How to start a sauna business: prices, costs and a business plan
By Elara team · Published
A sauna business works when three numbers agree: what bathers near you already pay, how many of them your busiest sessions can hold, and what the place costs to run whether or not a session fills. A sauna business plan is mostly the case that they do. This guide gives you sourced starting points for the first and third, two calculators that show every input (one for a month at one location, one for the electricity behind each session), the questions to put to your health department, building department and utility before you sign a lease, and how those numbers fill a business plan.
There is no startup cost figure here. A build-out depends on the space, the heaters, the plumbing and the electrical service it needs, and we have no sourced number that would hold for your lease. Get quotes for your space and enter what you learn.
Start from what bathers already pay
We surveyed the public price lists of 67 sauna, contrast therapy and bathhouse studios in 12 US and Canadian metros for the Elara sauna price and policy index, which is not yet published. It is a convenience sample, mostly contrast therapy studios, not a market average. These are advertised per-person prices at US studios, before tax, except where a studio's advertised price includes it, leaving out studios that sell only private rooms:
| Purchase | Studios | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| One visit (drop-in or day pass) | 42 | $45 | $35 to $62 |
| Unlimited monthly membership | 21 | $179 | $145 to $249 |
| One visit in the studio's largest pack | 24 | $33 | $27 to $38 |
The middle half spans a wide range because studios differ: a bathhouse with pools sells a different afternoon from one barrel sauna and two plunges. Price yours against the studios a bather would actually compare you with, then work out what a membership has to cost from your own capacity with the membership pricing guide.
The same index shows what studios put on their public price list. All 41 studios, US and Canadian, with a complete list sell a drop-in or day pass, 27 sell a multi-visit pack and 23 sell a recurring membership. Only 6 advertise an introductory offer.
Model one month before you sign
The calculator below adds up one month at one location. Card and subscription billing fees are Stripe's published US rates.1 Everything else, including the software line, is an assumption for you to replace, and each one says so: the prices start at the index medians above, and the counts and costs are placeholders. The result is before loan payments, equipment depreciation and income tax, so it is not profit or cash flow, and this guide does not cover how to finance a build-out.
One month at one location
Revenue, costs and the operating result before loan payments, depreciation and income tax. Every input is editable; amounts are USD.
The month makes $2,219 before loan payments, depreciation and tax. Costs are covered at 36 members.
| Operating result | $2,219 |
|---|---|
| Members needed to cover the month | 36 members |
| Membership revenue | $8,950 |
| Drop-in revenue | $9,000 |
| Pack revenue | $4,950 |
| Total revenue | $22,900 |
| Fixed costs | $17,925 |
| Visit costs (650 visits) | $1,950 |
| Payment processing | $806 |
| Each member adds, after fees and visit costs | $154.26 |
- Loan payments, equipment depreciation, sales tax and income tax are left out, so the operating result is not profit or cash flow.
- Price defaults are medians of advertised prices, not what a new studio will achieve. The counts of members and visits are placeholders for your own forecast.
With the defaults, the month makes about $2,219 and costs are covered at 36 members. To see which inputs matter, change one default by 10% and hold the rest. The model is linear, so 10% lower moves the result by the same amount in the other direction:
| Input | Default | Change in the month at 10% higher |
|---|---|---|
| Staff | $9,000 a month | -$900 |
| Drop-in price | $45 | +$874 |
| Membership price | $179 a month | +$863 |
| Drop-ins | 200 a month | +$808 |
| Members | 50 | +$771 |
| Rent | $6,000 a month | -$600 |
| Pack visit price | $33 | +$481 |
| Pack visits | 150 a month | +$435 |
| Other fixed costs | $2,500 a month | -$250 |
| Cost per visit | $3 | -$195 |
| Electricity | $275 a month | -$28 |
Staff is the largest cost, so enter wages for every hour you plan to open. The prices matter as much as any cost, which is why they should come from studios near you rather than from the index. Membership count is the input you know least before opening: at 30 members instead of 50, the same month loses about $866. Before you count on 50 members, check that your busiest sessions can hold them, which is what the membership pricing guide works out.
What electricity costs per session
An electric sauna draws power in two phases. Before opening, the heater runs at full power until the room reaches bathing temperature. After that, the thermostat switches it on and off to hold temperature, so over the open hours it draws its rated power only part of the time. Electricity per session is that day's total divided by its sessions:
| Step | Default | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Heat-up at full power | 9 kW for 60 minutes | 9 kWh |
| Holding temperature | 9 kW for 12 open hours, on half the time | 54 kWh |
| One day | 63 kWh at $0.1453 per kWh | $9.15 |
| One session | 8 sessions a day | $1.14 |
| One bather | 6 bathers a session | $0.19 |
The rate is the US average price of electricity to commercial customers in July 2026, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (preliminary figures). In Canada, enter your utility's commercial rate instead. US state averages differ more than fivefold. The same day costs about $0.67 a session in Texas (8.47¢ per kWh), $2.41 in California (30.56¢) and $3.44 in Hawaii (43.63¢).
The weakest default is the share of open hours the heater is on once the room is hot. Half is a placeholder: insulation, door openings and your set temperature move it, and at 25% the session cost drops to $0.65 while at 100% it rises to $2.13. A sub-meter on the heater circuit, read over an ordinary week, replaces the guess with a measurement.
