sometimes mean “no one feels especially seen.” A focused, specific niche is almost always stronger positioning than a wide open door. Studios like Hera Club and HEIMAT are leaning into this clearly and unapologetically, and I’ll be watching to see where it goes.

The thread connecting all three

What do these trends have in common? They’re all, in some way, about community before conversion. Running clubs, demolition parties, women-only spaces – they’re each building belonging first and trusting that the business follows. I love seeing these businesses lean into the human, messy, and direct connection

.

That is, until you pull back the curtain and realize that small business here is not as charming as it sounds. At least not all of it.

Having run a business here, I can’t help but notice the turnover – shops opening and closing within the year. Each of these businesses has a story, a real person pouring real savings, real time, and real passion into making a dream come true. Until it doesn’t.

And yes, running a business is hard no matter your environment. But once you take a deeper look, you see that the environment can be supportive – or it cannot. Boutique fitness in Paris? Not so much.

The cute bakery on your corner and the pilates studio next to it operate in completely different fiscal universes. Welcome to French VAT.

Bread? 5.5%. Yoga? 20%. Mini-golf? 10%. E-sport? 5.5%. Your spin class? 20%.

That’s not just numbers on paper. That has real business impact, and it can make or break small independent studios.

I’ve lived that.

I opened my Paris studio nine months after having my first son. I was barely keeping up. My clients? They waited for their paycheck to pay for their membership. My instructors weren’t getting rich. Nobody in this ecosystem was extracting value. Except one party.

Before opening, I had spent two years developing the concept. I had run a similar business in the US. What I built here was something people genuinely loved – the brand was strong, the space was beautiful, the instructors were loyal. But underneath, the business told a very different story.

Here’s what six months in looked like:

Revenue: €14,000
Rent: €8,000
Instructors & staff: €3,500
Software / phone / internet: €500
Insurance: €100
Marketing: €300
Operating costs: €12,400
Pre-VAT margin: €1,600

That €1,600 is already razor-thin – and note that I am not paying myself. But it’s something. The beginning of a story where you reinvest, grow, learn.

Then you add the VAT.

At 20%, roughly €2,333 of that €14,000 in revenue goes directly to the government. Not from profit. From revenue – regardless of whether the business is profitable. That brings effective revenue down to around €11,667, and the margin from €1,600 to -€733.

One of my best months was a losing month.

Not because of bad management. Not because Paris didn’t want what I was building. But because the fiscal structure makes viability arithmetically impossible at that revenue level. There were other challenges too – a renovation that ballooned, finding the right class mix, learning to navigate a new market. But a supportive environment tolerates a learning curve. This one doesn’t.

I closed the studio. I was heartbroken, and so was the community I’d built.

What I keep coming back to: I’m nine months postpartum, running on fumes and belief. My clients are stretching their budgets to attend a class they genuinely love. The instructors aren’t getting rich. And yet money is reliably leaving this ecosystem every single month, to an entity that has no stake in whether the studio survives.

That’s the part that’s hardest to accept.

I think we can agree that fitness and wellness are healthy additions to society. Encouraging an active lifestyle is something no one really argues with. And yet France has built a tax system that punishes certain active lifestyles while incentivizing sedentary ones. The numbers don’t lie: e-sport is taxed at 5.5%. Mini-golf at 10%. Your spin class at 20%.

The Assemblée nationale voted for change. The 2026 budget ignored it. So studios keep closing, instructors keep losing work, and communities keep losing the spaces they loved. And the government keeps collecting its €2,333 – from businesses that never made a euro of profit.

Next time you hesitate at the price of a boutique class, know this: your studio owner isn’t getting rich. They’re doing math that doesn’t add up, on savings that are running out, hoping the month turns around.

The VAT was always going to make sure it didn’t.

Every concept now seems to want to offer a workout that leaves you drained, sore, shaking.

From a messaging standpoint, that makes sense. We’re rushing from one meeting to another, juggling daycare pickups, trying to squeeze in a drink with friends. Working out is a priority, but it has to be maximum value for minimum time. And there’s an odd social pressure for suffering layered on top of that – we want to show our Instagram bubbles the upper limits of our capabilities, not our average. Intensity is legible. “I survived a Barry’s class” is a story. “I did a moderate workout” is not.

Ironically, low-impact is having a real moment in the industry right now. But ask me and anyone who’s ever taken a Lagree class, low-impact does NOT equal low difficulty. Slower, joint-friendlier, more controlled? Yes. Easier? Absolutely not. A beginner walking into a Lagree class expecting gentle movement is in for a rude awakening.

The problem is that what kicks one person’s butt isn’t the same thing that kicks another person’s butt. The studios selling “hard” workouts have a high threshold for what hard means: hard for people who are boutique fitness regulars, who have trained for years. But where does that leave everyone else?

Older adults. Movement is just as important – if not more important – for people over 40. But boutique fitness has always targeted a fairly young adult population, and the concepts that dominate the market today weren’t built with anyone else in mind. Even for adults who casually run three times a week, I would not recommend they jump into a spin or reformer or HIIT class. Yoga, sure. But for anything else I’d have to point them to the lesser-known, lower-brand studios, because all the “hot” concepts are simultaneously “hard-for-athlete hard.”

People who’ve never had a fitness identity. Even if you’re 25 and lead a healthy lifestyle, starting at a Barry’s or a [solidcore] is not going to feel great. It’s going to feel like you might faint, or vomit, or you just give up. Not glamorous. Not something you’d repeat.

And while we’re at it. If you’re not slim, 25-40, and wearing Lululemon, most name-brand studios just aren’t going to feel like home. That’s not just about the class difficulty. It’s in the aesthetics, the energy, the people already in the room. The product is hard, and the room is exclusive, and those two things are not unrelated.

Boutique fitness is steadily growing, but new concepts are also steadily folding. And yet studios keep competing for the same trained, intensity-seeking customer. There’s a huge potential market of people who have the means to afford boutique fitness and could genuinely benefit from it, but there’s no natural starting point for them. No on-ramp.

The one exception is recovery. But recovery is sold to the hardcore crowd as supplemental. Active recovery for athletes who need a slower break in an otherwise super intense routine. It’s not marketed as “our workout, but accessible.” You still have to already be a fitness person to feel like you belong in a stretch class. The easiest product in the market is somehow still gatekept by identity.

Here’s what I keep coming back to: boutique fitness didn’t start as “hardcore.” It worked its way there, driven by the natural progression of its earliest customers. The instructors got more demanding. The programming got more advanced. The branding followed. And somewhere along the way, the door quietly closed on anyone who wasn’t already on the inside.

Which raises an uncomfortable question, one the industry doesn’t seem eager to ask. Does boutique fitness actually want to open that door back up? Because the suffering, the exclusivity, the sense that this is not for everyone – that might not just be a side effect. It might be part of the product. The people already in the room signed up, at least in part, for a room that feels like it’s not for everyone.

So what would a studio have to sacrifice to genuinely serve a beginner market? And is there a brand out there that’s cool enough to hold both? That can make a class feel hard for someone who’s never really trained, without making the regulars feel like the thing they love has been watered down?

I don’t think anyone’s nailed it yet. But I’d argue that the studios that do will find a growth engine the rest of the industry has been ignoring for years.

That’s not a small difference.

That’s a ~40-50% pricing premium in a market where most studios cluster tightly around €25-€35.

Reformer hasn’t just priced higher. It has broken away from the industry’s pricing anchor.

A Rapid Rebrand

Reformer studios are now everywhere in Paris.

But five years ago, Pilates wasn’t “cool.”
It felt clinical. Functional. Almost medical.
Not aesthetic. Not social. Not aspirational.

In a very short time, that changed.

Reformer has repositioned itself from:

therapy-adjacent → lifestyle-driven luxury

And that repositioning unlocked something critical: pricing power.

Why Pricing Had to Change

Without higher pricing, reformer is a difficult business model.

Reformers take up space. Studios typically cap at 6-10 clients per class.

In a city like Paris, that’s a structural constraint.

Coming from pole dance – which has similar spatial limits but standard boutique pricing – I’ve seen how tight those economics can be.

At €30 per class, reformer struggles.

At €40-€50, it becomes viable.

To be clear: this does not mean reformer studios are wildly profitable.

Quite the opposite.

They’ve found a financial blueprint that works – not a gold mine, but a viable model.

But Price Alone Isn’t the Story

The real unlock isn’t just charging more. It’s building an entire model that supports that price.

If you look around, it’s undeniable – while the colors and fonts (sometimes) vary, reformer pilates studios have a lot in common:

1. Studios are small with minimal non-monetized space.

2. Classes run continuously throughout the day.

3. Spaces are chic, with a luxurious modern feel.

These are not coincidences.

They are signals.

Price, space, schedule, and branding all work together. This is what allows reformer to escape the €30 anchor. It’s a model that justifies charging more.

And that model targets a very specific customer: someone with sufficient time, money, and taste.

In this case, limiting the potential customer base isn’t a weakness. It creates desirability. This isn’t just fitness. It’s lifestyle.

What This Means for the Industry

For years, boutique fitness operated under the implicit assumption that ~€30 is the ceiling.

