Studio business
Scheduling Pilates classes
The short answer
Build the timetable around two demand peaks — early morning before work and 5–7pm after it — and treat midday and mid-afternoon as low-capacity slots for specialist or discounted classes. Adding off-peak classes to a half-full timetable dilutes rather than grows revenue.
Demand is concentrated, not spread
In almost every market, group fitness demand clusters at 6–9am and 5–7:30pm on weekdays, plus weekend mornings. Those slots will fill first and stay fullest.
The temptation when a studio is quiet is to add more classes. That is usually wrong: it spreads the same demand more thinly and makes every class look worse.
Use off-peak differently
Midday and mid-afternoon suit different audiences entirely — retirees, shift workers, parents during school hours, remote workers. Programming those slots as beginner, senior or rehabilitation classes reaches people who cannot attend peak anyway.
Pricing them slightly lower is reasonable and does not cannibalize peak, because the audiences barely overlap.
- 6–9am: peak, full-price general classes
- 9:30–11am: beginners, prenatal, seniors
- 12–2pm: express 30-minute classes for local workers
- 2–4pm: privates and rehabilitation
- 5–7:30pm: peak, full-price general classes
- Weekend mornings: peak, and the best slot for workshops
Cancel classes deliberately
A class that averages two attendees over eight weeks is costing you a teacher’s wage and telling clients the studio is empty. Setting a minimum — typically three — and enforcing it protects both.
Move it rather than deleting it. The same class an hour later or a day earlier often fills.
Review quarterly, not weekly
Timetables need time to establish; a slot takes six to eight weeks to find its audience. Changing it after a fortnight guarantees it never does.
Review the whole schedule quarterly against fill data, make changes in one batch, and communicate them a month ahead.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the best times for Pilates classes?
- 6–9am and 5–7:30pm on weekdays, plus weekend mornings. Those slots fill first in almost every market.
- Should I add more classes if the studio is quiet?
- Usually not. Adding classes spreads the same demand more thinly. Fill existing slots before extending the timetable.
- What should I do with empty midday slots?
- Program them for audiences who cannot attend peak — beginners, seniors, prenatal, express classes for local workers.
- How long before I change a new class time?
- Give it six to eight weeks. A slot needs that long to find its audience, and changing sooner guarantees it never establishes.