So You’ve Decided to Open a Float Centre!

Congratulations!

Floating is relaxing, all-natural, and is one of the most beneficial things you can do to improve your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. We are so excited you’ve decided to join us in bringing floating to the world! Don’t worry, we’ll be there every step of the way.

To begin with, here are some of the very first questions you’ll need to think about. It’s going to be a great ride!

What Type of Centre?

The most important question to ask yourself is: “what type of centre do I want to run?” Are you considering opening a dedicated float centre where you will only offer floating, or are you thinking about offering other services such as massage, reflexology or yoga? Perhaps you are thinking about a beauty therapy centre where the float pool will only play a minor role among all the services you want to offer.

From our experience, floating is compatible with beauty therapies and wellness treatments, but there is just one combination which needs caution: tanning and floating. It seems that the type of people who like to tan do not find time in their lives to float. Perhaps it is because tanning is more focused on one’s external appearance whereas floaters tend to be more interested in their inner selves.

Whatever your choice, you will need to know what other similar shops/centres exist in the area you are looking into. You should visit these competitors to see what services they offer, what price structures they use, how they publicise, what their documents look like and how they’ve decorated their centre.

Time Frame

From the time you begin your research until the time you will be ready to open usually takes between 12 and 18 months. People often underestimate how long it will take to find the right building, for example. In fact, we believe that taking 12 months to do all your “homework” before you actually start looking for a building would be a sensible period of time to take as there are just so many things to think about!

Space Required

In our experience the strict minimum space required for four float pools is about 100 sq. metres, (1000 sq. feet) depending on the layout. This is small, but it will enable you to have a small reception area with lounging space, a small, separate hair-drying and make-up room, space for 4 float pools (or two pools and two treatment rooms), toilets, a small kitchen area and laundry room with storage space for towels, cleaning products and extra salts. An area with 120 sq. metres (1200 sq. feet) would be a bit more comfortable as each float room and the reception area could be a bit more spacious. And, of course, bigger is always better!

You will also have to decide whether you want to look for a building that already is divided into individual rooms to which you will have to add showers etc., or whether you will go for an open plan building into which you will have to put in partitions, etc. Most of our clients just try to find a good building in the right location and then work with what they find.

Have a look at the technical requirement sheets for each of our products to give you an idea of the space you’ll need for any of our pools.