Reformer challenges that.

It suggests that

• pricing is more flexible than operators think

• willingness to pay can be increased through positioning

• and business model design matters as much as the product itself

A Necessary Exclusivity?

Reformer studios often feel exclusive.

They are designed that way.

I’m not saying that I love this exclusivity. But I understand it. And I don’t fault it. Because it’s not coming from a place of exploitation – it’s perhaps the only way (ironically) to bring this modality to the masses.

So what’s next?

Reformer has shows that it’s possible to increase prices and build a viable model around it.

My question for the rest of the industry: Are other modalities underpriced? Under-positioned? Will they follow suite?

This has quietly become the default price of boutique fitness.

In a dataset of 228 studios (~350 locations), about half of all studios fall within this €25-€35 range. The rest spread out across lower-cost and premium segments – but the center of gravity is clear.

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The Theory

In traditional business theory, there are a few ways to price goods and services:

• Cost-based pricing starts from the cost to deliver a product and adds a margin

• Competitor-based pricing anchors to what others in the market are charging

• Value-based pricing reflects what customers are willing to pay

Boutique fitness operates largely on anchored competitor pricing, with some layer of perceived value on top.

What’s striking is that cost is not the primary driver, even though these businesses are fundamentally different.

The Impact

A yoga class might host 20-30 clients with minimal equipment.
A cycling studio can fit 45-60 bikes in the same footprint.
A pole or aerial studio might only accommodate 8-12 participants.

And yet, they often charge roughly the same price per class.

At similar price points, this translates into 2-3x differences in revenue per class.

A single cycling class can potentially generate around €1,400.
An aerial class may cap out closer to €275.

This creates a kind of pricing illusion: from a customer perspective, classes appear interchangeable, but from an operator perspective, they are anything but.

Looking Deeper

The uniformity of pricing and the enormous gap in per class revenue are surprisingly paradoxical.

I want to zoom out and begin to propose a few more nuanced layers to help understand some of this convergence and also how it manifests in the way that different modalities operate and why we still see such a variety of modalities on the market today.

Capacity vs demand

High-capacity studios may simply need fewer locations to satisfy demand.

In this dataset, there are only 14 cycling studios, compared to:

• 68 strength & conditioning studios

• 136 yoga studios

This likely isn’t just about popularity.

A handful of cycling studios running 50-person classes can serve the same number of customers as dozens of lower-capacity studios.

In other words: capacity doesn’t just affect revenue; it shapes market structure.

Capex differences

Not all studios require the same upfront investment.

A Barry’s-style HIIT studio needs to account not only for treadmills, benches, and weights, but also for the fact that a large number of customers will want to shower (unlike most yoga studios, for instance).

By contrast, I co-opened a pole dance studio for ~$30k. Essentially an empty room with poles and a bathroom.

Higher-capacity studios may have stronger long-term revenue potential, but they also come with significantly higher upfront risk.

Scheduling / utilization

Revenue per class is only part of the equation.

A studio that can run a full schedule from 8AM to 9PM can compensate for lower per-class revenue.

This sounds obvious, but it’s actually very challenging. Almost every studio owner I meet has made some attempt at monetizing their space during “off” hours. Many capitulate and accept that their business runs on evenings and weekends.

While the core urban boutique fitness population has traditionally been upper-middle class office workers, some studios and modalities have managed to unlock daytime demand (freelancers, stay-at-home parents, clients with flexible schedules).

Studios that succeed in using their full schedule can operate on very different economics.

Discounting power

Studios with higher capacity and revenue potential can also afford to discount more aggressively.

They are better positioned to:

• offer lower per-class membership rates

• participate in platforms like ClassPass or Wellpass

• absorb lower-margin customers

Lower-capacity studios don’t have that flexibility.

The Exception

One modality is clearly breaking out of this pattern: Reformer Pilates.

With drop-in prices often ranging from €40 to €55, it has pushed well beyond the €30 “ceiling” that long defined boutique fitness.

This suggests that pricing in the industry may not be as fixed as previously assumed. Reformer Pilates hasn’t just increased prices; it has repositioned the category and expanded willingness to pay.

I’ll explore this in more detail in a future post.

The Illusion

Boutique fitness pricing looks standardized on the surface – but underneath, the businesses are fundamentally different.

Which raises a bigger question:

Are studios pricing based on what their business requires or simply on what the market expects?

As competition increases, that distinction may start to matter more.

Pilates, barre, yoga, cardio, and meditation – all at 35 degrees.

I had been dying to try it, then I nearly died trying it.

This was definitely one of my favorite fitness experiences so far in Paris, so let me guide you through the client experience, what really convinced me, and where I still see areas for improvement.

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When it comes to a first-time experience, these are the four moments I care about most:

• Booking & Discovery

• Pre-Class Communication

• In-Studio Experience

• Post-Class Communication

Booking & Discovery

The ups:

I had been following Burning Bar since before their opening. Clearly, they invested well into social media ads and came in with killer branding. The Instagram and website are professional, easy to navigate, and overall reinforce the premium feel and exclusive messaging, while still managing to be inviting.

From the website, I chose the 3-class Welcome Package. Buying and booking my first class was frictionless.

The downs:

Booking my second class, however, was more complicated. I wanted to check out the second location, but I could not for the life of me log in to book there. Eventually, I tried in the MindBody app and it worked fine, but I didn’t receive a confirmation email, only a text. It felt like a disjointed journey.

This is, unfortunately, typical of MindBody. It’s one of the oldest booking platforms and has always had technical oddities like this. But as a client, this reflects poorly on the studio, not the platform.

That said, I messaged them on Instagram and got immediate responses trying to help me resolve the issue.

For such a premium brand, these kinds of glitches are somewhat disappointing, even if the overall experience is good.

Pre-Class Communication

What I received:

• Welcome email after account creation

• Purchase confirmation

• Reservation confirmation

The first message I received welcomed me “to the family.”

This email did one thing very well, but slightly missed the mark in a small way (and details matter):

• First, it clearly positioned this as the start of a journey, explaining that after completing my first three classes, I’d be able to apply for membership. Clarity? ✅ Scarcity? 🔥

• On the other hand, it suggested I buy a 3-pack… which I had already purchased. A small disconnect in the customer journey.

The other emails were purely procedural. The reservation confirmation included the address and policies, but nothing more.

As a first-timer, I want to know:

• What should I wear?

• What should I bring?

• And in this case, how exactly do I find the studio (more on that later)

These details are key to making clients feel at ease and confident before their first class.

In-Studio Experience

One of the most interesting features of Burning Bar (both Paris locations) is their choice of real estate.

Given the strong branding, I expected to be hit with logos and colors from across the street.

Instead, the studios are located in the basements of newly renovated luxury residential and office buildings.

→ The downside: they’re a bit harder to find than you’d like (this is exactly where pre-class communication could bridge the gap).

→ The upside: the brand immediately feels elevated. You walk through a luxury serviced lobby before even stepping into the studio.

The front desk was staffed and they could see it was my first time (✅). That said, I would have appreciated a more thorough intro to the space, especially since I arrived early and there were no other clients yet (➖).

What worked well in the class:

• Mats and equipment were set up in advance

• It was easy to identify the instructor

• The teacher did a quick intro and checked for first-timers

• The workout itself was great

• Small class size (~10 people), which I love

Where it fell short:

• In the front row, it was surprisingly hard to see the instructor clearly because mats were fully aligned

• The teacher wasn’t memorable. Nice enough, but not particularly energizing and with minimal individual cues. In a premium concept, the instructor should be the differentiator, not interchangeable.

• It felt like a room of individuals rather than a group going through a shared experience

Given that this is a hot workout, I was also surprised there were only two showers, and that I had to ask at the front desk for a towel.

If I hadn’t asked, there would have been no follow-up and I likely would have left without any additional interaction.

Post-Class Communication

As is often the case, this is where the biggest opportunity lies (and where conversion is won or lost).

I received one email:

“Oh No! Your 3 sessions - Welcome Pack Expires on 20/03/2026”

And that was it.

No follow-up, no guidance, no push toward the next step.

This is where I would expect:

• A text

• Multiple emails

• Clear options on what to do next

This is also THE moment to reintroduce the membership application mentioned in the welcome email, potentially even with a limited-time incentive to convert.

Beyond the first class

I booked two more classes as part of my Welcome Pack, and they definitely shaped my overall impression.

The second instructor, like the first, didn’t really stand out.

But by the third class, everything clicked. I felt comfortable in the space, and the instructor was exactly what I’d been missing: funny, motivating, and someone I would absolutely come back for.

Look. I genuinely enjoyed Burning Bar and I think they’re onto something special in the market.

That being said, there’s clear room for process improvement. The kind that would help standardize the experience, increase conversion, and support real scale.

Burning Bar has nailed the concept. Now they need to operationalize the experience.

Anyone who’s taken a boutique fitness class knows how much your experience is driven by the instructor you jive with, or the one you don’t. I would argue that instructors have the single biggest impact on your brand.

