Price increase letter to massage therapy clients
Copy it, replace the bracketed bits, send it. Below the letter: the text-message version, how much notice to give, and what to say when they push back.
Hi [NAME], From [DATE], my prices will be: [60] minutes — [NEW PRICE] (currently [OLD PRICE]) [90] minutes — [NEW PRICE] (currently [OLD PRICE]) Anything already booked before [DATE] stays at the current price, even if the appointment is later. A word on why. Massage is one of the few jobs where working more hours makes you worse at it — after [N] treatments in a day, the quality drops, and you would feel the difference. So I cannot make up rising rent and linen costs by squeezing more people in. The price is the only lever, and I would rather use it honestly than shave ten minutes off your hour. If you come regularly, a series of [N] sessions booked together is [SERIES PRICE] — just under the old per-session rate. [YOUR NAME] [BUSINESS NAME]
How many customers can this price rise lose?
10% ÷ (40% + 10%) = 20%
Open the full calculator, with your prices and customer count →30 days — email, a sign in the treatment room, and the online booking page updated on the same day
8–12% per session
The text-message version
For the customers whose entire relationship with you lives in a phone. Send it before the visit, never on the invoice.
Hi [NAME], [YOUR NAME] here. From [DATE] a [60]-min treatment is [NEW PRICE]. Anything booked before then stays at today's price — so worth booking ahead if you want to. Thanks!
Why it is going up, in words you can use
“Rising costs” persuades nobody because everyone says it. Name the actual driver in massage therapy instead:
- a therapist can only do so many sessions a day before technique suffers, so there is a hard ceiling on hours
- room rent, linen laundry for every client, oils and couch maintenance
- insurance and professional body membership
- the booking and card fees taken from every appointment
When they push back
You will hear these within a week. Having the answer ready is the difference between holding the price and folding on the phone.
- "The membership place down the road is much cheaper."
- "It is, and some people love it. You will usually see a different therapist each time, and the hour often includes getting on and off the table." Do not criticise the chain. Describe your hour — same therapist, notes from last time, full time on the table.
- "Can I do 45 minutes instead to keep it the same?"
- Yes, and make it a real option on the menu rather than a favour. A 45-minute focused treatment is a good product in its own right, and it keeps the client coming at the same frequency.
- They come every six weeks instead of every four.
- That is where a rise really costs you in this trade. The series price is the defence: a prepaid block keeps the frequency, and frequency is where the revenue is.
Is a price rise even the right move for you?
Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the money is in a service plan for customers you already have, or in the job you are quoting below cost without realising. Describe your business in one sentence and you will get three specific moves back — priced per month, with the arithmetic written out so you can put your own numbers in.
Free, no signup, about thirty seconds. If one of them is a price rise, you will get the number to put in the brackets above.
Give me three movesMore letters: health, fitness and wellness
Other trades
A template, not legal advice. If you have a written contract with these massage clients, check what it says about notice periods and price changes before you send anything — the contract wins over any template, including this one.