Sauna Booking Software: What Studio Owners Actually Need

If you're opening a sauna, or you've been taking bookings through Instagram messages and a spreadsheet, you've probably asked the question that shows up in every sauna owners' group: "Can anyone recommend a good software to help manage the business and bookings?"

The answers are all over the place. Someone says Wix Bookings. Someone says their heater controller came with club software. Someone says skip booking and keep it walk-in. Most of those tools were built for one person booking one appointment, and a sauna doesn't work that way.

Heads up, I make Corterra Book, and I built it for exactly this. Below is what a sauna or wellness center needs from its booking software, in the words owners use when they ask, and how Corterra Book handles each one.

Jump to shared sessions, private bookings, waivers, mobile rentals, memberships, or what it costs.

A slot is a session, not an appointment

Most booking software takes a time slot off the calendar as soon as someone books it. That's right for a massage, where one person books one therapist for an hour. It's wrong for a sauna.

A sauna session is a room with a seat count and a start time. If your sauna seats eight, one booking should leave seven seats for other people. When a sauna booking system can't do that, owners end up creating eight copies of every session, listing the sauna as a fitness class, or keeping a spreadsheet next to the booking page and fixing it by hand.

Everything else on this page builds on getting that part right.

Can several people book the same sauna session?

Yes, and in Corterra Book that's how a sauna works from the start. You give the sauna a seat count. Every time slot on your booking page shows how many places are left, and the number counts down as people book. When it reaches zero, that time stops taking bookings.

If you'd rather run set sessions, like a 7am and a 6pm every weekday, you can publish a weekly timetable instead. Each session has its own seat limit, and you see who's coming on a roster in your dashboard.

Friends can book together too. One booking can take several seats, so a group of three books once instead of checking out three times, and the seat count drops by three. The person booking gets a link to share so each guest can add their own details.

Seat counts are on both plans, including the $40 one.

Can a group book the whole sauna privately?

This one gets asked almost word for word in owner groups: "How to create a booking system for sauna with shared and exclusive options." Most saunas want both. Strangers share sessions during the day, and a group books the whole room for a birthday or a team outing.

In Corterra Book you add a private session as a second service on the same calendar as your shared one, sized to the whole room. The two know about each other.

• A private session is only offered at times when nobody has booked a seat yet.
• Once someone books it, it takes every seat, so the shared session at that time closes.

You price the private session as a buyout, and you never have to delete or hide a shared session to make room for one. Turn on card at booking and a private hire holds the customer's card until the day, so if they don't show, your no-show fee goes on that card.

Can I rent out a sauna in 30-minute time blocks?

An r/Sauna post asked exactly this. Someone opening a sauna next to their barbershop wanted to "rent out a sauna in 30-minute time blocks."

Set the session length to 30 minutes and add a buffer for wiping down benches and letting the room recover. The buffer is set on each service, so a sauna can have 10 minutes, a cold plunge 15 and a contrast suite 30, and every time slot respects it. Your customers only ever see times that are actually free.

If the sauna keeps different hours from the rest of your business, Pro gives it its own calendar and hours. If your services and hours aren't set up yet, start with the checklist in my spa scheduling software guide.

How do I make sure everyone signs a waiver?

Heat and cold carry real risks, so most owners want a signed waiver before anyone gets in the room. Mobile sauna owners ask for it in the same breath as bookings: "Any recommendations on booking software/calendar/waivers and payments."

In Corterra Book you build the waiver once and choose who signs it, everyone or only people booking certain services. You also choose how often: once, every visit, or once a year. The customer gets a link with their booking confirmation and signs on their phone whenever it suits them, including the night before. On a group booking, each guest signs their own.

An unsigned waiver shows on the booking and on the customer's record, so staff see it before the session starts. On Pro, the self check-in iPad won't check anyone in until their waiver is signed. Signed copies are kept on the customer's record.

One thing Corterra Book doesn't do is connect to door locks, so if you run unstaffed hours you'll need your own way to let people in.

What booking software is best for mobile sauna rentals?

A mobile rental works differently from a shared session. One customer books the whole sauna for a few hours, at their own address, and you have to tow it there, set it up and heat it.

Here's how that runs in Corterra Book:

• Turn on "require an address at booking" and the customer enters where the sauna is going. It's saved on the booking where you can find it.
• Make the rental its own service with its own length, say four hours, and a buffer for driving and setup between rentals.
• Give the trailer a capacity of one so it can't be booked twice for the same time.
• Charge a delivery fee as an add-on the customer picks when they book.
• Take full payment when they book, or hold their card and charge it after.
• Send the waiver with the confirmation so everyone who uses the sauna signs before you arrive.

If you also run a fixed site, Pro gives the trailer its own calendar, so a rental never takes a seat at the site.

Can I sell memberships and packs for my sauna?

Recovery is a habit, and most of a sauna's money comes from people who come back every week. Corterra Book sells memberships and packs on both plans.

