Courses, workshops and seasons for your studio

Avana is studio booking software for selling courses, workshops and whole seasons online, with a fixed group that signs up and pays in one go. Running a course through separate bookings or messages rarely works. One week someone doesn't come, the next someone else wants in, and by the end nobody knows who paid for what. When people sign up for the whole series, the group starts together, stays together, and the fees are in before you teach the first class.

Course, workshop or season: which fits what you offer?

A course is a fixed series with the same group, such as six weeks of beginners' Pilates, eight weeks of pregnancy yoga or a four-week block before a competition. Everyone starts together, and whoever joins pays for the whole thing. A workshop is a one-off session, often longer than a normal class and built around a theme, like an afternoon of breathwork or a handstand masterclass.

A season is bigger: a full year of fixed groups on fixed days, familiar to dance schools and martial arts clubs with junior groups. Avana puts all three on the same online class schedule as your regular classes, so members see everything in one place.

Selling a course in practice

Pick a class on your schedule as the basis, give the course a name and description, and choose the dates: same time every week, or separate dates if a holiday falls in between. Then set the number of spots and the price for the whole course. Avana only lets someone sign up if there's room in every class of the course, so the group never overflows on one evening.

Want people to join after the first class? Keep sign-ups open until the second or third. Late joiners only get the classes still to come. You can also allow single classes from the course, say for someone who wants to try first. Every course gets its own page to share, and while sign-ups are open it can be found on Google.

Workshops that sell out

Workshops often attract people who've never been to your studio. Put them on the schedule well ahead, with a clear title and a short description of what people will learn. In Avana a workshop is a one-off class on the date you choose, with its own price and cap. If you stream it as well, anyone joining from home gets their own link.

With Studio Max you can email every member about a new workshop at once. Follow the workshop with a course or an intro offer, and the step to regular classes is a small one.

Seasons and fixed groups for a dance school

A dance studio often runs a year that starts after the summer. With Studio Plus and Studio Max you set up a season with a first and last class date and weeks off for the holidays. For each group you choose the day, the time, the number of spots and optionally an age range, like kids' dance for ages four to six.

You decide when sign-ups open and whether last season's members go first. When a season ends you prepare the next one and carry your members over: each of last year's members gets an email that their spot is ready, and confirms it themselves. Anyone joining midway pays only for the classes left. When a spot opens in a full group, the first person on the waitlist hears about it.

Enrolling children, and what you keep about them

For children's classes a parent enrolls. In Avana they do it from their own account, choosing which child the season place is for. Avana only asks for the child's name and year of birth, no address and no email. That's enough to check the child fits the group's age range, and it keeps what you hold about children to a minimum.

All emails go to the parent. On your member list the child appears as their own member with the parent alongside, so you see who's in each group and who to contact. A family with two children at your studio has both under one account.

What to look for in course booking software

First check that members sign up for the whole series rather than class by class; otherwise you're tracking the group yourself. Then make sure a course never takes more sign-ups than spots, that there's a waitlist, and that the classes sit on your normal schedule so members get reminders.

Ask too what happens if you have to stop a course. In Avana, members who paid online get the remaining classes as credit at your studio. And check the cost: Avana takes no commission on courses or workshops, just one fixed monthly price. You'll find the plans in the pricing above. Run a yoga studio, a Pilates studio or a HYROX gym? See what Avana does for your discipline too.