A membership turns your best customers’ visits into a regular monthly payment, which makes a quiet February a bit easier to look in the eye. It suits a salon with steady repeat trade and someone at the desk who’ll keep on top of the admin. It’s a poor fit if most of your customers tan for two weeks before a holiday and vanish.
We run three tanning salons, and we’ve written this from an owner’s side of the desk. It’s general information and isn’t legal or financial advice. Every figure in the worked example is made up. For rewarding the customers you’ve already got, see our loyalty ideas, which is a different job altogether.
Is it right for your salon?
Look through your last few months of sales and ask three questions:
- How many customers came in every month? Those are your likely members. If you can’t name them, start there.
- Would a plan change what they do? If your regulars would come anyway, a discount just gives away margin.
- Who’s going to run it? Failed payments, pauses and cancellations all need a person, and that person is probably you.
How to build the plan
Keep it simple enough for a Saturday team member to explain before the kettle boils.
| Decision | What we’d do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| What’s included | A set number of minutes or spray tans each month | Both sides know where they stand |
| Unused allowance | Say plainly whether it rolls over, and for how long | This is the first argument you’ll have |
| Minimum term | Short, or none | Harder to sell if it’s long, and the price has to be shown in full |
| Pausing | Allow a pause for holidays or illness, within limits | Better than a cancellation |
| Which beds | Say which beds are included | Saves a chat at reception |
| Age | 18 and over for anything involving sunbeds | The Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 applies in England and Wales |
We’d leave unlimited sunbeds off your menu. A plan that gets better value the more someone uses a sunbed sits badly with how we think about UV, and with how we run our own loyalty scheme. Spray tans have no such problem, and neither does a plan with a sensible monthly cap. Keep the wording clear of health claims too. The ASA’s sunbed advice is the page to read.
Once the plan is settled, show it properly on your website. Our guide to showing your prices covers how a monthly plan and a minimum term should be set out, and which terms to spell out on the page.
Do the sums first
Here’s the sort of sum to run. All of these numbers are illustrative, so swap in your own.
Say a spray tan customer pays £20 a visit and comes twice a month in a good month. You offer two spray tans a month for £36.
| Line | Made-up figure |
|---|---|
| Two visits at the full price | £40 a month |
| The same two visits as a member | £36 a month |
| What you give up per member | £4 a month |
| What a member pays in a month with one visit | £36, against £20 |
| 30 members at £36 | £1,080 of regular monthly income |
| If 3 of those 30 stop paying | £972 |
Now take off what the plan costs you to run. That means your payment provider’s fees, any software, staff time and the products used. A customer who keeps missing their second visit won’t feel they’re getting a deal for long, so ask yourself how many would stay.
The figure that matters most is how many visits the plan adds that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Only your own numbers can tell you that, which is why we’d trial it with a dozen regulars before you print a poster.
How to collect the money
You’ve got two broad routes: a recurring card payment through your booking or payment system, or Direct Debit. Some booking platforms sell memberships too, as Fresha and Booksy do, so check what yours can do first. Our comparison of the three covers their fees.
For Direct Debit, Bacs describes three ways in:
| Route | Who sends the payments | What it means for a salon |
|---|---|---|
| Direct submitter | You | You need sponsoring by a Bacs payment provider and you take on the key steps yourself. Rarely worth it for one salon |
| Indirect submitter | A Bacs-approved bureau | You still need sponsoring, and the bureau submits the files for you |
| Managed service | A third-party provider | The provider runs the service for you, under its own terms |
Bacs says a provider deciding whether to sponsor you will look at several factors, including a credit check, because there are risks and liabilities attached. Most small salons will find a managed service the easiest place to start. Get the set-up cost, the fee per collection and the charge for failed payments in writing, then put those numbers into your sums above.
Your members get protection whichever route you take. The Direct Debit Guarantee gives them:
- advance notice of a change to the amount, date or frequency, normally 10 working days
- a full and immediate refund from their bank if an error is made
- the right to cancel at any time through their bank
The new subscription rules
New rules on subscription contracts are on the way, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The government published draft guidance alongside draft regulations in October 2026.
These are still drafts. The draft guidance says the regulations must be approved by Parliament before they come into force, and it refers to contracts entered into on or after 1 January 2027. An earlier government announcement said spring 2027. Check the GOV.UK page for the current position before you print any terms.
As drafted, a subscription contract is one that auto-renews and charges the customer unless they act to stop it, and the rules cover contracts made online, over the phone or in person. If your plan works that way, here’s what the draft guidance would ask of you:
| Stage | What the draft guidance says |
|---|---|
| Before they join | Give clear information so they understand what they’re signing up to |
| When they join | A 14-day initial cooling-off period in which they can cancel |
| Rolling monthly plans | A reminder notice roughly once every six months |
| Trials and offers | A reminder before a free or reduced-cost period ends, and a further 14-day cooling-off period after it |
| Leaving | Make it easy. The stated aim is that exiting should be as easy as signing up |
There’s one point an owner will want to read carefully. If a customer cancels in the cooling-off period after using part of the service, the draft says they may have to pay for what was supplied, but only if you’ve given the right information and they’ve expressly agreed to start. So a member who has a session on day one needs that sorted at the desk.
If the rules apply to you, the practical jobs are the same as good practice anyway: clear terms, a written reminder system and a simple way to leave. It’s worth a chat with a solicitor or your trade body before you launch a plan that’ll run into 2027.
Sources
Checked on 31 October 2026.
- Bacs: the little guide to becoming a user of Direct Debit
- The Direct Debit Guarantee
- GOV.UK: subscription contracts
- Draft guidance on consumer subscription contracts (PDF)
- Draft Consumer Subscription Contracts (Cancellation and Information) Regulations 2026
- GOV.UK: crackdown on subscription traps
- ASA: beauty and cosmetics, sunbeds
- Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010
Questions owners ask
Can a small salon collect Direct Debits itself?
It can, but Bacs says you'd need a bank or other payment provider to sponsor you, and that provider will weigh things up, including a credit check. Most small businesses look at a third-party service first, which is one of the three routes Bacs describes.
Can customers cancel a Direct Debit whenever they like?
They can always cancel the Direct Debit itself through their bank. The Direct Debit Guarantee says so. That stops the payment, and whether they still owe anything under your terms is a separate matter, so your terms need to be clear.
Do the new subscription rules cover a small salon?
The draft guidance says the rules apply to all business-to-consumer subscription contracts unless specifically excluded, and that includes contracts made in person. It lists excluded contracts, and salon memberships aren't among the main ones it names. The rules are still in draft, so check the latest version.
Is a membership better than loyalty points?
They do different jobs. Points reward what someone has already bought. A membership is a standing arrangement for what they'll buy next. Plenty of salons could run both, but start with one.