• Memberships renew automatically, monthly or yearly, on the member's card.
• A membership can include a set number of visits a month, for one service or pooled across several, like eight visits a month across sauna and cold plunge. Visits reset on the 1st.
• A plan can be for one person or shared with a partner or family.
• Packs, like 10 sessions, come off as people book.
• Customers can buy memberships, packs and gift cards from your own online shop, and sign your membership agreement online if you use one.

When a member stops showing up, you want to know before they cancel. I wrote about spotting the clients you're about to lose.

Can I run sauna, cold plunge and massage on one calendar?

Very few studios sell only sauna now. Cold plunge, contrast therapy, red light and massage end up on the same schedule, and they book differently. Massage books by therapist. Sauna books by room. A cold plunge books by tub.

On Corterra Book's Pro plan, each one gets its own calendar with its own hours, buffers and seat count, and they all show on one screen. Massage books by therapist, and customers can pick who they see. Two saunas running the same session share one calendar with a combined seat count. One membership can cover visits across all of them.

If you're already running three or four services, I wrote more in wellness center software, and about everything a sauna has to manage beyond bookings in sauna management software.

Should a sauna take bookings or just walk-ins?

Not everyone wants bookings. One reply in an r/Sauna thread said "Booking ruins it, gotta be co ed and spontaneous." For a busy sauna in a city, walk-ins can carry a lot of the day.

You don't have to pick one. With Corterra Book, people book online when they want a guaranteed spot, and staff add walk-ins at the front desk. The front desk shows how full the current session is, and it lets staff add someone even when the session is full, because nobody wants to turn away the person standing at the desk.

Bookings also give you what walk-ins can't: a name and email for every visit, waivers signed ahead of time, and members you can keep coming back.

How do I fill the quiet hours?

Most saunas are busy before and after work and quiet in between. One r/Sauna post suggested an app for "Hot Deals" at quieter hours. You can run those on your own booking page.

In Corterra Book you can put a banner on your booking page for the days and hours you choose, mark those time slots so they stand out, and attach a promo code for the deal. You can also email an offer to a customer who hasn't been in for a while, straight from their record.

If you connect ChatGPT or Claude to your account, you can ask which sessions are emptiest next week and have it draft the email to the people most likely to come. There's more on this in how to fill empty spots at your studio.

What does sauna booking software cost?

Corterra Book is $40 a month on Basic and $80 on Pro, with a 15-day free trial. There's no commission on your bookings. Card processing is 2.9% plus 45 cents online, 2.7% plus 20 cents in person, and 3.2% plus 30 cents on membership renewals.

Pro adds a separate calendar for each service, logins for your staff, and the self check-in iPad. Texting is an optional $30 a month add-on on either plan. Both plans include your own branded booking page, email reminders, card on file, no-show fees, gift cards and promo codes.

Plenty of booking apps are free to start and take a percentage of every booking instead. Here's how that compares for a $25 session against an app charging 6 percent. Both columns include online card processing, at 2.9% plus 30 cents for the commission app and Corterra Book's 2.9% plus 45 cents.

The two meet at about 30 sessions a month. Below that, a commission app can cost less. Above it, the flat fee wins, and the gap grows every month you grow.

Want to see it with your own sauna? Start a 15-day free trial at corterrabook.com, or book a demo and I'll show it to you set up with your own sessions.

Sauna booking software FAQ

Is Wix Bookings good for a sauna? It can work for one room with staffed hours, especially if your website is already on Wix. Set the sauna up as a class with a maximum number of participants so people can share a session. As you grow, check how it handles memberships with visit limits, waivers before check-in, and private hire on the same calendar. Corterra Book does all three, and you can link to it from a Wix site.

Is there free sauna booking software? Yes. Google Sheets and Forms cost nothing, and some booking apps are free to the business and take a percentage of each booking or charge your customers a fee instead. That works for one room and a few bookings a week. Past about 30 sessions a month, a flat monthly fee usually costs less. Corterra Book has a 15-day free trial so you can try it with real bookings.

Do I need booking software for a mobile sauna? Mobile and outdoor saunas usually need it sooner than a fixed site, because the booking has to carry the address, the waiver and the payment before you hitch up. A tool that collects all three at booking saves a lot of back and forth.

What is the difference between sauna booking software and salon software? Salon software books people, so availability follows the stylist or therapist. Sauna booking software books space, so availability follows the room and how many seats are left. If you run both, you need software that does each.

How do I handle no-shows at a sauna? An empty seat in a shared session can't be sold once it starts, so no-shows cost more than they look. Take a card when people book, set a clear cancellation window, and send reminders. Most owners charge a late-cancel or no-show fee rather than the full price. There's a copy-paste policy in my cancellation policy and no-show fee guide.

How much should sauna booking software cost? For one location, expect a flat fee of about $30 to $100 a month, plus card processing. Corterra Book is $40 or $80. If an app charges a percentage instead, work out what it would cost at your volume before you sign up.