📝 Overview
You can offer Pay As You Go (PAYG) or drop-in options for your classes and appointments, and you can set these up in parallel with any other types of packages you might have.
There are two ways to create drop-ins, and the option you choose depends entirely on how you want these drop-ins to work. For long-term business health, you are generally recommended to use Drop-In Packs. We go into more detail on both options below.
📦 Drop-In Packs (Recommended)
Drop-in packs are essentially pack memberships which offer a single class credit and allow customers to book a single session.
How it works:
Create a pack membership with just 1 session.
The credit can be used to register for a class.
If the customer cancels within your allowed cancellation window, the session is returned to their pack as a class credit.
The credit can be used again to rebook the session at a later date (up until the pack expires, if it has an expiration date).
💡 For steps on creating a pack membership, see the guide here.
⚠️ If you choose to set up a drop-in pack instead of a drop-in fee, make sure to disable the drop-in fee from within the class type settings (see the Drop-In Fees section below).
Why this option works well:
You retain the revenue, because no money leaves your business on cancellation.
Customers can easily unregister and rebook without paying again.
You avoid refund fees. Because a class credit is returned rather than a monetary refund, you do not lose card-processing fees and you avoid the GoCardless per-refund charge (see the Drop-In Fees section below for the detail).
💳 Drop-In Fees
Drop-in fees allow customers to pay and register for a single session without having to purchase a membership which may have a minimum commitment length or offer multiple class registrations.
To enable the drop-in option for a specific class type, go to Classes/Appointments ➜ Class Types ➜ select a Class ➜ Settings & Pricing ➜ click Edit next to Pricing.
💡 When cancellations occur, if the customer cancels within your allowed cancellation window, they get an automatic monetary refund directly to the payment method they used to pay for the drop-in (card/direct debit).
If they paid cash, the system issues the refund, and you will see it appear under your To-dos ➜ Offline Refunds as a pending cash refund you need to pay.
⚠️ Refunds carry fee implications. When a drop-in fee is refunded, Stripe does not return the processing fees charged on the original payment, and GoCardless charges a £0.50 refund fee per refund, regardless of the original payment amount.
A drop-in pack avoids these costs, as it returns a class credit rather than a monetary refund.
📊 Comparing the Two Options
Use this comparison to decide which option best suits your business.
Feature | Drop-In Pack ✅ | Drop-In Fee ⚠️ |
Payment retained on cancellation | Yes (credit returned) | No (refund issued) |
Customers can rebook without repaying | Yes | No |
Avoids Stripe/GoCardless refund fees | Yes | No |
📆 Pack Expiry and Billing Considerations
A little planning around expiry keeps things clear for you and your customers.
Consider adding a suitable expiry date to drop-in packs. This encourages customers to use their credit in good time and avoids long-standing unredeemed purchases.
💡 Billing timing is worth keeping in mind. A customer counts towards your subscription fees in any billing period where they make a purchase or register for an event.
A customer who buys a pack in one billing period but does not book their first class until a later period therefore counts as a billable customer in both periods, whereas a customer who buys the pack and books within the same billing period is counted once. For the full definition of a billable customer, see the guide here.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Find answers to common questions or additional details that may not be covered in the main instructions.
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Click the arrow to view frequently asked questions
Should I choose Drop-In Packs or Drop-In Fees for my PAYG offerings?
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Although both methods work well, we tend to recommend the pack option because:
If a customer cancels their booking within the allowed cancellation window, they do not get a monetary refund, so the money stays in your business.
Customers have the flexibility to unregister and re-register if they need to, without having to pay several times.
How can I set it up so that customers receive a class credit instead of a monetary refund when cancelling their session?
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Click the arrow to see the answer
When a customer pays the drop-in fee, it is automatically refunded back to the payment method used for the registration.
The best way to avoid this is to change from the drop-in fee to a one-use pack membership instead. This allows the same single-class registration, but if cancelled, it returns the credit to the customer's account instead of issuing a monetary refund.
If you are still unsure about whether to use Drop-In Packs or Drop-In Fees for PAYG, please reach out to our Support Team. We are happy to help!