A new pricing model for our yoga classes – what and why ?

By timoHealth, Lifestyle, Yoga

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What are we changing?

Simply put, we are making a small change to how our classes are booked and paid for. Along with many other yoga studios, we have decided to move to a more structured approach to both the content of our classes and also how classes are booked. This follows on from our addition of  a booking system to our website before Christmas last year. We have found the booking system has greatly streamlined the process of managing the classes. Because the booking system has been working well we are going to keep it and  also add an additional way of booking a class: instead of booking a single class you will be able to block book a group of six classes. To go along with this we are going to start structuring the classes into terms of six week duration with a one week gap between the terms

 

Why are we changing it?

We have always done our utmost to keep the cost of the dropin classes either the same or lower than any other comparable studios in this region. We are still very keen to provide yoga classes on terms which are as competitive as possible. However, we have – like everybody else been facing a significant increase in the cost of continuing to provide weekly classes in our studio. Certainly, dramatically increased energy costs have been a driving force, but there have been other significant cost increases across the board. All of
which have building up the pressure on us to increase the cost of our dropin classes. Therefore we have decided to increase the price of our dropin classes from 10 Euros  to 13 per class, while at the same time offering people the opportunity to book a 6 week slot in any of our weekly classes at a reduced rate of 6 classes for 50 Euros.

 

The benefits

There are substantial benefits to be had from committing to the discipline of a regular yoga practice.  Without going into an exhaustive list of theses benefits, I wil mention just one in particular, a greater ease in simple movements, as we go about our day to day life. The single act of bending over to pick something upcan become a challenging task, if we don’t keep working at preserving spinal flexibility.  A huge proportion of the emphasis,particularly in  Tim’s classes, is about working with the spine to keep our existing range of motion, and possibly even open up some spinal flexibility which you maybe thought lost.
Of course we  realise that this level of consistent commitment can be difficult in our increasingly busy lives. But we also want to recognise and acknowlege there are already some students who have been paying for classes themselves in advance in blocks, we think its important and reward those students’ committment and support by essentially giving them one class out of six for free. So a huge thank you to everybody who has been coming along, and we hope you will continue to come out, because we are determined to keep providing  quality yoga classes not just to St Mullins, but to everybody in the Thomastown to Borris to New Ross region.

 

How it works

So the idea itself is simple, you will book a block of six classes, using the separate block booking form whihc is specific to whichever of the classes you wish to attend. You will not be able to transfer bookings between different classes or between teachers. So be sure before you book that you are expecting to be able to attend most if not all six classes. Having said that, if you know that you will miss one or even two classes out of the six, it still makes more sense to book the six classes than to book the classes indiviually as dropins. Only if you know you will miss three or more classes, than you should rather book them as dropins.

 

Where do I go to book?

The booking process itself is largely unchanged. The booking page is still: https://mulvarra.com/yogaweekly/

Each class has its own booking form and the forms for any of the block bookings are all situated immediately below the class schedule. So have a look at the schedule and decide which class time suits you best- we have a choice of morning/ evening or early evening classes.Do check carefully before you book that you are booking the right class, as you cannot transfer bookings from class to class within any given week

 

Can I still book a single dropin class from the same page as before?

Yes, as I mentioned, we don’t want people to feel obligated to commit to coming to the same class every week. Maybe your schedule doesnt allow you the luxury of this committment, or perhaps you want to try one of the other classes before you commit to it for a longer period. You can still book a single dropin class from this  same page from the Friday of each week, but just for the following 7 day period. The booking forms booking a single dropin class are found further down on the same page so you will need to scroll down  past the block boking forms. Also you can only book one week ahead for the dropins so  from each Friday check the booking page if you wish to book a dropin for the coming week.

 

Are there any other advantages to booking a block as opposed to a dropin?

Yes, the available spaces for each are allocated to the block booking first and then to the dropins. At the moment we have a maximum class size of 12, given the studio size. This is both for comfort and safety as we emerge from the pandemic. However if for instance 12 people booked a class using the block booking form, this would mean we could not allow any dropin bookings for that class.. So the best way to guarantee you will be able to come along is to book it as a block

 

Do I still have to register for each class even if I have made a block booking?

No, this is another advantage of the block booking system, you only have to resister once at the start of each term, pay for the term on or before the first class, and then you can just show up to each class in that term.

 

Other changes to the booking process?

One other minor change we have added to the booking process is that on confirming the booking you will be directed to a new page which has information about payment. The page will refer specifically to the payment for the block of 6 classes or for the single dropin class. You will still also receive a confirmation email to whichever email address you use to register so be careful in entering your email address, any typos may result in you not receiving a confirmation email.

 

Do I still pay the teacher directly?

Not unless you are paying cash. If you are paying either for a whole term using Revolut or a bank transfer(enquire for details) you now have to pay Mulvarra directly. Previously payments were handled between the student and the individual teacher. This is because the addition of different pricing models does complicate the situation so there is a greater need for us to manage the payment process. This is particularly important for the Tuesday Evening class at 730 as payments for that class were previously handled by David Mooney and not by us. So any revolut payments previously made to David will now have to be made to mulvarra’s revolut. You can find the account by doing a search on @timyogamulvarra

There is one exception to this payment rule -we realise that not everybody uses Revolut so we are keeping the option of paying in cash. If you wish to pay in cash, you can pay either at the first class in each 6 week term, or at each class you attend on a dropin basis. In this case the payments are exactly as before- simply pay whoever is teaching the class.

 

If I book six classes and then miss one can I carry over the missed class to the next term?

Unfortunately not, this is part of the reason why we are pricing the blocks so competively – relative to the new price of the dropins. You can afford to miss one or even two classes out of any six week term and it still makes sense to book them as a block rather than as a dropin. But this also means that we will have to keep each term separate in terms of payments. So each term will be a new slate, you can also decide from term to term which payment methods suits you better for that term. So if for example, you know  that you will miss three or more classes in the next term, it would make more sense to book the next term’s classes as dropins. This applies even if you are block booked for the current term, as each term is completely separate.

Finally we will separate each term by a week, during which the normal timetabled classes will not operate. I hope to be able to timetable occasional one-off special classes which will be longer than the usual hour and a quarter regular classes. These classes will be completely separate from any of the weekly classes, I hope to be able to give more detail on these occasional one off classes in the coming weeks.