A client who pays per session decides again before every session whether to come. A client who paid for ten has already decided, and the money is in your account before the first one.
That is the whole case for packages: cash up front, and a client who is committed to coming back. The rest of this guide is about pricing them so the discount doesn't eat your margin, and about the rules that keep the commitment real.
Know what a package does for you
Training results come from consistency, and so does a trainer's income. Single sessions leave both to chance. A busy week, a payday that has not come yet, or a rainy evening is enough for a pay-per-session client to skip, and each skipped session is income you never see.
- It moves revenue forward. A 10-session package paid today funds next month's rent, not a hope that ten sessions get booked.
- It changes the client's question. They stop asking "should I go today?" and start asking "when do I use my next session?"
- It makes your schedule plannable. You know who is coming back and roughly how often, so you can open or close slots with confidence.
Price tiers from your margin, not from round numbers
Clients buy a bigger package when each session gets cheaper. The question is how much cheaper you can afford. Work it out from what a session leaves you after the trainer is paid, not from the price.
Say a single session is ₱1,200 and you pay the trainer a flat ₱500 a session. Each single session leaves you ₱700. Using your own numbers in place of these:
| Package | Price | Per session | Off single | Left after trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 session | ₱1,200 | ₱1,200 | None | ₱700 |
| 5 sessions | ₱5,700 | ₱1,140 | 5% | ₱640 |
| 10 sessions | ₱10,800 | ₱1,080 | 10% | ₱580 |
| 20 sessions | ₱20,400 | ₱1,020 | 15% | ₱520 |
Look at the last column. A 15% cut in price is a cut of ₱180 in a ₱700 margin, roughly a quarter. When the trainer's pay is fixed, the whole discount comes out of your share. Decide the lowest margin you will accept per session first, set your biggest package there, and step the smaller ones back up toward the single price.
What you get for that margin is the commitment. The 20-session client pays ₱20,400 today and has a reason to train for months. If you pay trainers a percentage of the price instead, the discount is shared, so check their side of the arithmetic too.
Charge senior trainers' prices in their own packages
If your senior trainers charge more per session, their packages should too. Keep one personal training service with a price for each staff level, and sell one package per level: 10 sessions with a Junior trainer, and a pricier 10 with a Senior.
In Onsuki, a package limited to a level pays only for sessions with trainers at that exact level. A Senior package is spent only on Senior sessions, and a Junior package only on Junior ones, so a client can't use a cheaper package to book your most expensive trainer. See how to price services by staff level.
Use expiry to keep the commitment real
A package with no end date is a commitment with no deadline, and the sessions drift. An expiry gives the client a pace to keep. Set it from the schedule you expect, with room for a bad week or two, not as a trap.
- Match the length to the pace. Ten sessions at twice a week take five weeks. Two months leaves room for a sick week or a trip. Twenty sessions might get four months.
- Start the clock at the first session when clients often buy before they are ready to start. In Onsuki, turn on Start at first booking under Expiration.
- Decide your exceptions now. An illness or a work trip deserves more time. Write the rule down, such as one extra week with a reason, and apply it to everyone.
Talk about expiry at the sale, plainly: "Ten sessions, to use within two months. That's twice a week, with about three spare weeks for when life gets in the way." Framed as the plan, it reads as help. Mentioned for the first time when sessions run out, it reads as a penalty.
Clients see how long a package lasts on your booking site, such as "Valid 3 months", and their account shows when to use it by. To give one client more time, use Change expiry on their profile. Clients aren't emailed when you change it, so tell them yourself.
Offer the package at the moment they book
The best time to sell a package is when a client has already decided to book one session. The single price and the package price are side by side, and the cheaper rate per session does the selling.
Onsuki does this in the online checkout. When a client books one session for themselves on your booking site, the Pricing list on the Confirm step shows Pay for this visit and each package that covers the service, smallest first, with its price per session and how many sessions are left after this one. If they pick a package, they buy it in the same checkout and this session is paid from it, so they never pay for a single session and then buy a package on top.
- Which packages appear: ones on sale on your website, covering this service, and cheaper per session than paying once.
- Level packages appear only when the session is with a trainer at that level.
- Who sees it: a client booking a single session for themselves. A signed-in client who still has sessions on a package for that service sees that package to use instead.
At the counter, sell one with Quick sale on the calendar. See Packages.
Book the run and count every session
Most training clients come at fixed times, such as Monday and Thursday at 6 AM. Book the whole run as a repeating appointment, so the slot is theirs. Booking the series uses no sessions: each one comes off the package when you check the client out with Use their package.
Clients count their sessions, and a disagreement over how many are left can end the relationship. Each client's profile shows each package with sessions left and the expiry, such as "3 of 10 credits left", and the client sees the same count and use-by date in their account. See Appointments.
Onsuki sells training packages online and at the counter, offers them at the moment a client books a single session, and counts every session from the calendar your trainers work from. See Packages.
