Sooner or later every rehearsal studio gets the same request: a band wants a room of its own, by the month. Say yes and you get money you can count on and almost no admin. Say no and the room keeps earning by the hour, but only when the evenings fill. This guide works through the numbers, which rooms to move, how to price a month and how to share a room, whatever tool you use. Here "lockout" means a room let by the month; some studios use the word for a whole day instead.
What each model earns
Hourly hire earns more when a room's evenings are busy, and a monthly let earns more when they aren't.
An example in round numbers: a room sells at £15 an hour, and its prime time is 6pm to 11pm, every day. That's 150 evening hours a month, worth £2,250 if every one sold. None does.
- At 40% of evenings booked, the room earns £900 a month.
- At 20%, it earns £450.
- A band offers £400 a month to have it to themselves.
Divide the monthly rent by what a full month of evenings would earn: £400 ÷ £2,250 is about 18%. Below that, the monthly band earns more. Above it, hourly does. The admin that hourly hire costs you raises that 18%; daytime hours sold by the hour lower it, since a monthly band takes those too.
Which rooms to let by the month
Look at three to six months of bookings for each room, evenings only.
- Let the rooms whose evenings you don't fill, not simply your worst room. A room at 15% is a candidate; one at 60% is paying its way.
- Keep the best-equipped rooms hourly. Their backline is what walk-in bands pay for.
- Keep at least one room of each size hourly. Monthly rooms bring no new bands through the door.
- Don't let more rooms than you could refill within a month.
Pricing a month against the hourly rate
A sound monthly price clears two bars: it beats what the room now earns by the hour, and it isn't far below what the band would pay by the hour for its time.
- Start from what the room really earned per month over the last six months, not from the rate card.
- Work out the band's hourly equivalent. Twice a week for three hours is about 26 hours a month: £390 at £15.
- Add something for exclusivity. Their kit stays set up and the room is theirs all week.
- Allow for gaps. If a room sits empty one month a year between bands, the year's target has to come from eleven rents.
In the example, the room earns £450 by the hour and the band would pay £390. Their £400 falls short of the first bar: ask £475.
Several bands, one room
Sharing makes a monthly room affordable for bands and worth more to you: two bands at £250 each beat one at £400. There are two ways to split the time.
- Fixed nights. One band has Mondays and Thursdays, the other Tuesdays and Fridays, weekends by arrangement. Simple, but a night left unused is wasted.
- Each band books its own hours on the room's calendar, within a fair limit, say two evenings a week each. Gigs and holidays stop turning into arguments.
Either way, put the house rules in writing: what backline is shared, what each band brings (cymbals, snare, anything breakable), a locked cabinet each, the room left as found, and who insures whose gear.
Notice, payment day and late payment
- Paid in advance, before the month starts: the 25th for the next month, say.
- No payment, no room. An unpaid month releases the band's hours to someone else.
- A month's notice, both ways, in writing, and two months' notice of a price rise.
- A deposit of a month, held against damage and returned when they leave.
Bands booking as private individuals are consumers. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, terms that make a consumer pay a disproportionately high sum for leaving or for paying late, or that let you end an open-ended agreement without reasonable notice, are on the list of terms that may be unfair. Keep notice equal both ways and charges close to your real loss. A band that trades as a business is mostly held to the contract, and between businesses you can claim statutory interest of 8% over base rate on late payments, unless your contract sets a different rate. This is general information, not legal advice.
Doing it with Tuora
Tuora runs hourly and monthly rooms on one booking page and one calendar. A room can go to one band by the month, or be shared as a membership where each band books its own hours, while the rest sell by the hour. Fixed nights go in as standing weekly slots. Metrics show occupancy and revenue, so you can see which rooms to move. More on how it works for rehearsal and recording studios.
You can try it before talking to anyone: book a room at our demo studio, then open its back office to see the same booking from the other side.