Electricity cost per session
For an electric heater that warms up once before opening and holds temperature until close. Change any input to see your own figures.
Electricity costs about $1.14 per session and $0.19 per bather.
| Cost per session | $1.14 |
|---|---|
| Cost per bather | $0.19 |
| Heat-up energy | 9 kWh |
| Energy to hold temperature | 54 kWh |
| Cost per day | $9.15 |
| Cost per 30 days open | $275 |
- Gas-fired and wood-burning heaters need separate models: fuel price, burner efficiency and flue losses replace the electricity inputs, so they are not computed here.
- Lighting, cold plunge chillers, showers, hot water and ventilation are left out. A chiller runs whether or not anyone bathes, so budget it as its own line.
The model covers electric heaters only. A gas-fired or wood-burning heater needs its own model, with fuel price, burner efficiency and flue losses in place of the electricity inputs. Cold plunge chillers, lighting, hot water and ventilation are left out too; a chiller runs whether or not anyone bathes, so give it its own budget line.
Questions to ask before you sign a lease
Rules for saunas and cold plunges are set by states or provinces, counties and cities, and they differ in ways that change the build. A shared cold plunge is the clearest case. In Oregon, a self-contained tub "drained after each user like a standard bathtub" may be exempt from licensure, while one that recirculates water, is shared between bathers and is open to the public must go through plan review, and as of September 2025 the Oregon Health Authority knew of no self-contained tub that meets all of the state's requirements.2 Washington's rules define a spa pool as one "not drained, cleaned, and refilled for each user" and list cold water among its features.3 Colorado's public bath rules still reach a basin used by one person and drained after each use: it must be cleaned and sanitized between uses and hold a chlorine residual at all times.4 Take these questions to the offices that decide where you will operate, before you buy equipment. This is not legal advice.
For the health department:
- Do you regulate commercial saunas, and does that include infrared rooms and outdoor barrel saunas?
- Is a cold plunge a public pool or spa under your rules? If so, what does it need: filtration, disinfection, water testing, signage, inspections?
- Does draining and refilling the plunge after each bather change that answer?
- Do you review plans before construction, and how long does that take?
For the building and fire departments:
- Does a sauna studio need a change of use or a new certificate of occupancy for this space?
- What permits do the heaters, plumbing and ventilation need, and who pulls them?
- For a wood-burning or gas heater: what do the fire marshal and the fuel code require for the flue, clearances and fuel storage?
For the utility and your electrician:
- Does the building's electrical service have capacity for every heater running at once, plus any chiller?
- Which commercial rate schedule will apply, and does it include a demand charge for your peak power draw?
For your insurer:
- Does the policy cover a sauna and cold plunge, and what does it require from you: waivers, posted rules, staff training, inspections?
Of the 67 studios in the index, 18 state on their websites that bathers must sign a waiver. Ask your insurer and a lawyer in your state or province what yours should say.
Decide what to sell on opening day
Start with an offer staff can explain at the door: a drop-in, a pack and, once you have checked your capacity, one membership. A founding offer can help fill the first months, but decide what you are promising first: a lower rate kept while the member stays, a rate with a commitment, or an introductory period that ends on a date. Write the promise down before you sell it, because a founding member will hold you to it.
Before you take the first payment, book a session on your own website as a bather would, from choosing the session and signing the waiver to paying, then check yourself in at the desk. Anything that confuses you will confuse your first customer.
What a sauna business plan needs from these numbers
This guide supplies the inputs to a sauna business plan, not the plan itself. The U.S. Small Business Administration lists the usual sections of a traditional plan, from the executive summary and market analysis to the funding request and financial projections, and links two fictional sample plans you can use as a template.5 For a sauna studio, the sections a lender, landlord or partner will test hardest are these:
- Market analysis: the prices you compete with. The studios a bather near you would compare you with, their drop-in, pack and membership prices, and where yours sit. The index figures above are a reference point, not your market.
- Capacity. Places per session, sessions per day and the busiest sessions' limit on members, worked out with the membership pricing guide. If you add a cold plunge, its turns per hour can set the limit before the bench does.
- Financial projections. Start from the monthly model above with your own rent, staff, electricity and price inputs, and the member count that covers the month. That result is before loan payments and tax, so the projection subtracts them, and your own pay if it is not in staff, to reach cash flow, then runs month by month for the first year as members build up. The SBA asks for five years of forecast income statements, balance sheets and cash flow. Show the electricity line from your heater ratings and your utility's rate schedule.
- Funding request: the opening budget. The build-out, heaters, any electrical service upgrade, plumbing and drainage for showers and a plunge, ventilation, plan review and permit fees, insurance and opening stock, each priced from a quote for your space, plus the months of costs you will carry before members cover them, taken from the first-year projection.
- The regulatory path. What your health department, building department and fire marshal told you, with the permits, the plan review timeline and any water testing duties written in. A plan that leaves this blank is guessing at the opening date.
When you set up your packs and memberships, the memberships page shows how Elara sells packs and recurring plans. In Elara a founding rate is a plan of its own at that price, which members keep while you archive it for new buyers; plans with a minimum commitment are not for sale. Elara is sold by quote: ask for a quote and tell us your sessions, places and offers.