Planning a January Price Rise? Announce It in October

A price rise announced in December reaches most regulars as an email. Announced in October, it reaches them in your chair, from you, with time to book around it.

A price rise announced in December reaches most of your regulars as an email. Announced in October, it reaches them in your chair, from you, with time to book around it.

The difference is not tone. It is arithmetic on your own rebooking cycle.

Count the visits inside the notice window

Take the gap between a regular's visits. Divide the notice period by it and round down. That is the number of times you are certain to see that client before the new price lands.

With thirty days, a client on a six-week color cycle can go from notice to new price without sitting down once. They find out from an email, or at the till. With ninety, every client on a cycle of twelve weeks or shorter sees you at least once first.

The barber with three-week regulars gets four conversations per client. The colorist on six weeks gets two. The lash artist doing fills every two to three weeks gets four or more. Those conversations are the announcement. The email is the backup.

Pick the date, then count back

Monday 4 January 2027 is 94 days from today, Friday 2 October 2026. If you want the new menu live for the first full week of the year, this is the week to say so.

Pick the effective date first and put it in writing. Everything else in this post hangs off that one date.

What Booked does with the old price

When you change a service price in Booked, the change applies to new bookings. Existing bookings keep the price and duration they were made at. Booked does not rewrite an appointment somebody already agreed to.

So leave your prices alone in Booked until the effective date. Anything booked before then stays at the old price, including an appointment in March. That turns the announcement into a reason to book early: "Anything you book before 4 January is at today's price." The June post on raising prices calls this the grandfather clause, and it is doing real work here.

If you take deposits, the deposit is a percentage of the whole service price, so it follows the same rule. A tattoo client who books a February session in November pays the deposit on the old price, and the session keeps the old price. For session work booked months out, check how much of January to March is already on the books before you settle the number.

Price the grandfather before you grant it

Count the appointments already booked past your effective date and multiply by the increase. Forty appointments at a $5 rise is $200. That is what the notice costs you, once.

Now price the alternative. A six-week regular at $60 comes in about eight or nine times a year, roughly $520. One regular who leaves because they heard about the rise at the till costs more than the whole grandfather bill.

Tell them in this order

In the chair. One line, the same line every time, during the visit rather than at the till. The June post has the words. While you have them, rebook at the chair, and the new booking lands before the date.

By email, once. Booked sends booking messages, not marketing email, so the announcement goes out from your own mail tool. Dashboard → Customers → Export CSV gives you name, email and phone for every client on the list, once you tick Include email, phone, notes. That tick is the owner's. People gave you those details to book an appointment. They did not opt into a newsletter by sitting in the chair, so whether you email them is your call and your legal responsibility.

On your booking page. Your page has an About section of up to 1,500 characters. One sentence there with the date covers the client who never opens email.

If you sell gift cards in December

A January rise lands on every gift card you sell before it. Sell cards for a dollar amount, not a named service, so the new price does not quietly turn them into a discount. The gift card post has the arithmetic.

This week

Say the line to the next regular in your chair.