Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Post float lounges are cool. Lots of float center owners use them to imbue their centers with their own personality, whether it be large sprawling rooms with comically large furniture, oxygen bars with artificial waterfalls, or just a place for you to hide mushroom sculptures for your customers to find. But these come at the cost of square footage for your center, which undoubtedly can cause problems. So, is it worth it? Ashkahn and Graham tackle the pros and cons, getting into the finer details of what it really means to have or not have these rooms in your center.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Ashkahn: Alright. We got a question coming at you today. It is, “what are the pros and cons of having a post-float lounge?”
Graham: Which I assume is just having a post-float area to sit down. It’s separate though. Like a separate lounge, for people post-float and pre-float?
Ashkahn: Right. So I think we’re talking about one big communal lobby or is there some separate space you have where people can hang out after their float?
Graham: So, separate pre-float and post-float spaces?
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: First of all at Float On our shop has very little extra room in it. We took up all the extra space in our center with extra floatings. So we don’t have room for a post-float lounge in our center. That’s a little bit of where we’re coming from, personally.
Ashkahn: Which is probably the biggest downside of a post-float lounge is that it takes up space.
Graham: Right. And that’s space that could be used for something else, an extra practitioner room, or-
Ashkahn: Ping-pong room.
Graham: Yeah. Bedroom for when you need take a nap in the center. There’s lots of things you can use that space for.
Ashkahn: So that’s, I would say, probably the biggest consideration is you gotta make sure you actually have enough space to do something like that.
Graham: Because if you’re in somewhere like Arizona or Alaska, it might be less of a concern than being in New York or Pittsburgh.
Ashkahn: I guess the other downside is there is something nice about people after their float, hanging out with people before they go in. It’s kind of fun. People have really nice interactions in that time, where people are seeing the people who just came out and seeing how relaxed they are. They talk a little bit. It makes the new people excited and maybe a little less nervous about getting in there.
Graham: For sure. We’ve walked into so many good conversations the people have just been having in the lounge, who have never met before. Between some of our most seasoned members and totally new first time floaters. “Flirgins”, as we call them.
Ashkahn: I guess one of the big benefits of having a post-float lounge is that your customers don’t have to interact with each other.
Graham: That’s really funny that it’s a benefit and a con. But it’s true. The nice thing is that, for people who are all post-floaty and don’t necessarily want to jump right back into the outside world. Not only do they not have to leave your shop, they don’t even have to interact with anyone who hasn’t just been in the float tank, plus the staff, who are naturally floaty anyway.
Ashkahn: You can make … there is perhaps a different vibe you’d want after a float, than beforehand. Our lobby in Float On is very bright. There’s big windows looking into the street. The walls are painted bright yellow. It’s a very loud, awake sort of space.
Graham: Playful, I would say.
Ashkahn: Playful. I could see more of a nap room type thing. It’s not how I’d necessarily design a post-float space, if that was the intended sole purpose of the room. Your eyes are more sensitive to light when you come out. You probably want something that encourages smaller conversation nooks or something like that.
There is a different goal in mind, I think, with a post-float lounge than with your general lobby.
Graham: Yeah. For sure.
Ashkahn: So, the other benefit of having a single lobby space like we do is, it’s easier for our employees to be able to interact with people. They don’t have to go check the post-float area and talk to people. Maybe get stuck in there talking to someone. While they’re in the lobby, they can be there when new people come in, they can talk to people who are sitting on the couch. If nobody is coming in, who just got out of their floats, it’s just a little bit more organic to be able to easily to talk to whoever is available, whoever seems like you should be talking to them, rather than having to check multiple spaces.
Graham: Yeah. Absolutely. The logistics of making sure that everything’s going okay in your entire center obviously becomes more difficult the more distinct rooms you need to actually keep tabs on. So yeah.
Even though at Float On, we don’t have one, it’s not to say that if we didn’t have extra space, that we wouldn’t have one. That was a lot of negatives. I think I got all those right.
We’ve gone to a lot of centers around the country and around North America that have really nice post-float lounges and they’re totally separate from the pre-float intake area. There’s one that’s really awesome. The entire center looks very clinical, almost. The front desk is very small. You just sit on these, almost like waiting room style … same with the hallways. But then, at the far other side of the center, you go through the hallways with all the tanks and come out, and it’s giant windows looking out into a forest and just bright blue floors, modeled after our floors. It’s a total transition. They almost go for more somber beforehand and more playful afterwards.
There’s also … you get a nice little reveal there that I really like. There are some really cool things that you can do with post-float lounges, for sure.
…If you have the space.
Ashkahn: If you have the space. Alright.
Graham: I think that’s it.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Alright. Good.
Graham: Good episode, buddy. I think people are really going to enjoy this one.
Ashkahn: Yeah. This is gonna be a nice one. I can tell.
Graham: If you want your own questions meanderingly answered on our podcast, definitely go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. Type ’em in there. And we might get to ’em.
Recent Podcast Episodes
How to reduce salt dust from ending up everywhere – DSP 105
Today brings a curious question about a float center owner who’s trying to deal with salt dust everywhere, including in their tool room. While salt does get everywhere, it can’t evaporate like water can and doesn’t travel through the air very well.
Graham and Ashkahn try their best to answer it and try to figure out what might be causing it, having not experienced something like that themselves at Float On. If any float centers out there have experienced this phenomenon and have any insights, send it our way!
Personal background, training, education for float center owners – DSP 104
Every new float center owner brings something different to the table. A former accountant is going to have a different skill set than someone who spent the last 15 years in construction. Now, it’s likely that they’ll both find ways to succeed in very different ways, but it’s possibly that one could be better suited to running a float center than they other.
Graham and Ashkahn get asked about their personal backgrounds that led to them starting Float On and, by extension, what the ideal background might be for running a float center.
While they have very non-traditional backgrounds themselves, they both have worked diligently through Float On’s lifetime to make sure that they learn the skills necessary to get the job done.
Causes of feeling nauseated in a float tank – DSP 103
Sometimes, very rarely, customers will get out of a float saying they felt really nauseous. Some even feel so bad that they vomit afterwards. What causes this and what can float center owners do about it? Well, sometimes it’s motion sickness, sometimes it’s the temperature in the tank, and sometimes it’s just random happenstance.
Regardless of why it occurs, how you handle it is important. Graham and Ashkahn have some good advice for post-bad float aftercare that’s worth listening to.
Disinfecting inside float tank walls – DSP 102
How do you clean the inside of the float tank? Obviously, you wanna be careful given that you’re working so closely with your float solution. What precautions do you need to take? What sort of products do you use?
Graham and Ashkahn share their stories of cleaning tanks, finding proper cleaners, and how to use them without affecting your water.
Talking About Dr. Justin Feinstein’s Anxiety Study – DSP 101
Recently, Justin Feinstein and his team at LIBR have published their first landmark study on the effects of floatation-REST on patients with extreme anxiety. After years of hearing about Justin’s research, it’s exciting for the whole industry to finally get to see some tangible results.
But what can we say about these effects? What can’t we say? Graham and Ashkahn bring in Justin Feinstein himself to answer these deceptively unsimple questions and talk in depth about this research and what it means for the industry
Latest Blog Posts
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