And yet:

• they’re usually not salaried

• they often teach at multiple studios

• many have full-time jobs outside of fitness

• and they’re expected to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience no matter what kind of day they’re having

All of that makes building an outstanding instructor team hard.

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On top of all of this, what makes a “good” instructor is subjective. Different clients want different things, and the same person might want different things depending on the day.

But to get things started, here are my personal top 5 traits – and what I think they reveal about the business behind the scenes.

1. Coming in with a plan

The exercises and the playlist, first of all. It sounds obvious, but shockingly it’s not.

But beyond that, I appreciate when instructors have thought about their cues and the framing for the class.

What do the intro and outro look like? Is there a red thread or even a story arc?

It doesn’t have to be anything profound. It can be simple themes like letting go of an annoyance, getting excited about a future project, showing up for yourself and others.

When instructors are winging it, the class might still be fine, and sometimes even great. But it’s inconsistent.

A plan guarantees a strong baseline. From there, the class can become something more.

From an operator perspective, this is one of the easier things to train and standardize. Studios that invest in programming frameworks and class structure usually see more consistency across instructors, even if personalities differ.

2. Bringing the energy

If you don’t care for the “show,” I get it. It’s not for everyone.

But energy is contagious.

An instructor who becomes your hype person – shouting cues, walking the room, pushing you just a little further – can completely change how a class feels.

A flat instructor almost always leads to a flat room.

And “energy” doesn’t necessarily mean extroversion. Some of the best instructors I’ve taken are not the loudest, but they’re deeply present, intentional, and engaged. You feel that just as much.

3. Calling me out

The other day, an instructor said I looked like a grasshopper doing jumping lunges.

I was still sore from a workout a few days earlier and on my period, both of which I had warned her about. But she read me well and knew that I could take some poking fun.

It created a little bonding moment for me and her, and everyone in the class got a laugh. It released any pressure to “perform,” and there’s no doubt that she’s the instructor I would go back to.

Making fun of people is definitely a delicate tactic, but when done well and aimed at the right participants, it’s gold for retention.

This is really about emotional intelligence.

Knowing who to push, who to joke with, and who to leave alone is incredibly nuanced, and very hard to teach. It’s also one of the biggest differentiators between a “good” instructor and one people become loyal to.

4. Music that makes sense

Bonus if it’s music I can sing to.

A good playlist makes me lose track of time and suffer less. When a good song comes on, it’s like a new wave of energy rushes through me and all of a sudden I can pick up the pace or reach even deeper. I especially love if we’re moving to the beat – it feels great and shows good planning.

On the flip side, music that feels haphazard or monotonous will make 45 minutes feel like 2 hours.

Music affects pacing, perceived effort, and emotional engagement, yet many studios leave it entirely up to instructors without much guidance.

5. Building true connection

Before, during, and after class.

One of my favorite moments is when instructors start talking about their lives outside the studio.

Maybe they’re having a bad day because there’s a leak in their apartment. Maybe something funny happened on the way to the studio. Maybe it’s something more profound.

Those breaks, especially mid-plank, take my mind off the workout and make me feel closer to the instructor as a human.

That connection also happens outside the workout itself: learning students’ names, asking how their day is going, sharing an anecdote before jumping in.

All of those things add toward loyalty.

If you zoom out, not all of these traits are easy to systemize.

You can train structure. You can provide guidelines on music. You can even coach presence and delivery.

But humor, emotional intelligence, and the ability to create real human connection are much harder to replicate.

That’s why the very thing that makes a studio successful – its instructors – is also the hardest thing to scale.

But today’s booking platforms are no longer just reservation systems. They’ve evolved into the operating systems of boutique studios.

After doing demos with most major platforms (and a few newer ones), one thing has become clear to me: the companies building these tools already understand this. They’re not selling booking software. They’re building the infrastructure that runs the entire business.

The problem? Many studio owners still think about their software the way studios operated ten years ago.

I want to suggest a different perspective. I’m not here to convince you to choose one platform over another. Instead, I want to highlight what most platforms now have in common, and why these features are not just “nice extras” but essential tools if you want to run a competitive boutique fitness business today.

Data and Reporting

Even if your studio is thriving, looking at your data should be a daily habit. If your studio is struggling, data will help you understand where to focus your attention.

Boutique fitness platforms now provide reporting on sales, attendance, clients, instructors, and memberships. This allows studio owners to see which classes fill up, which instructors retain clients, and how new students convert into long-term members.

But this is just the surface.

The data inside your booking system can guide your day-to-day actions. A quick look at your dashboards should tell you:

• Which upcoming classes have low attendance and need promotion (or cancellation)

• Which new students may be at risk of dropping off

• Whether regular clients haven’t shown up recently and need to be re-engaged

Your bank account can tell you whether revenue covers your costs. Your studio operating software can tell you why.

Marketing

Almost every platform now offers some form of marketing suite, sometimes as an add-on. In competitive markets, I believe this has become non-negotiable.

If you want your studio to stay top of mind, you need to communicate with clients regularly. A birthday email is nice, but it’s far from enough.

Many platforms now support automated communication flows based on purchases, attendance, or inactivity. This allows you to guide clients along a journey – from first class to membership – and bring them back if they start dropping off.

Lead management is another increasingly important feature. In simple terms, it means tracking potential clients and making sure you interact with them enough times to convert them into paying members.

Studios that do this well often outperform others significantly.

Other Features

In addition to reporting and marketing, many platforms now support studio operations in other ways.

Some include task management tools, allowing you to assign recurring or one-off tasks to staff members based on events in your sales or member management process.

Payroll features are also becoming more common, helping studios automatically calculate and distribute instructor payments.

Substitution management tools allow instructors to flag upcoming absences and make it easier for managers or other teachers to step in.

Individually, these features may seem small. Together, they significantly reduce the operational complexity of running a studio.

The Bigger Picture

Most studio owners didn’t open their business because they wanted to spend hours in front of a screen. But learning to use your studio software effectively is increasingly part of running a successful operation.

The better you understand these tools, the more control you have over your studio’s growth– and, somewhat paradoxically, the more time you free up for the human interactions that make this industry special.

The in-person connection between instructors and clients is what makes boutique fitness powerful and difficult to replace.

But understanding your software might be what allows your business to survive in the first place.

I’ve seen projects launch on 30,000€. I’ve seen projects burn through 800,000€ before opening. The answer is, of course, it depends. But what I’ve learned is that most founders don’t miscalculate because they’re careless; they miscalculate because they underestimate the complexity of physical real estate and a micro-operations business.

Below is a framework to help you build realistic projections based on your own concept, market, and risk tolerance.

I’ll break costs into:

• Lease

• Build-out

• Equipment

• Technology

• Marketing

• Staff training

• Legal

• Operating cost multiple

My goal is to help you think like an operator, not a dreamer.

Lease

Finding the right space is the most important decision you’ll make. It determines your capacity, layout, build-out scope, and ultimately your revenue ceiling.

When signing a commercial lease, you’re rarely just paying one month of rent. You may be committing to multiple months upfront, a security deposit of 1-6 months, possible guarantees, and legal or agency fees depending on your market. In many cases, your real monthly occupancy cost ends up being 20-40% higher than the advertised rent once you include taxes, service charges, and common area expenses.

Instead of asking, “Can I afford 4,000€ per month?”, a more useful question is: “How much cash do I actually need to get into this space?” It is not unusual for a 4,000-5,000€/month space to require 40,000-80,000€ in available capital before construction even begins.

Rent is also one of the few areas with meaningful room for negotiation. You can negotiate rent-free months during build-out, landlord contributions toward improvements, or more favorable deposit structures.

Build-out

Build-out is where studios diverge dramatically.

Some founders paint the walls, update lighting, install flooring, and open. Others redesign the entire space, add showers, upgrade acoustics, build custom furniture, and invest heavily in branding details.

A useful way to think about construction is cost per square meter. Very rough ranges:

• Light cosmetic refresh: 200-600€ per m²

• Moderate build-out (layout changes, upgraded lighting, front desk, some plumbing): 600-1,200€ per m²

• Heavy build-out (structural changes, showers, spa elements, significant acoustic work): 1,200-3,000€+ per m²

A 200 m² studio at 1,000€ per m² is already a 200,000€ build-out.

The more detailed you are before construction begins (exact finishes, product specs, layouts) the less likely you are to see major budget blowouts. When scope is clearly defined, a 10% contingency is often reasonable. When it isn’t, costs can escalate quickly.

Equipment

Equipment costs depend entirely on modality.

A yoga studio may operate with relatively modest equipment investment. A reformer Pilates studio may spend 5,000-10,000€ per reformer. With 12 reformers, that alone can approach or exceed 100,000€.

Break equipment into three categories: core equipment (reformers, bikes, treadmills, poles), accessories (mats, blocks, weights), and installation (rigging, mounting, setup).

Core equipment doesn’t just represent cost, it determines capacity. Capacity determines your maximum revenue per class. Before committing, model how many clients you can serve per session, at what price, and how many sessions per week. Equipment is directly tied to your unit economics.

Request quotes early. Studio pricing and bulk rates can meaningfully affect your projections.

Technology

Technology decisions are really workflow decisions.

