operations

Attendance Rate

Also called: show rate, booking attendance rate

Attendance rate is the percentage of bookings that result in an actual check-in — a healthy boutique studio sits at 80–90%, with the rest split between late cancels and no-shows.

Attendance rate measures whether your booked schedule reflects reality. A class with 12 booked and 10 checked in has an 83% attendance rate. Tracked across the whole schedule, it tells you how much your capacity numbers can be trusted.

Below 75% means your late-cancel and no-show policies aren't working. Members are booking with no real intent to attend, which destroys waitlist value (real demand can't get in because ghost bookings hold the spots). The fix is usually a stricter cancel window plus an actual enforced no-show fee — not just a written policy nobody charges.

Above 92% sometimes flags the opposite problem: you're so capacity-constrained that members only book when they're certain they'll show. That sounds great but it means lost growth — your real demand is higher than your booked schedule reveals. Time to add classes or expand the room.

Track attendance rate by class time, instructor, and member cohort. A specific Tuesday 6:30am class running at 65% attendance with a fully-booked roster is a candidate for a softer time slot. An instructor whose classes consistently run 95%+ is your retention asset.

Example

A spin studio with 30 weekly classes books 360 spots and checks in 306 — an 85% attendance rate. The remaining 54 split into 38 late cancels (lost the credit, no fee) and 16 no-shows ($20 fee each = $320 in no-show revenue). The studio raises the cancel window from 6 to 12 hours and watches the rate climb to 89% the following month.

Related

More terms in operations

No-Show Fee
A no-show fee is a charge a studio applies to a member who books a class but doesn't attend without canceling — typically $10-25 or the forfeit of a class credit.
Late-Cancel Window
A late-cancel window is the cutoff time before class — usually 12 or 24 hours — after which a member who cancels still loses the credit or pays a fee.
Client Booking Portal
A client booking portal is a branded, member-facing website or app where clients book classes, manage packages, see their attendance history, and update payment details — all without calling the front desk.
Tenant (Multi-Tenant SaaS)
In multi-tenant SaaS, a tenant is one customer's isolated workspace — for studio software, each studio is a tenant with its own subdomain, branding, members, and data.
Prerequisite Class
A prerequisite class is a required intro or foundations session — common in CrossFit, reformer pilates, and aerial — that a new member must complete before booking regular group classes.