Ops & Supply

How to track class and instructor utilization as Fitness Studio Founders

Ops & SupplyFor Fitness Studio Founders2 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

You run a 10-class-per-day yoga studio and your utilization data is trapped inside Mindbody's reporting UI, which doesn't export in the format you need and resets filters every time you close the tab. You know your 6am Vinyasa is chronically at 40% capacity and your Thursday evening instructor drives the highest re-booking rate — but proving either requires you to export two separate CSVs on Sunday night, VLOOKUP them together in Google Sheets, and still not know whether low fill rate is a scheduling problem, an instructor problem, or just a holiday week. You have no alert when a class drops below break-even fill. You have no report comparing instructor retention curves. You have a spreadsheet you built six months ago that nobody updates anymore.

Build this on Starch → See the apps used

Ops & SupplyFor Fitness Studio Founders2 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

Outcome

What you'll set up

A live class utilization dashboard that pulls attendance and fill rates from Mindbody or MarianaTek through browser automation on a daily schedule, so you see every class's capacity percentage without opening a single tab

An instructor performance tracker that surfaces which teachers drive the highest rebooking rates, average class size trends, and retention over a rolling 90-day window — described in plain English and built by Starch to match your studio's specific class types and pay structure

An automated weekly digest sent to your phone or inbox that flags any class below your break-even fill threshold and any instructor whose average attendance dropped more than 15% week-over-week, so you're acting on signal instead of Sunday-night spreadsheet archaeology

The Starch recipe

Apps, data, and prompts

The combination of Starch apps, the data sources they pull from, and the prompts you use to drive them.

Apps used

Growth Analyst Project Management

Data sources & config

Mindbody and MarianaTek don't offer open APIs for independent studio owners, so Starch automates both through your browser — no API needed. Starch logs into your account on a schedule, pulls attendance records, instructor assignments, and class fill data, and stores it for your dashboard and automations. If you use Slack for team communication, connect it from Starch's integration catalog and the agent queries it live when posting weekly digests. Gmail works the same way if you prefer email delivery — Starch syncs your Gmail on a schedule and can send summary reports directly.

Prompts to copy

Connect to my Mindbody account through browser automation and pull daily class attendance, instructor name, class type, scheduled capacity, and actual check-ins for the past 90 days. Build me a dashboard that shows fill rate by class slot and instructor, with a red flag on any class below 55% capacity.

Every Monday at 7am, scrape this week's attendance data from my Mindbody account, calculate each instructor's average fill rate and week-over-week change, and send me a Slack message listing the three lowest-performing class slots and the two instructors with the biggest attendance swings.

Build me an instructor retention report: for each instructor, show what percentage of students who attended their class in month one came back for a second class within 30 days. Rank instructors by this retention rate and update it weekly.

Flag any class time slot that has been below 60% capacity for three consecutive weeks and create a task in my project board titled 'Review [class name] scheduling — low fill streak' assigned to me.

Run these in Starch → or paste them into your favorite agent

Walkthrough

Step-by-step

1 Tell Starch your studio software — Mindbody, MarianaTek, Wodify, or ClassPass — and provide your login credentials. Starch automates your account through your browser on a schedule you set (daily is typical for attendance data).

2 Describe your break-even fill rate threshold in plain English: 'My classes break even at 60% capacity. Flag anything below that.' Starch writes the logic; you don't touch a formula.

3 Tell Starch which instructor metrics matter to you: average class size, rebooking rate within 14 days, retention at 30 and 90 days, or cancellation rates. Starch builds the calculation and applies it to every instructor on your roster.

4 Set the refresh schedule — Starch pulls fresh attendance data nightly or every morning before your first class. You pick the cadence; the browser automation runs without you.

5 Connect Slack from Starch's integration catalog if you want alerts there; or use Gmail (Starch syncs Gmail on a schedule) for weekly digest emails. Either way you describe the format: 'Three bullets, worst-performing slots first, with fill percentage and trend arrow.'

6 Build the class utilization dashboard by describing it: 'Show me a grid of every class time slot by day of week, colored by average fill rate — green above 75%, yellow 55–75%, red below 55%.' Starch assembles the view from the attendance data it's already pulling.

7 Add an instructor comparison view: 'Side-by-side table of all instructors, columns for average class size, 30-day retention rate, classes taught this month, and trend vs. last month.' Use this during quarterly instructor reviews instead of building it manually each time.

8 Set up the low-fill-streak automation: 'If any class slot has been below 60% capacity for three consecutive weeks, create a task in my project board flagging it for schedule review.' The Project Management app in Starch captures it so nothing slips.

9 Run the first full historical pull — 90 days of attendance data — to baseline every instructor and every class slot before your first live week. This gives you meaningful trends from day one instead of waiting two months for data to accumulate.

10 Review the first weekly digest manually to confirm the numbers match what you see in Mindbody's native reports. Starch's browser automation is pulling the same data your front desk sees; spot-checking the first run catches any login or navigation quirks early.

11 Once baselines look right, share the instructor dashboard link with your studio manager or lead instructor so they can see their own numbers — describe the access: 'Show instructors only their own stats, not each other's.' Starch builds the filtered view.