Yes, you need a sound system, payment processing, devices, and booking software. But the deeper question is how your studio operates day to day. Who controls check-in? Who manages music? Can staff sell memberships easily? Can you access systems remotely; are they integrated or siloed?

A sound system can range from 1,500€ for a simple setup to 20,000€ for a professionally installed, high-impact system. Payment hardware might cost 50€ for a basic terminal or several thousand euros for a multi-device configuration. Add front desk and in-studio devices and the numbers add up.

Technology will evolve as your studio grows, but early choices shape efficiency, sales processes, and customer experience. Cutting costs here is possible, but often shifts operational burden onto the founder.

Marketing

It’s possible to spend both too much and too little before opening.

Marketing before launch isn’t about visibility for its own sake. Instead of asking how much to spend, define how many pre-sales such as founding memberships you want before opening.

Budget may include website development (from DIY to fully custom builds), paid social advertising, influencer collaborations, partnerships, and launch events. Some founders rely heavily on personal networks and spend very little. Others invest significantly because they’re building community from scratch.

The key is defining targets, tracking performance, and iterating based on data rather than assumptions. Hitting your pre-sales goals will not just be about money, but also about time. Spend your pre-launch time building and nurturing leads and setting up a robust sales funnel.

Staff Training

Staff training is one of the most underestimated costs. And people do get away with small budgets or no budgets at all here, but that comes with its own risk.

Most instructors and front desk staff are hourly. That means you should pay them for onboarding, sales training, and systems training before meaningful revenue is coming in.

If you have five instructors and two front desk staff completing five hours of paid training each, even at modest hourly rates, you’re already looking at close to a thousand euros before opening.

Well-trained staff directly impact retention and brand perception. But they are not free.

Legal and Compliance

Incorporation, agreement drafting, insurance, and music licensing are smaller line items compared to construction or equipment, but they are not optional. Altogether you’re easily looking at 5,000€ or more.

Operating Cost Buffer

This is where many projects quietly fail.

Once open, your monthly burn includes:

• Rent

• Staff

• Utilities

• Cleaning

• Laundry

• Insurance

• Software

• Internet

• Marketing

• Accounting

• Community events

Even lean studios can easily spend 10,000-30,000€ per month.

If your monthly burn is 25,000€ and you have 0€ left after build-out, you didn’t open a business, you opened a countdown clock.

A useful rule of thumb: Have 3-6 months of fixed operating costs available after opening. That buffer is what gives you time to adjust pricing, fix operations, and build community without panic.

What Will Your Studio Cost?

Instead of a single number, here are some project/founder types that might help you map your own studio.

The Bootstrapped Minimalist: small space (50–150 m²), light cosmetic build-out, minimal staff, simple tech. Example opening budget: 40,000-100,000€. Lower upfront capital, high founder involvement, slower growth.

The Design-Forward Premium Brand: mid-sized space (150-250 m²), moderate-to-heavy build-out, strong branding, polished experience. Example opening budget: 150,000-500,000€. Higher upfront investment, higher pricing expectations, stronger emphasis on brand differentiation.

Each path can work. What matters is alignment between your concept, your market, your access to capital, and your tolerance for risk.

Opening a studio isn’t just about whether you can afford the rent. It’s about whether you can fund the full setup, launch, and first months. The more honestly you model the entire stack of commitments, the more likely your studio becomes a sustainable business rather than an expensive experiment.

Not all aggregators are created equal, and lumping them together hides important differences in incentives, transparency, and long-term impact on studios.

The Aggregator Types

One For All

Examples: ClassPass, Urban Sports Club, Fitpass

“One For All” platforms are direct-to-consumer marketplaces that work on volume. Their goal is to sign up as many studios as possible. By providing maximum variety, they attract a maximum number of consumers, which in turn attracts more studios.

Market Sides

• Consumers – They subscribe to the app and select a membership tier that gives them a certain number of credits, which can be used to book sessions with partner studios and gyms.

• Studios/gyms – They sign up with the platform and make their classes (either all classes or a set number of seats) available to platform users. The platform assigns credit values to those classes.

The behemoth, of course, is ClassPass. In order to gain the volume it needs, ClassPass has also acquired numerous competitors to gain traction in specific markets (including FitMob, GuavaPass, Fitness Collection, MuvPass, and ClickyPass).

Urban Sports Club has positioned itself as a European counterpart to ClassPass, with less flashy advertising and a more utilitarian approach. Fitpass is a Switzerland-specific version with a stronger health-oriented positioning.

Corporate Benefits

Examples: EGYM Wellpass, Wellhub, FitOn Health, Hussle, OnePass

Corporate benefits platforms function similarly to “One For All” platforms, but with an additional buyer: employers.

Market Sides

• Employers – They partner with the platform to provide fitness benefits to their employees, paying for all or subsidizing part of the employee’s membership.

• Consumers – Employees subscribe to the app and, if applicable, select a membership tier that provides credits usable at partner studios and gyms.

• Studios/gyms – They make their classes (or a set number of seats) available to platform users, with credit values assigned by the platform.

Providing fitness and wellness benefits has become increasingly popular over the past decade, as companies believe physically active employees are more productive and retain more value over time.

One notable aspect of the B2B aggregator model is that the additional layer increases opacity. Students often don’t know what their employer is paying, what studios are earning, or what the platform is taking. Employers often don’t know what studios are earning or how much margin the platform retains. Studios, meanwhile, frequently don’t know where their revenue is coming from or how much the platform is taking per visit. This information asymmetry increases the leverage of platforms over all other participants.

EGYM Wellpass (primarily Europe) and Wellhub (primarily the US and Latin America) are the largest examples of corporate benefits aggregators. It’s worth noting that “One For All” platforms also offer corporate partnerships, and it’s unclear what percentage of their total customer base comes from corporate clients.

Additionally, EGYM recently announced a merger with Playlist, the parent company of ClassPass and Mindbody, making it unclear how or whether these platforms will further differentiate in the future.

Other examples tend to be more local or more niche: Hussle (UK-based and acquired by EGYM Wellpass), as well as FitOn Health and OnePass, which emphasize health outcomes and preventative care over pure exercise volume.

Niche Players

Examples: REP Gympass

Like One For All platforms, these marketplaces are direct-to-consumer. The difference is that their aim (at least for now) is not breadth, but depth within one or a small number of modalities.

Market Sides

• Consumers – They subscribe to the app and select a membership tier that provides credits or sessions usable at partner studios or gyms.

• Studios/gyms – They make their classes (or a set number of seats) available to platform users.

The upside of niche aggregators for studios is that consumers are genuinely interested in their specific offering. The downside is that these platforms lack a key consumer draw: variety.

In my research, I only came across REP Gympass, which focuses on box gyms. However, similar platforms could theoretically exist for other modalities, such as Pilates or HIIT.

Curated Premium Experiences

Examples: SWET

A newer aggregator model provides brand protection rather than scale, attracting both studios and consumers seeking a premium experience.

Market Sides

• Consumers – They subscribe to the app and select a membership tier that provides credits or sessions.

• Studios/gyms – They apply to join the platform and make their classes available for a defined period of time.

SWET (swet-app.com) is exploring this model in Paris. As the boutique fitness market becomes increasingly dense, standing out as a high-quality studio becomes harder. SWET does not function on volume, but instead hand-curates its studio partners, helping studios protect brand value. For consumers, the promise is access not to any studios, but to the best studios.

Another distinguishing feature is that the list of available studios changes monthly. One could hypothesize that this makes the partnership more beneficial for studios than a platform like ClassPass, since studios have a higher likelihood of converting users into direct customers. It will be interesting to see whether SWET expands to other cities or whether similar concepts emerge elsewhere.

Multi-Brand Groups & Local Collaborations

Examples: XPass, Sanctuary Pass, Monday Sports Club

Unlike other aggregator models, aggregation through multi-brand groups and local collaborations allows studios to retain the full value of their sales.

Market Sides

• Consumers – They purchase classes or passes that can be used across multiple participating studios.

• Studios/gyms – Brands align pricing and make classes available through a shared booking or pass system.

As boutique fitness matures, the market is seeing increased consolidation, either through acquisition or expansion. Importantly, some groups are diversifying across multiple brands and modalities rather than scaling a single concept. This allows them to replicate the consumer value of a marketplace without paying a platform commission.

XPass, for example, is operated by Xponential Fitness and includes brands such as Pure Barre, YogaSix, and Club Pilates, with hundreds of locations across the US. On a smaller scale, The Sanctuary Group in Paris has created Sanctuary Pass, which provides access to roughly 15 studios across Pilates, cycling, HIIT, and more.

Local collaborations, such as Monday Sports Club in Paris, preserve even more independence while still eliminating the middleman. The result is similar: studios keep the full value of their sales.

The main drawback is operational. Finding aligned partners and agreeing on shared terms is no small feat, particularly given that different modalities can have very different unit economics. That said, most studios already operate within a relatively narrow pricing band, regardless of modality.

Other Notable Aggregator-Ish Platforms

Roeme – Roeme connects creators and studios; studios may provide free classes in exchange for social media exposure rather than monetary compensation.

