How much should one class credit cost?

Start with your cheapest class to deliver and make it worth one credit. Price one credit near what you would charge for that class on a mid-size pack, then build a ladder so bigger packs drop the per-credit price. In our worked example, a 5-pack sells at $22 per credit, a 10-pack at $20 and a 20-pack at $18. Check that the lowest price per credit still covers the instructor and room cost of a one-credit class at about 60 percent full. If it does not, raise the floor before you launch, not after.

Should class credits expire?

Yes, but tie the expiry window to pack size so it feels fair. A practical ladder is 60 days for a 5-pack, 90 days for a 10-pack and 180 days for a 20-pack. Send reminders 14 days and 3 days before expiry, showing the balance as both credits and real classes. If you sell credits as a gift card, federal Regulation E rules generally require that the funds last at least five years, so keep gift cards separate from ordinary class packs and check your state rules with your accountant.

How many credits should a reformer class cost compared with mat?

Weight each class by its cost per spot, not by its drop-in price. A 12-spot mat class with a $40 instructor costs about $3.33 per spot in instructor pay. An 8-reformer class with a $50 instructor costs about $6.25 per spot before equipment wear. That ratio is close to two, so reformer at 2 credits and mat at 1 is a defensible starting point. Private sessions usually land at 5 credits. Keep weights to whole numbers so members can do the math in their heads.

Are class credits covered by gift card laws?

It depends on how you sell them. Under the CFPB's Regulation E, a gift certificate or store gift card generally cannot expire within five years, and inactivity fees are only allowed after a year with no activity. Loyalty, award and promotional cards are excluded. Whether an ordinary class pack counts depends on its structure and on your state's law. The safe setup is to sell gifts as dollar-value gift cards that follow the five-year rule, and sell class packs as packs with clearly stated expiry terms.

What happens to leftover credits when a member cancels?

Write the rule down before launch and show it at checkout. A common approach is that purchased credits stay usable until their original expiry date even after a recurring plan is cancelled, while bonus or promotional credits end on cancellation. That keeps paid value intact and avoids refund disputes. Train the front desk to quote the exact balance and expiry date from the system, never from memory, and to log any goodwill extension as a separate promotional credit with its own date.

Is a credit system better than an unlimited membership?

They solve different problems. Unlimited works well when every class costs you roughly the same to deliver. Once you run mixed formats, such as mat, reformer, recovery and privates, unlimited lets your most expensive classes get consumed at the same price as your cheapest. Credits let one wallet pay for all of them at different rates. Many studios run both: an unlimited plan for one class type and a credit wallet for everything else.

Credit Based Booking System: Price Mixed Class Types With One Wallet

A credit based booking system sells members a single wallet of credits, then charges each class type a different number of credits. The cleanest way to set one up is with four dials: credit value, class weights, expiry window and cancellation debit. Get those four right and mat, reformer and privates can share one price list.

What is a credit based booking system?

It is a booking setup where members buy credits instead of classes, and each session deducts a set number of credits from one shared balance.

A member buys 10 credits. A mat class deducts 1. A reformer class deducts 2. A private session deducts 5. The member never has to ask which pack covers which class, because one wallet covers everything.

Many clients already think this way because of credit-based aggregator apps, so the idea does not need much explaining at the front desk. What does need explaining is your own rate card. Print it on one line in every booking confirmation: "Mat 1, Reformer 2, Private 5."

Why do mixed class types break per-class packs?

Separate packs for each format split a member's spend into silos, so balances get stranded and the front desk fields "which pack is this" questions every day.

Picture a member with 3 classes left on a mat pack who wants to try reformer. Under per-class packs, they either buy a second pack or give up. Under credits, they spend the 3 credits they already have, which covers one reformer class with 1 credit left over for mat.

The audience is large. The Health & Fitness Association's 2026 U.S. Health & Fitness Consumer Report counted about 81 million Americans with a facility membership in 2025, a record high. A bigger, more varied member base makes it more likely that the same client wants mat on Monday and reformer on Thursday, and your pricing has to handle that without a second pack.

How do you set the value of one credit?

Dial one: pick your cheapest-to-deliver class, make it worth exactly one credit, and price that credit near its mid-pack class price.

Build a three-step ladder. In our worked example:

5 credits for $110 ($22 per credit)
10 credits for $200 ($20 per credit)
20 credits for $360 ($18 per credit)

Then run the floor test. Take your lowest per-credit price ($18) and multiply by the number of clients in a one-credit class at 60% full. A 12-spot mat class at 60% has 7 clients, which brings in $126 at the floor rate. If the instructor costs $40 and the room hour costs $35, you clear it. If your numbers fail at 60%, raise the floor before launch. Raising prices on an existing wallet later is a much harder conversation.

