At this point,I've only offered single sessions,packages,months & special packages,I haven't bothered w/minutes but it has come to the time that I am starting to get quite a few customers requesting it.If you are selling, minute packages do you find it worth it? What do you sell more of,packages(priced by the session)or minute packages?Do you just offer minutes on upgrades or priced to all your equipment?..Thanks..Amy

We sell mostly session packages, but we also offer 60 and 120 minute packages. We call them Minute/Beginner packages and charge more for them. This way if they want to stretch their package out they can, but you don't lose as much money, and they are happy that they can get some extra visits.

Amy...I sell monthly, sessions & points. I am going to phase out the sessions, because the points are so much easier - you can use them toward any level of bed. A different amount of points for each level - I think the sessions are only good if you just have one type of bed. But with 3 or more levels, it gets too confusing with 3 or more different session priced packages. I am trying to get away from customers having to dig a couple $$ out of their pocket. I know it's only a couple $$, but a lot of tanners don't even bring their money/purse into the salon with them & if they have a point package, they can just upgrade with a different amount of points.

I sell a lot of monthly packages too & I am thinking about limiting monthly to a maximum # of sessions in the month & then a surcharge for each tan over that #. I only have a handful that abuse it & I hate to put a limit on my monthly, because almost everyone does tan 15 times or less, but there are about 5 people that tanned more than 25 times a month the past few. I have talked with them repeatedly about overexposure & told them they don't need to tan that often, but you know how some people are.

POINT packages is what I am going to focus on more next year because it is the easiest way to get customers to upgrade all the time.

Can you give an example of how you will do your points? I have never seen this done around here. Everyone does sessions. I can see how it would be beneficial especially to beginning tanners. Do your points have an expiration time? Also, do you do appointments or walk-ins only?

Thanks, Pam

Thanks for your responses!I love the points idea,can you please give example's,because I've never seen this in my area,either.?I have 3 levels & yes, your right if they have a package for the lower end bed & decide that they want to use the stronger bed or the stand-up,about 89% of them donot have that extra $$ on them,if they already have a package & their lotion in hand.Every couple of months I would have a special on a larger package,that would be the use of eveything,which the customers love but in the end ,they of course would take advantage of it & always want to use the higher end units.The points sound great,because they can conserve or not,their choice...Amy

so if im gettin this correct u have 5 points high end bed iz 3 pts low end iz 2 pts since u dont have enough for the high end u just down grade or buy more pts ? right . or if u want to try a high end bed u just use a few more pts 2 try it out . correct ? if this iz correct i may try using it !!!!!

I have always sold minute packages. I believe this way the client is using exactly what they pay for. Am I missing someting on sessions--if someone pays for a session and only starts out at 7-10 minutes, they are actually paying more per tan than someone who goes a full 20minutes. This is all considering I only have 1 type of bed(no upgrades). I always sell "you pay for only what you use". Opinions welcome!

They are still using the room and equipment. As an owner you can make more $$ from sessions vs. min. People will draw out their min's as long as they can.... Not a good idea.

We only do sessions visits... kicked the idea around about selling minutes, but packages are way more profitable. We get $7 per visit on our 20-minute base bed ($.35 cents per minute). The newbies typically start around 10-12 minutes ($.70-.58 cents per minute). Less minutes = More Margin, More Margin = More Profit, More Profit = More Nest Egg (for the sloooow season)

We felt offering minutes would nickel and dime our profits... we don't want people dragging out minutes by offerering what could amount to (2) trips to your salon (10-minutes each) to equal 1 standard session.

Make the margin while the busy season is upon us! Like the Wayan's brother said "Mo Money, Mo Money"

stopped doing session pricing a couple of years ago, minutes are not in OUR best interest, then we have point packages....1 month (run of the salon) is $70 , but if you are new to us then you get it for $49 a mo.

Minutes......as far as I am concerned my costs are about the same if you go 10 or the full 20 min....