Booking Platforms – Studio software platforms such as Mindbody or bsport offer consumer-facing discovery apps where users can browse studios using that software.

Tourist Passes – Products like “London Fitness Pass” or “Paris Fitness Pass,” often sold via platforms such as Tripadvisor or Viator, offer short-term access for travelers.

Where do we go from here?

Understanding aggregator models – and the incentives behind them – is a prerequisite for studios considering participation. Knowing whether a platform will support revenue growth and brand equity, or erode direct bookings and positioning, is critical before entering any partnership.

As someone rooting for studio success, I hope to see more local collaborations and more multi-modality expansion within studio groups. At the same time, aggregators are not going away. The open question is whether new models will emerge that offer greater transparency, fairer economics, and a healthier balance of power between platforms and studios.

This post isn’t about leaving ClassPass. It’s about understanding the tradeoffs well enough to choose deliberately.

What role is ClassPass actually playing?

Most studios think they’re using ClassPass as marketing. In practice, it often becomes something else. Bookings increase, energy in the room improves, and things look promising.

Then, a few months in, the numbers start to sink in. Studios realize they’re effectively making e.g. $7 per seat. Suddenly, financial projections no longer hold. What initially felt like growth begins to feel like pressure.

At that point, studios usually start weighing a few options:

• Try to build systems to convert ClassPass users into direct customers

• Switch to a competitor with better terms

• Gradually reduce ClassPass inventory and plan an exit

• Leave the platform altogether, cold turkey

Some studios do manage to stay on ClassPass and do well. But that success is often misunderstood, and that misunderstanding is at the heart of why this topic feels so difficult.

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The “Low-Demand Slot” Argument and Why It No Longer Holds

ClassPass has long argued that its core value proposition is filling low-demand slots. On paper, that sounds reasonable, and many studios still operate under this assumption.

The problem isn’t that studios don’t want to fill low-demand slots. It’s that this is fundamentally not how students use ClassPass anymore.

For most users, ClassPass is not a discovery tool or a marginal add-on. It’s simply their default booking app.

From a ClassPass user’s perspective, there are no “low-demand slots.” There are just available classes. This creates a disconnect. Studios think using ClassPass is tactical, but for students it’s just a habit. Conversion into direct membership is not something most ClassPass users consider, and studios are for the most part unsuccessful in convincing them.

If ClassPass is no longer filling marginal demand, then studios need to reassess what role it’s actually playing.

Are you using ClassPass to protect revenue, or to protect the class experience?

Truth is, empty classes are sad. They’re not a great customer experience, and they’re demoralizing for instructors. Most studios also have internal thresholds below which classes are canceled entirely.

In that sense, ClassPass can act as a buffer for customer experience, but I’d be very careful not to see it as a buffer for revenue. It can help classes feel alive, energetic, and worth attending.

But that distinction matters. If ClassPass is being used to improve the feel of classes rather than to generate sustainable income, then it probably shouldn’t be factored into revenue projections at all. Maybe I’m being too hard-line on this, but I think that as soon as you see ClassPass revenue with rose-colored glasses, it’s easy to look past the other downsides of ClassPass.

Policy-wise, direct bookings should still determine whether a class runs. Instructor and staff costs should still be covered without assuming any ClassPass income. Otherwise, studios risk keeping unviable classes alive simply because they don’t look empty.

Seeing ClassPass as a customer-experience buffer rather than a revenue stream changes how risky it is and how long it should stick around.

Is the ClassPass customer someone you want to keep?

For some studios, intentionally targeting ClassPass users and actively wanting them as their core community is a good brand strategy. For instance, I think it’s reasonable for some studios to position themselves as lower-cost alternatives for students/GenZ and to target volume. For others, the target audience and brand direction is misaligned with ClassPass. In this case, once direct bookings can sustain the class experience you want, the question becomes less about revenue and more about who you’re building for.

Studios that have always strongly limited ClassPass seats are in a much better position here. The transition is less jarring, and customers don’t suddenly experience half-full classes that used to be full.

Given all of this, using ClassPass right after launching can make sense. Using it indefinitely without revisiting its role is where problems tend to creep in.

Why “but successful studios are on ClassPass” is misleading

One factor that makes studios optimistic about using aggregators: the most successful studios are on ClassPass!

But there’s a huge difference when you’re a Barry’s on ClassPass versus when you’re a nice-brand-thats-cool-but-not-hype.

These studios aren’t simply benefiting from ClassPass’s demand. They’re actively bringing students to the platform themselves. That changes the negotiation dynamic entirely.

If a studio is able to negotiate truly good terms, with ClassPass pricing that’s on par with direct bookings, then aggregators can make a lot of sense. In those cases, ClassPass isn’t distorting the business model; it’s simply another distribution channel.

The challenge is that most studios don’t have that leverage and they don’t realize just how little they’ll get paid until late in the game.

What breaks first if ClassPass works “too well”?

Being on ClassPass doesn’t necessarily dilute a studio’s brand in a qualitative sense. The bigger issue is pricing.

ClassPass anchors what people think a “fair” price is. Even if a studio offers a premium experience, the price a student sees on ClassPass starts to feel like the correct reference point.

That’s especially tricky for studios with:

• small class sizes

• high instructor involvement

• medical or therapeutic positioning

In these cases, the financial mismatch can become painful very quickly.

Studios with many spots per class are generally more compatible with aggregator economics, assuming they can actually fill those spots. Studios with fewer spots need to be much more cautious. A handful of underpriced seats can turn a class unprofitable fast.

Studios that promise progress face an additional challenge. Existing clients may grow frustrated if every class includes a rotating cast of first-timers. One way to address this is to list only specific intro classes on ClassPass, requiring direct booking to continue. That approach protects the core community and limits dependency, but it also means you may lose curious first-timers to competitors more easily.

There’s no perfect answer, only tradeoffs.

Why This Feels So Hard

Staying on ClassPass can sometimes be a way to avoid confronting deeper issues: pricing, retention, product-market fit. Not because studio owners are avoiding responsibility, but because ClassPass softens the emotional blow.

Full rooms feel reassuring. Empty ones force uncomfortable questions.

Understanding what role ClassPass is playing doesn’t make the decision easy, but it makes it honest.

Here’s what I learned:

• While you may feel like there’s a studio on every corner, there’s no clear evidence of a slowdown in new openings. (We’ll have to revisit this in a year, I guess.)

• Boutique fitness is inherently trend-driven and still evolving – even in London – but the modality landscape suggests that people want not just variety, but balance.

• Even in a relatively established market, brand consolidation remains limited.

• New studio openings are both filling demand gaps in existing hubs and following population movements into new areas.

If you’d rather explore the dashboard directly, you can find it here:

https://tamar-portfolio-phi.vercel.app/work/london-boutique-fitness-2025

Otherwise, read on for my analysis.

Openings over the years

The number of new studios opening has increased steadily since around 2006. In 2019, the dataset shows 75 studios opening, followed by a clear pandemic dip – although it’s perhaps surprising that many studios were still able to launch between 2020 and 2022. From 2023 onward, openings pick up again.

Importantly, the number of new studios opening each year is still rising. There’s no indication that London has hit anything close to peak capacity yet.

Modalities

The dominant modalities in London boutique fitness are strength training, pilates, HIIT/bootcamp, and yoga, each with over 400 studios. Boxing, barre, and cycling – all canonical boutique fitness examples – have less than half of that!

While many modalities have grown fairly linearly, these “kings” of fitness stand out, showing exponential growth since the mid-2010s.

What’s especially interesting here is that growth isn’t happening in one direction. Instead, the data suggests a clear appetite for balance. On one end of the spectrum, we see continued demand for softer, more restorative modalities like yoga and traditional pilates. On the other, strength training and HIIT – higher-intensity, performance-driven formats – are growing just as aggressively.

You could frame this as “soft” versus “hard” fitness, or even feminine versus masculine energy. Either way, Londoners don’t appear to be choosing between intensity and restoration; they want access to both. Rather than converging on a single dominant modality, the market seems to be expanding outward, supporting multiple pillars that serve different physical (and psychological) needs.

Reformer pilates is particularly striking: more than 50% of new pilates studio openings are reformer-based. Additionally, yoga growth appears to be stabilizing, while strength and HIIT show no signs of slowing down. I’d argue that this pilates boom reflects a successful rebrand away from a more “holistic” or spiritual positioning (often associated with yoga) toward strength, intensity, and performance. In doing so, pilates has anchored itself as a core pillar of the modern wellness ecosystem, where longevity is very much the mot du jour.

Consolidation

As boutique fitness markets mature, you’d expect dominant brands to become increasingly prevalent. Yet in London, only about 40% of studios are part of a chain (defined loosely here as having two or more locations). More than 700 studios are still single-location businesses.

Whether these studios can persist long-term in the face of the operational and marketing advantages enjoyed by larger groups remains an open question.

What’s especially interesting is how much chain affiliation varies by modality. Cycling and reformer studios are 57% and 54% chain, respectively, suggesting that these concepts benefit from standardized operations and a repeatable playbook.

