Places per class, every hour
Capacity is the whole model. Two places fewer than planned, across every class on the timetable, is a permanent revenue ceiling.
Equipping a boutique studio: the room is the product, not the equipment
A boutique studio does not sell access to machines. It sells a place in a class at a time, in a room people want to be in. That changes what gets specified first — and how much of the budget belongs to sound, light and floor rather than to equipment.
The difference
A boutique room is specified backwards from the class
On a gym floor the equipment comes first and the room accommodates it. In a boutique studio it is the other way round: the class decides the capacity, the capacity decides the layout, and the layout decides how many of anything will fit. Specify it in the usual order and you end up with a room that holds two fewer people than the business plan assumed, which is a problem no amount of equipment fixes.
Atmosphere is infrastructure
Sound, light and surfaces are not decoration here. They are the reason the class feels different from the same movements done elsewhere, and they belong in the budget as equipment does.
The turnaround between classes
A format that takes fifteen minutes to reset cannot run back to back. Storage and the layout decide the timetable as much as the class length does.
The room
What a boutique studio is actually made of
The equipment list is usually the shortest part. These are the decisions that make or break the room:
| Element | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Places per class | The number the business plan rests on, and the one most often set by the room rather than chosen. |
| Sound | Coverage, control and what reaches the neighbours. Harder to retrofit than anything else on this list. |
| Light | The element that does most of the work for the least money, and the one most often left to the electrician. |
| Flooring | Grip, impact, cleaning and noise transmission, all at once. Different formats need genuinely different floors. |
| Mirrors and sightlines | Whether every participant can see the instructor, and whether the instructor can see every participant. |
| Storage and reset | Where equipment lives between classes, and how fast the room turns around. This is a timetable decision disguised as a storage one. |
| Format equipment | Chosen after the capacity, not before. Quantity follows places, and durability follows how many hours a week each unit runs. |
| Booking and payment | Class booking, waitlists, packs and no-show rules. In a boutique model the booking system is closer to the product than the admin. |
| Changing and reception | Small, and decisive. A queue at the door at the top of the hour eats the first minutes of every class. |
How much of each a room needs comes from the format, the plan and the timetable you intend to run. We work it out against your drawing before anything is quoted.
The model
The room is sold by the class hour, not by the month
A boutique studio's ceiling is places multiplied by classes that actually fill. That makes two things worth more attention than they usually get: how many classes the room can physically turn around in a day, and whether the peak slots are full. A room that resets in two minutes can run a timetable a room that resets in fifteen cannot, and the difference is storage and layout rather than equipment. Working the timetable out first tends to change the specification — usually toward fewer, more durable units and more spent on the room itself.
Before you sign
Sound, neighbours and air are the ones that bite
What noise a unit may make, and when, is set locally and by the lease, not by a supplier — and in a studio with music and impact it is the question most likely to stop a business after it has opened rather than before. Structure-borne vibration travels further than people expect, particularly downward. Ventilation is the other one: a room designed for twenty people breathing hard needs air changes that an office fit-out does not provide. Both are cheap to check with the landlord and the local authority now, and ruinous to discover later.
What we do
Where FitLink fits
We start from the class you intend to run and work back to what the room needs, then source it. Equipment is part of that, not the whole of it.
- Capacity checked against your drawing before the equipment list exists
- Sound, light and flooring treated as part of the specification
- Storage and reset planned against the timetable you want to run
- Booking and payment software chosen alongside the room, not after it
- Written quotes with scope, delivery and warranty terms stated
Where to go next
Capacity, sound and common questions
That depends on the format, the equipment footprint and the clearance each participant needs, and it is the first thing worth settling. Send the drawing with the ceiling height and we will tell you what the room actually holds — which is sometimes more than expected and sometimes fewer.
More than most people plan for. In a boutique model the sound, the light and the floor are what distinguishes the class, and they are the parts that cannot be upgraded later without closing. We will set the two out separately so the trade-off is visible.
Probably, and what is required is set by the lease and the local authority rather than by us. Treat it as a question to answer before signing: impact noise through the structure is the expensive kind, and it cannot be solved with equipment choices afterwards.
Yes — the licensor's requirements take precedence over anything we would suggest, and they usually specify equipment, room and sometimes flooring. Send us their specification and we will source against it.
Easier than on a gym floor, as long as the room was not built around one piece of fixed equipment. The things that limit you later are the fixed ones: anchor points, floor build-up, and where the power and the sound were run.
In a boutique room equipment runs many more hours per unit than on an open floor, so replacement cycles are shorter and worth planning for from the start rather than meeting as a surprise.
Tell us about the format
Send the drawing, the class you intend to run and the timetable you want. You get a capacity read and a written quote.