Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Most float centers run a tight schedule with narrow margins for the transitions between floats. Oftentimes relying on their customers to take reasonably timed showers to fit that schedule. If a single customer takes a shower that’s a bit too long, it can throw of the schedule for the rest of the day!
What if showers were in a separate room? Then customers could shower as long as they want! Ashkahn and Graham explain why this is an extremely bad idea.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Ashkahn: All right, howdy do dah, everyone. This is Ashkhan.
Graham: Hey, Graham is my name.
Ashkahn: And we’re coming in swinging today, so let’s do it. Let’s get this question going. Here we go. Here we go. It’s on fire. It’s hot in here. You hot? It’s hot in here. I’m sweating. You gonna ask the question?
Graham: I was just waiting. You just wouldn’t even give me … and you didn’t quiet down-
Ashkahn: Sorry.
Graham: … for any length of time over there.
Ashkahn: I came in a little hot. I was coming in a little hot. I was coming in swinging there.
Graham: “Would it be a good idea to put showers in a separate room from your flotation room?”
Ashkahn: That’s our question?
Graham: “This would make the turnover time quicker. I’m worried about guests that take long showers. Also, this way I would be able to make sure they definitely got showers before entering the float tank/pod.”
Ashkahn: I mean, no. Just the answer is no.
Graham: Yeah, I mean, unless you want like a desalting, like minimal shower inside your float room. And then also, a place where they’d take the longer shower outside the float room. I mean, well let’s talk about saving time during transitions, because-
Ashkahn: Okay, I’m like everything they’re saying is a positive thing, but it’s just none of it comes anywhere close to the downsides you get from having a shower, like basically having salt everywhere.
Graham: Everywhere.
Ashkahn: Everywhere.
Graham: I mean, that’s what gonna take the longest time to clean up. And we’ve said it many times. I mean, one of the biggest mistakes we made as a small business, and it wasn’t even in separate rooms. We just put the showers a little too far away from the entrance to our tanks, so people had to take like two steps after they’d get out of the tank into the shower. And that made our lives miserable. I can’t imagine if they were actually like saltily leaving the room and tracking salt everywhere in order to get into a shower.
Ashkahn: This is literally our single biggest piece of float advice, is put your showers as close to your float tanks as possible.
Graham: And I have nightmares about it being in a separate room, you know? Just like-
Ashkahn: I can sit like outside of-
Graham: … salty customers chasing me down dark hallways.
Ashkahn: Trails of salt leading around. Yeah, I mean, yes, like it takes more time ’cause people are showering in the rooms. That, of course, is like a big downside and it hurts your turnovers. There are ways to cut down on that by having vanity rooms for people to put themselves back together, and stuff like that.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: Even forget the theory here for a second. Like every single float center I’ve went to that had their showers outside the room very blatantly told me it was a huge mistake, and they regret it. Yeah.
Graham: Yeah, they regret it. yeah. They have even worse nightmares than I have, I’m sure.
Ashkahn: Yeah, like from the people who have done it, no one has been like, “This was a great idea.”
Graham: So yeah, I mean, having dressing rooms outside of it, having vanity rooms outside. Both of those, I think, are better ways to take some of the activities out than the shower specifically. Yeah, even things just like trying to … there are other ways, I guess, to cut down on shower time as well. There are showers that you can get with LED shower heads that change color. They turn red after you’ve been in the shower for a certain amount of time. You could do little timers. Stuff like that to me feels like just a better place to start investing some of your brain power into for this, rather than eliminating the shower from the room.
Ashkahn: Yeah, I mean, in some ways it’s probably cheaper, too, ’cause you already have to do so much waterproofing and putting drains into your float rooms to begin with. You’re making this kind of shower-like environment whether you have a shower in there or not. Or if you’re not, you’re making another big mistake.
Graham: I didn’t even need another reason to agree with this more, but you just gave it to me.
Ashkahn: Okay, the other thing they said-
Graham: Well, yeah. They said more, they said more.
Ashkahn: Here’s the other thing they said, is that they wanted to make sure people are showering.
Graham: Yeah, before they get in.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: ‘Cause I assume they realize that when people are all salty and leaving, they really do usually want to shower.
Ashkahn: Yeah, and that’s what we’re saying here. They’re gonna be so salty afterwards.
Graham: Yeah, but going into a tank they’re not salty.
Ashkahn: Yeah, I mean, people are showering. At the end of the day, like I’d take it from us and every other float center out there, it’s extremely unlikely that someone doesn’t shower before they go in. You can hear the showers. Some centers have systems set up to like-
Graham: Float On.
Ashkahn: … have some sort of sensor or something where people are showering. Or whatever, light detectors, or there’s all sorts of different things I’ve seen out there.
Graham: Lie detectors?
Ashkahn: Yeah, polygraph just connected …
Graham: Wait, what? Oh, light!
Ashkahn: Light, light, motion-
Graham: Sorry.
Ashkahn: … motion detectors.
Graham: I really thought you said lie detectors there. “Did you shower before getting in the tank?”
Ashkahn: They don’t make those noises, but for the purpose of this audio gag, we’re gonna pretend they do. But yeah, the float tank is just a unique enough context for most people, that if you say, “Take a shower before you go in,” people are gonna be like, “That’s when you do when you float. You take a shower before you go in.”
