Occupancy is the first lever
A typical class sits at 54% full. Half-empty rooms cost the same to run as full ones, so the cheapest revenue you will ever find is the seat you already pay rent on.
Half the seats in this sector are empty.
Across our own accounts, a typical children’s activity class runs at <strong>54% occupancy</strong> and keeps <strong>39%</strong> of its families into the next term, in rooms built for about thirteen. Those two numbers are where the money is, and neither is a marketing problem — they are an admin problem. Zooza is the booking, billing and retention layer that works on them.
What the numbers say to work on
From Zooza’s own aggregated account data. Treat each figure as typical for its segment rather than a single weighted dataset — an age band and a country answer different questions and should not be added together.
Retention is the second
A typical provider keeps 39% of families into the next term. The 6–11 age band is the weak point at around 20%, which is also where most providers have the most children.
Under-fives behave differently
The 0–5 band runs near 85% occupancy and retains about 46%, in smaller groups of roughly eight. If that is your core, your problem is capacity, not demand.
Trials, then enrolment
A trial can draw on the extra places rather than the sellable seats, so a trial never occupies a place you could have sold — and a good trial’s seat can be held while the family decides.
Automatic sibling pricing
Register a second child and the discount applies at booking, with no code. Tiers run from the 2nd to the 5th child, and you choose whether siblings are counted per programme, per term, or across everything.
Make-ups with a real limit
A cancelled session becomes a credit with a deadline, an expiry and a ratio cap — one per four sessions, say. The parent rebooks it themselves from whatever genuinely has room.
A full class is demand data
When a class fills, families still queue, and you approve each one. The length of that queue is the number you use to decide whether to open another group.
Direct Debit or cards
GoCardless for Direct Debit, Stripe for cards, bank transfer with a pay-by-square QR on the confirmation. One-off, instalments, or per-visit entry passes.
Where to start, in order
If occupancy and retention are the two numbers that matter, these are the four settings that move them — and they are worth doing in this order.
- 1
1. Split capacity so trials stop costing you seats
Set the class capacity below the room’s real limit and put the difference in extra capacity. A room for ten becomes capacity 8 plus 2: the booking form only ever sees the eight, and the last two are reachable by trials and make-ups. Then decide, in the trial settings, whether trials may also draw on currently available capacity.
- 2
2. Decide the make-up policy as a ratio
Set the cancellation deadline that earns a credit, what happens to unused credits, and a ratio limit rather than a monthly allowance. Entitlement then scales with what the family actually bought, which is both fairer and easier to defend at the desk.
- 3
3. Turn on sibling pricing and choose the counting scope
Add at least one tier — it will not switch on without a rule — and then pick how children are counted. Per programme restarts the count in each one, so two children in two programmes are both a first child and neither qualifies. Across all programmes counts every child the family has with you.
- 4
4. Leave full classes visible, and work the queue
A full class that stays in the booking form keeps collecting a waiting list, and that list is your evidence for opening a second group. Hide it and the queue stops, but so does the demand signal. Work the list from Bookings, filtered by the waitlist status.
Built for real kids’ activity life
- Programme shapes: weekly terms, camps, one-off workshops, private sessions, entry passes for per-visit.
- Class capacity, plus extra places reachable only by trials and make-ups.
- Whether trials use the extra places only, or currently available capacity too.
- Whether a trial attendee’s seat is held while the family decides.
- Make-up credits: cancellation deadline, expiry, carry-over cap, and a ratio limit.
- Sibling pricing: tiers from the 2nd to the 5th child, percentage or fixed, counted per programme, per billing period, or across everything.
- Discount codes: percentage or absolute, single-use or unlimited, limited to chosen programmes or venues.
- An age restriction per programme, which also decides whose booking gets queued.
- Whether a full class stays visible and keeps collecting a waiting list.
- Payments: GoCardless Direct Debit, Stripe cards, bank transfer with a pay-by-square QR.
- Extra booking fields: child details, allergies, medication, pickup notes, consents and file uploads.
- Instructor access and role permissions, per location.
- Export anytime.
Work on the 54%, not the ads.
A seat you already pay rent on is the cheapest revenue available, and a family that stays a second term costs nothing to win. Start a free trial, or let us look at your occupancy and retention as they stand.
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FAQ — including what it will not do
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Where do the occupancy and retention figures come from?
Zooza’s own aggregated account data, published in full at children’s activity benchmarks, covering Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, Romania and Ireland. Read each figure as typical for its segment rather than one weighted dataset: the age-band and country cuts answer different questions, so they should not be added together or compared directly. Revenue figures are deliberately not published. -
Can I limit make-up classes to a number per month?
No, and it is worth knowing before you write your policy. The limit is expressed as a ratio rather than a monthly allowance — one make-up per four sessions, for example. If your current policy is "one a month" it does not map across directly, and the ratio is what you translate it into. In practice a ratio is the fairer mechanism anyway, because entitlement scales with what the family bought. -
How do sibling discounts actually work?
There is a built-in Sibling Discount in the Loyalty Programme, so no coupon is involved. At booking, Zooza counts the qualifying registrations already held under the same email address and applies the tier with the highest child threshold at or below that number. With rules at 2nd child 10% and 4th child 20%, a third child gets 10%. You set tiers from the 2nd to the 5th child as a percentage or a fixed amount. It is currently a beta feature. -
A family has one child enrolled and one on the waiting list. Do they get the discount?
Not yet. Only registrations with Registered status count towards the child number — waiting-list and trial bookings are excluded. The discount applies once the second booking is approved. Worth knowing because both things happen at once on a popular class. -
Will a trial booking take a seat I could have sold?
Only if you let it. The booking form never sees extra capacity, so confining trials to the extra places keeps your sellable seats for paying enrolments even when the class is not full. The alternative — letting trials draw on currently available capacity — fills the room faster but can give away a seat. Pick deliberately; and note the extra-place pool is shared with make-ups rather than split, so size it for both. -
Does the system enrol people from the waiting list automatically?
No. When a class is full, families can still submit and their booking queues, but every approval off that list is a decision you make. The list is also not first-come-first-served — you work it in whatever order you judge fair. If you were expecting places to be offered round automatically, that is the separate make-up queue, not this one. -
Our class shows full but children dropped out. Why has no place opened?
Capacity counts active registrations, not attendance. A child who stopped coming is still enrolled until the booking itself changes, so the counter does not move. To release a place you cancel or delete the booking, or transfer the child to another class. Marking someone absent does not do it. -
Do you support Direct Debit?
Yes — GoCardless for Direct Debit, Stripe for cards, and bank transfer with a pay-by-square QR code on the confirmation so a parent does not retype the IBAN. For the QR to render, your invoice profile needs a valid IBAN and a SWIFT code; it stays hidden until the SWIFT is filled in, which is the usual reason it looks missing. -
Is Zooza only for one activity type?
No. The same programme, class and billing model covers dance, music, sport, swimming, language, STEM, arts and mixed clubs — which is also why this page exists as a hub rather than a vertical. If you want the vertical detail, the solution pages go deeper on terminology and the operational facts that genuinely differ. -
Can I capture consents and medical information?
Yes, as extra booking fields: mandatory or optional, including file uploads for anything that needs a signature. Allergies, medication, pickup arrangements and media consent sit with the booking rather than in somebody’s inbox, which is the point when a substitute instructor covers a session. -
How long does it take to get started?
You can embed a booking form the same day, and we help with the setup. The four settings in the section above are the ones worth getting right before you open enrolment, because changing capacity and make-up rules mid-term is harder than deciding them once.