Boxing and martial arts, by contrast, are only 28% and 17% chain. These modalities are often founder-led (and sometimes founder-taught), with success closely tied to the individual behind the brand. That aligns closely with my own experience of boxing studios, many of which prominently highlight the background and achievements of their founders.

Geography

From a spatial perspective, Wandsworth, Westminster, Southwark, and Islington emerge as core hubs, with the highest concentration of studios.

Over the past 15 or so years, Wandsworth and Southwark have seen population inflows reflected in an acceleration of studio openings. Islington and Westminster, by contrast, show more linear growth, suggesting established demand, where new openings reflect optimization rather than expansion.

There’s no single neighborhood “profile” that guarantees success. Both residential and commercial areas can support strong boutique fitness ecosystems. The key ingredients appear to be some combination of population age, disposable income, and population growth. Areas with younger (and especially growing) populations and lower poverty rates consistently perform well – not a groundbreaking insight, but a useful confirmation of assumptions.

If London were truly approaching saturation, I’d expect growth to start shifting away from inner-city areas toward the suburbs. That’s not what we’re seeing yet, which may be the clearest signal that the boutique fitness market still has room to run.

Caveats

This dataset is not a fully comprehensive list of London studios, but it’s large enough that the trends should be indicative. One important limitation: it excludes studios that have closed, which means the picture is biased toward survival and success while making failure invisible.

And finally, I’ve never lived in London, so if you do have hands-on experience in the market, I’d love to hear how this lines up with what you’re seeing on the ground.

Uber famously undercut competitor taxi prices to gain market share in the 2010s, and has gradually increased its prices to be more or less on par with taxis. This was possible thanks to its tremendous capital backing, so profitability was not the primary goal in early years.

ClassPass may be doing the same. In the market for bookings, they make prices artificially low to price out direct studio bookings. Once they have captured enough of the market, perhaps prices will begin to rise but at that point students will be used to reserving through ClassPass.

I held on to this theory for a while, but it also has some serious gaps.

First off, ClassPass bookings ARE studio bookings, so undercutting the direct studio price too far will likely either make the studio leave ClassPass altogether or force the studio to shut, especially if there is a lot of competition in that modality.

The second question is, if ClassPass begins raising prices, how will students behave? The reality is that I still use Uber even if it’s the same price as taking a taxi because it’s also a better user experience. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, ClassPass has other advantages over direct bookings. For many students, it’s arguably a much better booking experience – you have a huge amount of variety and a standard place and process for reserving classes. Most studios offer only a handful of modalities (if that) and booking is not always straightforward. So I very much would see people staying on ClassPass even if prices matched those of studios.

In my survey on ClassPass usage, 31.8% of people responded that their primary reason for joining ClassPass was cheaper prices. That said, 40.9% responded that they wanted to try a variety of studios. Only 9.1% of respondents were loyal to just one studio. Nonetheless, pricing remains key, as 90.9% of respondents were unsure or would not continue using ClassPass if they increased prices by 20-30%.

With ClassPass at its current low pricing, one of the consequences will likely be that studios are actually forced to increase their own prices both to increase their ClassPass rates and to cover their operating costs. This might lead to a vicious cycle where studios unintentionally feed students to ClassPass and ClassPass prices naturally rise, while painting studios as greedy luxury services.

Ultimately I think we will see an Uber effect within the aggregator industry, with prices rising as market share of students rises. In the meantime however, many studios will suffer at the handcuffs of being reliant on ClassPass but not making enough money to cover their costs. Small studios will be hit the hardest with no negotiation power and they may either shut or be acquired by a larger group with greater leverage.

Over the next posts, I’ll be exploring how to engage with aggregators (as a studio), how to leave them, and my predictions for the next 5-10 years. If you missed my first post in this series, you can find it here.

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Some of the themes I’ll be writing about are:

• How sustainable is the ClassPass business model (for ClassPass) and how might ClassPass pricing evolve over time?

• When should studios engage with aggregators and when should they avoid them?

• What can studios do to maintain their brand value and move beyond aggregators?

• As the boutique fitness population matures, how will students’ relationships with studios, aggregators, and fitness in general evolve?

But before I dive into any of these topics, I wanted to write about my personal experience as a studio owner with ClassPass and other aggregators because there were a number of things that surprised me, and I expect they might surprise you too!

The Hope

At first glance, the aggregator model seems to be all upside. It costs nothing to list classes, and you get additional revenue and a huge amount of exposure.

The Reality

1. I met with a sales rep who presented me with two payout options. I could either choose to be paid 50% of my post-tax drop-in rate OR I could be paid dynamically between 20% and 80% of my post-tax drop-in rate depending on the popularity of the class.
   
   In concrete numbers, my drop-in was 30€, so 25€ post-tax (20% VAT on services in France). Option 1: 12.50€/reservation. Option 2: 5-20€/reservation.
   
   I opted for option 1 because I wanted certainty and because I was just opening so I expected my bookings to be on the lower end, so dynamic pricing would likely have hurt me.
   

2. I tried to negotiate my rate but was unsuccessful because as a small newcomer I had very little leverage. I could and should have negotiated harder (and eventually I successfully did this with another aggregator), but this alone is not a solution to the aggregator problem and is not available to many studios.
   

3. Importantly, part of ClassPass’s standard offer is also that studios are not paid for free trial students (ClassPass offers a 2 week or 1 month free trial when you sign up – not just once, but if you quit the platform they’ll eventually offer it again). Some well-known brands are able to block their classes from free trial students, but again, hard to negotiate that as a small newby.
   
   You might think that this is part of doing business and acquiring customers. But this model takes it to a new level. Half of my ClassPass customers were on free trials, so rather than making 12.50€ per reservation, I was really making closer to 6€.
   
   If I’m paying my teacher 40€, I need 7 CP students just to cover the teacher cost. Then factor in rent and you realize it’s just not feasible.
   
   This should not be justified as a normal marketing cost because these customers are unlikely to ever become full paying students.
   

4. As a marketing tool, ClassPass was in fact highly effective. So many people discovered my studio who wouldn’t have otherwise. Pretty quickly, more than half my reservations were coming from ClassPass. That’s why it’s so painful to tear off the bandaid. Going from relatively full classes to relatively empty classes is depressing, even though it might be the right business decision. It’s a psychological trap that can be hard to escape.
   

5. No shade to ClassPass users – the issue isn’t individual behavior so much as the incentives the platform creates. Because users are loyal to ClassPass rather than to a specific studio, the relationship with the studio itself tends to remain shallow. When classes feel interchangeable and relatively inexpensive, it’s harder for students to develop a sense of ownership or attachment to a particular space.
   
   In practice, this often shows up as more late cancels or no-shows, and less engagement beyond the class itself. Most ClassPass students come in, take the class, and leave. However, the students who contribute most to the studio’s sense of community, who express appreciation, and who stay long-term are almost always people who booked directly.
   

   ClassPass isn’t creating “bad customers” – it’s creating a transactional relationship, and that distinction matters a lot for a small, community-driven studio.
   

6. I very quickly canceled my ClassPass contract and went with a significantly better deal from a competitor. With the competing platform, I was able to position my studio as a premium studio and get a drop-in of 18€ pre-tax (15€ post-tax) with first-time visits unpaid for except during my first month, which I negotiated for since almost all students that month would be first-timers.
   
   While it wasn’t nearly as good as direct bookings, I did continue working with the other platform and it brought in substantial revenue. The students also weren’t the bargain hunter types I was used to from ClassPass and were more loyal and connected to our community.
   

7. With both platforms, the hope that you might convert students into long-term direct customers is slim. Yes it does happen, and there are ways to promote this and to target the most likely customers to convert (and I’ll discuss this in a future post), but it’s extremely rare and generally requires specific circumstances in the customer’s life to change, so it’s largely out of your control.

A few takeaways to keep you thinking…

• Studios have no say in how their classes are priced on the platform. The prices offered by aggregators really have nothing to do with the actual cost of operating the business – they’re arbitrary.

• Next time you see a studio with 50€ drop-in rates, consider that maybe part of that cost is artificially high just in order to protect themselves from platform pricing.

• ClassPass and other aggregators are clever by using a points system. That way, customers forget how much they’re actually paying for classes (in Paris from 1.4€ to 1.7€ per credit/point on ClassPass). Studios don’t know up front how many points their classes will show up as. So while you can deduce ClassPass’ margin, there’s a general sense of purposeful obfuscation.

This is far from an exhaustive list; it’s simply where my curiosity is concentrated right now.

1. Market consolidation

   Paris has a huge number of single-location studios. The number of brands with 2 or 3 studios is modest and after that it drops off sharply. What does this look like in more mature markets? And with pricing pressure from increasing costs, fitness aggregators, and ever-more premium box gyms, what will consolidation look like over the next months and years (in Paris and other markets)?

2. Location strategy

   Is it better to open in a dense, hyper-competitive central neighborhood or in an affluent suburb with little direct competition but less organic traffic?

3. Modalities & trends

   How will trends in different modalities evolve? What will be the next boutique fitness hype?

4. Aggregators

   What real, sustainable solutions will studios develop to coexist with, or move beyond, aggregators?