Graham: And if you have the shower right by the entrance to the float tank, I mean, you just made it super easy to do.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s easy. Their clothes are already off. In fact, it’s almost like more annoying to have to shower, put on a robe, be wet and like dripping and grabbing your stuff, or whatever. I’ve done this. I’ve been to a float center before where I had to do that. And like, it wasn’t as nice of an experience for me as a floater to feel like I had to kind of amble my way around all wet, and felt like I was dripping salt on my way back, and stuff like that.
Graham: If you don’t have like a fancy shower sensor kind of setup, go be a creep and listen at the doors of your customers’ rooms after you check them in for the shower going on, and you’ll probably find that it’s 100% roughly-
Ashkahn: Everybody, yeah.
Graham: … people that shower before going in.
Ashkahn: Everybody’s showering. And if it’s not, I mean, if it’s 99.9999%, or whatever.
Graham: Yeah, it’s like five logs worth there that are showering, so you’re good.
Ashkahn: Our systems should be set up to deal with stuff like that. That’s where all of your sanitation operations come in. So yeah, just don’t put showers outside your float room for our sake. Like I’m gonna have nightmares thinking about what your life is gonna be like.
Graham: Cool. Anything else? I think that’s all I have.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: That was a pretty clear message on this one.
Ashkahn: It was, yeah. Usually we provide a little bit more nuance and gray area.
Graham: Yeah, two sides of a story.
Ashkahn: Pros and cons, but no.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: This is-
Graham: Definitely shower, and not only in the room,-
Ashkahn: It would be a mistake.
Graham: … but as close to the opening to the float tank.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Don’t have any space between the-
Ashkahn: The shower, you step in and out of the float tank into the shower.
Graham: Into the shower, it’s like a shower lock.
Ashkahn: That’s the key.
Graham: Like you’re in salt lock.
Ashkahn: That’s what you should be doing, yeah.
Graham: That’s where, if you were a space station, people would come to desalt, or resalt I guess, or whatever they do. Anyway, don’t.
Ashkahn: We’re not astronauts, all right.
Graham: We’re float tank podcasters. There is a difference. Go to floattanksolutions.com.
Ashkahn: Yep, /podcast. Type in questions.
Graham: Yep, you know the drill.
Ashkahn: Yeah, hopefully at this point.
Graham: And if you don’t, then ask us what it is.
Ashkahn: That’ll be our next question.
Graham: You can go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast.
Ashkahn: Yeah, perfect. Okay.
Graham: All right, talk to you soon, everyone.
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: Bye.
Ashkahn: Goodbye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Levels of noise that can affect floats – DSP 129
Soundproofing is costly and difficult, especially for float centers. Most recording studios don’t have to worry about showers or a solution that eats up concrete. It makes sense that we might want to quantify the challenge of sound in a very straight forward way, but the reality is much different than that. Different types of sound can penetrate float rooms at different intensities and different floaters will care more than others.
Graham and Ashkahn share some of their own frustrations with creating their ideal soundproofing for Float On and some helpful tips for identifying noise as well as some advice on how to keep your sanity.
Thoughts on non-compete clauses for employees – DSP 128
Float centers require a lot of upfront capital to get started up, and because of that it can feel like float centers should operate like big business, or perhaps bigger businesses than they actually are. Some centers may consider, at some point, having their employees sign non-compete clauses to prevent them from sharing trade secrets with competitors. Graham and Ashkahn have been at this for a while and express their opinions as to why this probably isn’t the most practical approach for your float center.
How often do you float? – DSP 127
This episode takes the time to have Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences in the tank. They take the opportunity to explain their relationships to floating and how they differ, and in some ways, how they are very similar.
Thoughts on floating with tinnitus – DSP 126
About 15% of people have tinnitus, at least in the United States. It’s one of the most common medical conditions in the country, but most people don’t think about how to accommodate it. Many people who have it don’t even notice it unless they’re in total silence, which adds a particular challenge to float centers.
Graham and Ashkahn talk about their experiences in floating people with tinnitus and how to approach the situation when and if a float becomes problematic.
How to Keep Your Float Center at 100% Capacity – DSP 125 (April Fool’s)
Tired of running gimmicky marketing with steep discounts because your float center has an empty schedule?
Do you want that easy lifestyle business where customers just flock to you instead of you having to hunt them down? Want to be able to raise your prices without worrying about losing revenue?
Graham and Ashkahn share a secret they recently discovered while on their trip to Australia about how you can keep your float center 110% full at all times (that extra 10% isn’t cliche, it’s a waitlist)!
Latest Blog Posts
2013 Start-a-Center Giveaway Winners Announced!
Look, this wasn't easy. When we launched this, we didn't expect nearly as many submissions as we ended up getting, and certainly not as many that were so compelling. All in all, there were over 140 participants and after reading through all of them, floating on it,...
‘Post-Float Environment and Interaction’
I don't have a lot to offer on this subject, as it has been a long time since I have operated a float center.... But, 'back in the day', it was rather simple: it was really up to the customer/floater how they wanted to be treated, post-float. Some customers wanted...
Lightening the Load Through Meaningful “Post Float” Conversation
The post float environment is as important as the environment in the float room because people are still in slower brain wave states after a float, and they generally seek time to sit down, relax, and process what happened during their float. Probably the best way to...
February Topic: Post-Float Environment and Interaction
The second month of our industry blog has arrived. The topic for February is 'Post-Float Environment and Interaction.' We'll be putting up the first post tomorrow, and you'll hear my take on things a little way through the month. I wanted to take a moment, however, to...
