Running a spa or clinic
How do I work out the payback on an ozone sauna?
Payback is your capital or rental cost divided by your net margin per session. Take the price from the model's product page, subtract water, electricity, laundry, staff minutes and the flat 15% booking commission from your session price, then divide by the sessions you will realistically run each month.
The method
- Get a written quotation for your model and your country, stating what delivery, insurance, duties and taxes are included. If you are renting, use the total rental over the term and work in months.
- Set the session price you will actually charge, after introductory discounting, in your own currency.
- Subtract variable cost per session. Use these confirmed figures as your starting assumptions: electricity at under 0.9 kWh for a 30-minute session (1,750 W total for sauna and concentrator, less in practice as the element cycles); distilled water at one bottle per four to eight sessions; a flat 15% booking commission with card fees included; plus your own laundry, cleaning materials and about fifteen staff minutes.
- Capital ÷ net margin per session = payback in sessions.
- Divide by the sessions you will realistically run each month. This input moves the answer most, and it is a demand question, not an equipment one. Capacity is not your constraint: the sauna runs back-to-back sessions with a 15-minute changeover.
- Check it against the equipment’s life. The ozone generator runs for more than 3,500 hours, the concentrator for 15,000 and the LEDs on the Red Light model for 30,000. At half an hour a session, 3,500 hours is roughly 7,000 sessions before the generator is due for replacement — payback well inside that is comfortable, payback near it is not.
- Add what the arithmetic leaves out: marketing, the room’s opportunity cost if it was already earning, insurance, and tax on a rental.
Two things to leave out. Residual value: we do not buy units back, so assume the asset is worth nothing at the end of its life. And reimbursement: no session is covered by any medical aid or health scheme in any market, so every rand or dollar comes from the client.
An illustration in which every number is a placeholder: 200 000 units of capital at a net margin of 500 per session is 400 sessions; at 20 a month, about 20 months. Halve the margin and it doubles. That is the whole point of the exercise.