Use even pack sizes. They divide cleanly by 2-credit classes, so fewer members end up holding a stranded single credit.

How many credits should each class type cost?

Dial two: weight classes by delivery cost per spot, not by drop-in price, and keep every weight a whole number.

Divide instructor pay by capacity. A 12-spot mat class with a $40 instructor costs $3.33 per spot. An 8-reformer class with a $50 instructor costs $6.25 per spot, before equipment wear and spring replacements. That ratio is close to 2, so reformer at 2 credits is defensible.

Worked example for a mixed-format studio. Illustrative figures, not third-party data. Swap in your own pay rates and capacities.

Privates break the per-spot math on purpose. At 5 credits, or $90 to $110 depending on the pack, they price close to a typical private rate while still drawing from the same wallet. If your instructors are on mixed pay arrangements, settle that first. Our post on 1099 versus W-2 fitness instructors covers how pay structure changes your cost per spot.

Should peak times cost more credits?

Usually no. Discount off-peak slots by a credit instead of surcharging peak ones, because members tend to resent a penalty more than they value a discount.

Charging 3 credits for a 6pm reformer reads as a price hike to your most loyal regulars. Charging 1 credit for a 2pm reformer reads as a deal and fills the dead hours. The revenue gap between the two is often small, but the front desk complaints are very different.

Change one slot at a time and give it four weeks. If a 2pm class moves from 3 bookings to 6, keep the discount. If nothing changes, the time slot is the problem, not the price.

How long should credits last before they expire?

Dial three: scale expiry with pack size, roughly 60, 90 and 180 days, and send reminders at 14 days and 3 days before expiry.

A single 30-day window across all packs punishes your best customers, the ones who bought 20 credits. Scaling the window matches a realistic pace (a 20-pack over 180 days is a little under one mat class a week) and stops people treating credits as a savings account.

Keep gift cards out of the wallet. Under the CFPB's Regulation E gift card rules, gift certificate and store gift card funds generally cannot expire within five years, and inactivity fees are only allowed after a year without activity. Sell gifts as dollar-value cards that follow those rules and convert them into credits at checkout. State law can be stricter, so confirm the rules where you operate.

What should a late cancel or no-show cost in credits?

Dial four: debit the full class weight inside the cancellation window. A 12-hour window for group classes and 24 hours for privates is a sensible starting point.

A flat fee confuses a credit system. If a reformer is 2 credits, a late cancel is 2 credits. Members understand it immediately because it matches what they would have paid.

Pair the debit with an automatic waitlist. Promote waitlisted clients until 2 hours before class, then stop, because few people make a 6am class after a 4:30am text. Give one goodwill reversal per member per quarter and log it as a promotional credit, so the front desk is not deciding case by case.

How do you move existing members from class packs to credits?

Convert every remaining class at its new credit weight, announce it 30 days ahead, and never let a member's balance lose value in the switch.

The procedure:

Export every active balance and expiry date the week before you announce.
Convert mat classes at 1 credit each and reformer classes at 2 credits each.
Keep each original expiry date. Do not reset it.
Email each member their old balance next to their new one.
Brief the front desk with a one-line script: "Same value, now usable on any class."

Expect some confusion for the first two weeks. If members abandon the new checkout halfway through, our guide to abandoned checkout recovery covers the follow-up sequence.

How do credits compare with unlimited memberships?

Credits suit mixed-cost formats. Unlimited suits single-format studios. Many operators run both: unlimited for mat, and a credit wallet for everything else.

Unlimited breaks when your most expensive class can be booked at the same price as your cheapest. A member on unlimited taking four reformer classes a week costs you far more than one taking four mat classes. Credits fix that without removing unlimited. If you are also weighing commitment length, our breakdown of annual versus monthly membership covers the cash-flow side.

What should you track after launch?

Watch three numbers weekly: credits sold, credits redeemed and credits expired. Rising expiry means members are drifting, not that pricing is working.

If credits expired climbs for two straight weeks, look at who holds them. A member with 6 credits and no booking in 21 days is at risk. Call them within 48 hours, not at the end of the month. Our post on at-risk member detection shows how to flag those members automatically.

Review class weights once a quarter against current instructor pay and fill rates. Change one weight at a time, with 30 days' notice.

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