5. Studio owner priorities

   When should studio owners focus inward (community, systems, class quality) versus outward (branding, partnerships, visibility)? And what happens when they get the timing wrong?

6. Pricing

   Are studios being pushed into a binary: either premium with high margins or volume-driven with razor-thin ones? Is there still a viable “middle”?

7. Consumer behavior

   How loyal are boutique fitness customers really, and what conditions actually create long-term attachment?

8. Technology

   Which parts of a studio actually benefit from software? And which are still fundamentally human?

Over the next months, I’ll be exploring these and other questions through data, conversations with studio owners, and comparisons across markets. What topics are you curious about right now?

Bonus: I’m usually a big resolutioner, but with both kids off for two weeks, I had no time to focus on reflection and planning. Have any inspiring resolutions to share?

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(A few people have asked why I keep things anonymous. I’m not trying to shame anyone or curry favors by publishing. I am, however, reaching out directly to these studios to share my feedback as well.)

I’ll break this experience into stages. This is always how I think about a first-time user journey:

1. Booking & Discovery

2. Pre-Class Communication

3. In-Studio Experience

4. Post-Class Communication

Booking & Discovery

A friend of mine turned me onto this studio before it opened, and from the get-go it had really clean, attractive branding. It follows the beige/coffee hues and rounded-corners trend I’ve been seeing everywhere, and honestly, it’s effective. The social media, the location, the website: everything is coherent.

They use bsport for bookings, so the process itself was simple. That said, the classes were labeled things like Intense, Fundamentals, and simply Pilates Reformer but I had to zoom into each class to read the level description. I would have liked a page with an overview so that I quickly know what’s on offer and available to me.

After paying for my class and choosing a time slot, I received an immediate confirmation email with the date and time of the class. Nothing fancy, nothing warm and fuzzy, just the default template. These are micro-opportunities for studios to leave their mark and reinforce their brand.

Pre-Class Communication

Nothing.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves, and it’s incredibly common. For many people, it takes real courage to show up to a studio for the first time. You can lower that barrier before they ever walk through the door by setting expectations clearly and early.

Details matter. Have a water fountain? Say that. Do students need to bring towels? Say that. Is your space hard to find or access? Say that. Do you not accept late arrivals? Say that.

None of these things should be surprises on the day of class. Even after years of going to boutique fitness studios, I still feel hesitant when I don’t know the protocol.

I went to the studio’s website to find information on how to prepare and had to dig around more than I should have. I eventually found a section on what to wear, but only after some effort. Every unanswered question adds friction, and friction hurts first-time retention.

In-Studio Experience

The studio has a proper storefront, so finding it was not an issue. It’s a beautiful space with a well set-up front desk. When I arrived, the owner (as I found out later) checked me in. The teacher was also waiting up front and chatting with another student, which immediately gave me the sense that this is a place where people know one another and care about community.

Seeing that it was my first time, the owner gave me a quick tour of the studio. She told me to leave my things in a locker in the changing room and then come back in my Pilates socks and get settled on a reformer. Overall, this was a solid and thoughtful welcome.

The class itself was fine, but not memorable. The teacher had good energy and was technically solid, which I appreciated, but she gave very little individual attention. There were several moments where students weren’t fully following, and the class simply moved on. Corrections were given only a handful of times.

While her energy was pleasant, it wasn’t directed. In a small, seven-person class, studios can (and should) establish instructor protocols around learning names and offering individualized encouragement. That kind of attention is often what turns a good class into a great one.

Post-Class Communication

One day after class, I received an email titled “On se revoit quand ?” outlining the perks of buying a class package. That’s a start. But it’s not nearly enough to drive conversion.

If I had purchased an introductory package rather than a single drop-in, perhaps there would have been a more developed funnel. But as it stood, the follow-up felt thin.

There’s plenty of opportunity here. If the intro package is where conversion happens, lead with that. If not, add time pressure – something like a limited-time discount for students who purchase within their first 10 days.

Beyond better follow-up, there simply needs to be more of it. That could mean reminders about an offer, but it could also be regular communication sent to all students, such as a weekly email highlighting upcoming classes. Staying top of mind creates repeated opportunities to re-engage.

Summary

Overall, this was a good experience, and I’d consider going back. That said, with so many reformer studios in the neighborhood, there was nothing that truly stood out. I’d likely only return if there were a compelling offer.

What worked well:

1. Branding that feels modern, inviting, and coherent

2. A strong welcome experience for first-time students

What could be improved:

1. Setting expectations clearly before class

2. Clear instructor protocols for one-on-one feedback and motivation

3. More consistent and intentional follow-up after class

This visit was a reminder of how much the small details matter – email tone, expectation-setting, instructor behavior – especially in a crowded market. This was a good experience, but I’m not rushing to go back.

Looking ahead, I expect we’ll see significant consolidation in the boutique fitness space in 2026, driven by rising costs and increasing competition.

Are there other studios you think I should try and share feedback on? And which parts of the customer journey matter most to you; and which do you care least about?

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A while back, I started more seriously combining my tech background and my interest in boutique fitness. I learned new tools since I haven’t actually worked in tech in a few years and the AI boom has introduced incredible possibilities. Using all that, I built a trends dashboard last week.

→ Jump straight to the dashboard ←

What is it? It’s an industry report that pulls data from almost 650 studios to map the growth of boutique fitness in Paris – modalities, neighborhoods, timelines, density, and more.

Before I dive into my findings, a note on the data: I used ClassPass as the source for my list of studios. Yes, this is imperfect since not all studios are on ClassPass. And while I was able to filter out big box gyms that list on ClassPass, I wasn’t able to filter out individual teachers who list on ClassPass as “studios” but actually teach at rented studios. Nonetheless, I ended up with 644 studios, which is enough to get a very robust sense of the industry. This means that while individual studio counts will be slightly off, percentages and relative quantities are highly indicative of reality. Regarding opening dates, there was no good source for this information, so I approximated opening dates mostly based on website domain registration dates.

Here’s what emerged.

The key insights

1. Paris’s boutique fitness scene is young and growing.
Until 2010, almost nothing was happening (1–5 openings per year). Growth accelerates after that, and by 2024 we see 71 studios opening.
Note: this counts only studios that currently appear on ClassPass, so doesn’t include studios that aren’t on ClassPass and also doesn’t take into account studios that may have opened but have since closed.

2. Pilates and yoga dominate.
47% of all studios offer Pilates; 43% offer yoga. Strength training (35%) and HIIT/bootcamp (30%) also have strong presences. Traditional “female” modalities still lead growth, while traditionally “male” modalities remain closer to the classic gym model.
Most studios offer multiple modalities.

3. Reformer Pilates is on fire.
I wrote about this a few weeks ago as well, but here are the numbers to back it up. An astonishing 50.4% of reformer pilates studios opened in 2024 or 2025. It seems that everyone is hopping on the bandwagon… but will it last?

4. The 11th is heart of Paris fitness.
It leads in studio density, followed by the 17th. Then come the 9th, 16th, and 2nd. The pattern is clear: studios cluster around youthful, trend-driven, and/or higher-income neighborhoods. Cheaper commercial rents in the 11th also help explain the density.

→ Check out the full dashboard here ←

So what does this all mean?

The data confirms what many of us feel on the ground: Paris is in the middle of a real boutique fitness moment. The growth isn’t random; it reflects shifting consumer expectations, rising health consciousness, and an appetite for community-driven spaces.

It also raises real questions:

• Where does the market saturate?

• Which modalities survive beyond the hype cycle?

• And how can smaller studios differentiate as competition accelerates?

This dashboard is just the start. I’ll be digging into pricing, scheduling, city-to-city comparisons, and how sustainable these trends really are.

If there’s something specific you’d love to see analyzed next, tell me! I want this to be genuinely useful for studio owners, instructors, and anyone fascinated by how boutique fitness evolves.

When it comes to discounts, a lot of gyms default to “volume at any cost.” Big sales month = win. But discounting is never just about revenue. Every discount signals something to your customers and shapes their behavior long-term, often in ways you won’t notice until it’s too late.

So I put together a rundown of different discounting strategies, what they actually do, and the common pitfalls studios run into.

1. Discounting Intro Packages

This is still one of my favorite strategies. When I opened, I sold 90 intro packages in two weeks on about 50€ ad spend. Compare that to the 30 or so packages per month that was my baseline with no ad spend. Intro packs are incredible for acquisition: low-cost, low-commitment, and easy for people to purchase without overthinking.

But intros alone don’t matter if you don’t convert.
The KPIs that actually matter are:

• How many students show up

• How many buy a pack or membership afterward

Black Friday intros tend to attract bargain hunters, not committed students. That makes your December follow-up non-negotiable.

If you’re going to run an intro discount, make sure you’ve got:

• Automated purchase follow-up so people actually show up

• First-class reminders that make their first visit comfortable and exciting

• A clear follow-up plan with package or membership options

Without this nurturing plan, what you’re left with is essentially lots of cheap drop-ins and no retention.

2. Discounting Monthly Memberships

If your goal is to grow memberships, this can be a strong strategy, but only if you structure it carefully.

