2027 edition · interviews now underway
The Contrast Report
See what other sauna + cold plunge studios pull in, pay out, and run on.
Find out where you stand
Is your studio underperforming? Right now you have no way to know. Your rent could be in line, or it could be the reason your margins are thin. Losing members after month two might be normal in this business, or it might just be you. I'm interviewing 20 to 30 sauna and cold plunge studio owners around the US, 20 minutes each by phone, and publishing the answers side by side, so you can check your numbers against studios like yours.
The 2027 Contrast Report comes out in October. It has no sponsor and no vendor behind it.
The questions it answers
Contents
- 01What a good month of revenue looks like, and how much of it comes from memberships
- 02Lease and buildout costs, including the ones owners didn't see coming
- 03Monthly spend on staffing, software, utilities, and maintenance
- 04The booking software owners regret, and what they switched to
- 05Equipment that has survived daily use (and the money pits)
- 06Marketing channels that fill intro sessions
- 07Intro-offer conversion and retention benchmarks to check your own numbers against
- 08Operational problems that come up at every studio, with the fixes other owners found
- 09Where owners think the market is headed
For participating studios
The report will sell for $200 when it comes out. Do an interview and your copy is free. Twenty minutes on the phone in exchange for finding out where you stand.
Got it — we'll email you within a day or two to set up a time.
Anonymity, by design
Answers get anonymized before anything is published. No studio names, no identifying details.Owners can talk straight about money without handing ammunition to the studio across town.
Not a studio owner? The 2027 report will be available for purchase at publication. Leave your email and we'll let you know when it's out.
You're on the list — we'll email you when the report is published.
About
The Contrast Report is researched and written byKevin Wilson, an analytics architect who has spent 18 years measuring marketing performance, including leading Adobe's internal analytics. He got curious about an industry where nobody publishes their numbers. The study is his own project, run on his own time. To suggest a studio worth interviewing:[email protected]