12 Revisit the thresholds quarterly: if you add a new class format, bring in a new instructor, or change your pricing, tell Starch in plain English and the automation updates without you rebuilding anything.

See this running on Starch

Connect your tools, describe what you want, and the agent builds it. Closed beta is free.

Try it on Starch →

Worked example

March 2026 — 8-instructor Pilates studio, 12 class slots per day

Sample numbers from a real run

Tuesday 9am Reformer (Instructor: Sofia)	87
Thursday 6pm Reformer (Instructor: Dani)	52
Saturday 8am Mat Flow (Instructor: Marcus)	91
Monday 7pm Barre Fusion (Instructor: Dani)	48
30-day student retention — Sofia	74
30-day student retention — Dani	31

The March digest lands Monday at 7am. Sofia's Tuesday 9am Reformer is at 87% fill and her 30-day student retention sits at 74% — meaning nearly three in four first-timers book a second class within a month. Dani's Thursday 6pm and Monday 7pm slots are both flagged red: 52% and 48% fill respectively, and her retention rate is 31%. This isn't necessarily an instructor quality problem — the Starch dashboard shows that both of Dani's slots were added in January and have never hit 60%, which suggests a scheduling mismatch more than a performance issue. Marcus's Saturday 8am Mat Flow is at 91% capacity and has a waitlist building three weeks out — Starch's automation flagged it with a task: 'Consider adding a second Saturday morning section or raising Mat Flow pricing.' Without Starch, this analysis would have taken the studio owner two hours on a Sunday night. The Monday morning Slack message replaces that entirely: three bullets, the two flagged slots, one opportunity to act on.

Measurement

How you'll know it's working

Class fill rate by slot, instructor, and day of week (target threshold: 60–65% break-even, 80%+ healthy)

30-day and 90-day student retention rate per instructor (what percentage of a teacher's first-time students return)

Week-over-week average class size trend per instructor (early warning for instructor churn risk or scheduling drift)

Waitlist conversion rate — how often a waitlisted student books the same class the following week

Revenue per class slot — fill rate × average ticket price, showing which slots actually drive margin vs. which just fill the schedule

Comparison

What this replaces

The other ways teams handle this today, and how the Starch version compares.

Mindbody native reporting

Shows you raw attendance numbers inside the platform but won't rank instructors by retention, flag fill-rate streaks, or send you a Monday morning alert — you have to log in and look.

Google Sheets + manual CSV export

Infinitely flexible once built, but you're the one building and maintaining it every Sunday night, and it goes stale the moment your schedule changes.

Databox or Looker Studio connected to Mindbody

Works if Mindbody exposes the data through an API connector, but independent boutique studios typically don't get API access — you hit a paywall or a 'contact sales' wall before you get a single chart.

MarianaTek or Wodify built-in analytics

Each platform's analytics only covers its own data; if you cross-reference ClassPass bookings with direct memberships or compare two studios on different systems, you're back to spreadsheets.

On Starch RECOMMENDED

One platform — growth analyst, project management all running on connected data. Setup in plain English; numbers stay current via scheduled syncs and live agent queries.

Try it on Starch →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Mindbody doesn't have an open API for my plan. Can Starch still pull my data?

Yes. Starch automates Mindbody through your browser — the same way you log in and navigate reports manually. No API key needed. Starch logs in on a schedule, navigates to the attendance and class roster screens, pulls the data, and stores it for your dashboard. If your Mindbody account is web-accessible with a username and password, Starch can reach it.

What if I switch from Mindbody to MarianaTek mid-year?

Tell Starch: 'I've moved to MarianaTek. Here's the new login URL.' The browser automation points to the new destination. Your existing dashboard structure stays; Starch rewires what it's pulling from. You won't rebuild from scratch.

Is my studio's member data stored by Starch?

Starch stores the attendance and class data it pulls in order to power your dashboard and automations. Starch is not currently SOC 2 Type II certified, so if your studio has strict data handling requirements — say, a franchise agreement or healthcare-adjacent membership program — that's worth factoring in.

Can I track ClassPass bookings separately from direct memberships?

If your studio software shows ClassPass bookings as a distinct booking source in the same attendance report, Starch can segment by that field. If ClassPass is a separate portal entirely, Starch can automate it through your browser the same way — just tell Starch: 'Also pull my ClassPass partner dashboard weekly and add those bookings as a separate column in my fill-rate report.'

Can I see this data across two studio locations?

Yes. Describe both: 'Pull attendance from my Westside location Mindbody account and my Downtown MarianaTek account and show them side by side in one dashboard.' Starch runs separate browser sessions for each and combines the output into a single view.

What happens if the browser automation breaks because Mindbody updated their UI?

Starch detects when a scrape fails and will alert you. You can tell Starch to re-navigate: 'The attendance report moved — the new path is Reports > Class Attendance > Export.' Starch adapts. It's not zero-maintenance, but it's a one-sentence fix rather than rebuilding a connector from scratch.

I don't use Slack. Can alerts come somewhere else?

Yes. Starch syncs Gmail on a schedule and can send you a formatted email digest instead. Or describe a different delivery: 'Post the weekly utilization summary as a message in my studio's group text thread' — if that thread lives in a web-based platform Starch can reach through your browser, it can post there too.