A discounted first month for new members can easily backfire.
Loyal members suddenly feel “punished” and start asking:

• Can I switch to a shorter-term contract?

• Should I cancel and sign up again during next year’s sale?

Instead of discounting, try removing friction with a membership trial:
Keep the price the same but drop the commitment for the first month.

Why this works:

• You don’t undercut loyal members

• You don’t devalue the membership

• You attract people scared of long-term commitments

• Conversion becomes about experience, not discounting

And just like with discounted intros, follow-up is everything if you want people to move from “trial” to “member.”

3. Discounting Class Packages

This is the easiest and most common discount – and volume usually looks great. But discounting packages signals that this is where you see your business. If that’s your model, great. But if you’re hoping to grow memberships, package discounting can work against you.

The bigger issue is consistency:
If you run package sales too frequently, you train customers to wait. At the first studio I attended, no one bought full-price packages because everyone knew a sale was always coming.

Package sales make sense if:

• You need a short-term revenue boost

• You have a retention strategy for package buyers

BUT:

• Heavy discounting trains clients to stock up

• It undermines recurring revenue goals

• It creates a “hoarding cycle”. Big November revenue, weak December/January

• It distorts forecasting because you’re pre-selling revenue you would have earned later

4. “Value Add” Promotions Instead of Price Cuts

This isn’t usually ideal for Black Friday, when people expect actual discounts, but it is a great option for other times of the year.

Examples:

• Buy a membership → get a free personal training session

• Buy a package → get a branded tote or small merch item

Why it works:

• Avoids undercutting your pricing

• Lets people try something new (which they may later purchase regularly)

5. “Spend Threshold” Promotions

Examples:

• Spend €150 → get €25 credit

• Spend €250 → get €50 credit

• Buy a €100 gift card → get €120 value

These avoid discounting your core products and nudge people to buy more, without devaluing anything. Again, not necessarily a Black Friday go-to, but a strong year-round strategy.

Zooming Out: The Strategic Questions Studios Forget to Ask

Before you rush into setting up your promotions, there are a few deeper strategic considerations studios must think through:

1. Discounting affects perceived brand value

Especially for premium studios.
If you run constant blowouts, you signal:
→ “We are a deals-driven studio.”
Deals-driven clients are the hardest to retain.

2. You train your clients’ buying behavior

If you discount constantly:

• Loyal students wait to buy

• New students hold out for a better deal

3. Discounting often masks a funnel problem

If you need 30–50% off to get people in, you don’t have a discounting problem.
You have a messaging, branding, or conversion problem.

4. Discounts require operational readiness

If you offer big promotions, you MUST:

• Increase marketing (you’re aiming for volume!)

• Staff properly (create space for beginners)

• Follow up so people use their offers

• Prepare scripts and automations for conversion

Otherwise, the sale is wasted.

What do you think?
What were your favorite Black Friday sales this year and which ones did you roll your eyes at?

I went in expecting a straightforward “reserve a class, show up, take the class” kind of experience. Instead, the whole thing turned out to be… well, interesting, so I thought I’d share it with you.

The Hybrid Concept: A Big Promise…

From their marketing, I knew the studio offered everything: multiple dance styles, boxing, yoga, cycling, pilates, fitness – the whole “come-here-for-anything” pitch. I was genuinely curious how they managed to pull off such a massive schedule with so many disciplines.

And to be fair, when I walked in, I was impressed. The space is huge – around 500m² – with four dance studios, proper changing rooms, a cycling room, a boxing room, a fitness room, and an open gym area with machines. A woman at the front desk gave me a tour, and my immediate thought was: If they can maintain all this and deliver high-quality classes, this concept is incredible.

But the promise started to unravel as soon as I settled into the “fitness” room for my pilates class. I was the first to arrive, and it wasn’t clear where I should put my mat. A giant projector screen looped Les Mills ads. Not exactly a boutique pilates vibe.

Then the instructor walked in, the same guy who had just finished teaching boxing. He was subbing the pilates class and admitted he’d never taught pilates before. After a short intro about breathing, we went straight into a general full-body workout.

If I had joined a standard gym with a variety of classes and one class got swapped, I might shrug it off. But when you’re positioning yourself against the five boutique pilates studios in my neighborhood? This doesn’t cut it.

The Hybrid Model: Opportunity and Complexity

What this studio is, at its core, is a hybrid gym-studio: a place that blends open gym access with a packed schedule of classes across an incredible range of disciplines. I wanted to see it succeed. Because when a hybrid concept works, it has the potential to become its own ecosystem: a studio with enough variety to keep people engaged, enough equipment to support independent training, and enough consistency to build loyalty without relying on platforms like ClassPass to fill the schedule.

But hybrid also means complexity. You’re not just running one studio: you’re running five, plus a gym. You’re maintaining machines, coordinating dozens of instructors, and somehow trying to keep quality high across everything from cycling to contemporary dance to boxing to Pilates. It’s a serious operational challenge.

So when the brand and marketing promise “boutique,” but the operational reality leans more “big box gym,” the whole model starts to wobble. It’s not that the idea is flawed, it’s that the execution can’t meet the expectations the branding is setting.

Operational Gaps & How to Fix Them

There are a number of small but crucial ways the studio is losing potential clients. Once I understood what the studio was trying to be, I felt that I needed to put my recommendations in writing.

1. Booking is a barrier, not a bridge.
The experience actually started to fall apart before I ever set foot in the studio. I went to the studio’s Instagram, clicked through to their website, and immediately found a button to “reserve a trial class.” Great! But no. The button takes you to a form. If you’re used to reserving classes online, you know this isn’t standard. I wanted to pick my class, check out, and confirm. Instead, I had to give my phone number and wait for a callback.

Next came a day-long delay before receiving a phone call to schedule my class. By then, I was no longer in front of the website, and the process felt awkward. While this screening reduces no-shows, the friction outweighs the benefit, especially for a free trial.

Fix: Make booking self-serve and instant. Show the full schedule, let people select their class, and confirm immediately.

2. Pricing is invisible – and that creates mistrust.
Up until arriving at the studio, I didn’t know anything about pricing. They keep it behind a “contact us” form, and trial classes are free. In 2025, free first classes rarely build loyalty; they mostly attract one-off visitors. Hiding pricing also signals luxury, but if that’s not what you deliver, then you’re set up to leave customers frustrated at the lack of transparency.

Fix: Display pricing clearly online. Make membership, packages, and class rates easy to understand.

3. The first class doesn’t always feel like the “first class.”
The pilates class I attended wasn’t actually pilates. The instructor had just finished teaching boxing and was subbing last-minute. Even with good intentions, this type of mismatch leaves new students confused or underwhelmed.

Fix: Standardize onboarding for new participants. Ensure instructors know when someone is new, provide tailored guidance, and make the first class feel intentional and supportive.

4. Follow-up is missing – and it’s cheap and powerful.
After class, I never heard from the studio. No text, no email, no request for feedback. This is the easiest, most cost-effective moment to build loyalty, guide next steps, and encourage repeat attendance.

Fix: Implement a structured follow-up sequence: thank-you + feedback within 24 hours, email with packages and upcoming sessions, and a reminder or incentive within two weeks.

5. Instructors aren’t leveraged as sales reps.
The instructor focused solely on the workout, which is fine for execution but misses a critical part of the customer journey. Instructors are the face of the studio 90% of the time. They can create connection, guide class choices, and reinforce follow-up.

Fix: Train instructors to greet new members, mention upcoming classes, and tie into the post-class follow-up process. Small gestures like these improve engagement and conversion.

Why This Matters

Visiting this studio was part of a larger project I’m working on: exploring studios, analyzing first-time experiences, and reflecting on what makes a customer journey feel complete.

When I owned my own studio, the shift happened when I started seeing service as a full journey rather than individual touchpoints. Every interaction, every step, every moment of clarity or friction builds toward a student’s perception of the business. That lens helped me understand which initiatives, price changes, or communications actually contributed to that journey, and which ones undermined it.

A first-time experience isn’t just a class; it’s the onboarding moment that sets expectations for every visit afterward. Booking, arrival, the class itself, instructor interaction, follow-up: if any of these break down, the whole experience feels disjointed. And as this example shows, even a studio with incredible space, a wide range of classes, and enthusiastic staff can lose students if the operational systems and communication aren’t aligned with the promise.

Closing Thoughts

At the end of the day, it all comes down to coherence. A studio can have amazing space, talented instructors, and a wide variety of classes. But if the experience isn’t seamless from first click to follow-up, it falls short of its potential.

For studio owners, the lesson is simple: think about your service as a full journey, not just a collection of classes. When every touchpoint aligns with your brand promise, students notice, and they stay. When it doesn’t, even the best concepts can lose their shine.

If you enjoyed this post

If you want to read more of my musings on boutique fitness, subscribe to get future posts straight to your inbox. I’ll be sharing observations and ideas about the boutique fitness industry, behind-the-scenes looks at projects I’m working on, and the occasional reflection on motherhood and life in between.

And if you know someone who might enjoy this mix – a studio owner, instructor, or just a fellow fitness enthusiast – please share this post with them. It really helps me grow this little community.

Thanks for reading,

Tamar