Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Most float centers divide on floats offered between 60 or 90 minute floats, but some split the difference right down the middle and offer 75 minutes. Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on this tactic, what they see as the pros, cons, and things to consider when implementing it.
Show Resources
FTS Product – State of the Industry Report
(In this last year, 7 float centers reported offering 75 minute floats)
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: All right.
Ashkahn: Welcome everybody.
Graham: Hello.
Ashkahn: This is Ashkahn.
Graham: And I’m Graham over here.
Ashkahn: And boy, we’ve got a big one. We’ve got a big one today.
Graham: It’s not …
Ashkahn: It’s a normal sized one. I was just trying to make them feel excited, you know? Try and pump people up.
Graham: That’s great. It’s gonna be a great episode.
Ashkahn: It’s gonna be a really good one.
Graham: And you did a great job pumping people up too, I think.
Ashkahn: Thanks. Yeah. And you did a really complimenting me just now.
Graham: Oh, thanks. Anyway, our question for today is, “What do you think about 75 minute floats?”
Ashkahn: 75 minute floats.
Graham: The old 75-er.
Ashkahn: Yeah. The old siete cinco.
Graham: Yeah, I think they’re good.
Ashkahn: I kind of like them. So here’s the deal.
Graham: Your deal. Not the deal.
Ashkahn: Here’s my deal.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: I think it has to do with how many float tanks you have and how many tanks you’re trying to turn over in a transition. ‘Cause there’s definitely situations like what we’re in, where we’re doing 90 minute floats and we put 30 minutes of time in addition to that to turn all the rooms over and get the next people in. And we have six float tanks. And that’s kind of intense. It’s intense to turn over six rooms in 30 minutes.
Graham: Well, and we also do all of our floats at the exact same time.
Ashkahn: Yes.
Graham: So they don’t stagger at all. It’s not, like, three on one hour and three on another hour or so. Every two hours there’s six people getting out and six people getting in.
Ashkahn: Yeah. And we’ve thought about changing our transition times to something like 35 or 40 minutes, but then everything just gets on this, like, really weird time of day, you know? Your appointments start at like 6:25, and then the next one’s, like, 7:40, and …
Graham: Yup.
Ashkahn: So there’s just something that’s been slightly unappealing about that.
Graham: But-
Ashkahn: But if you were to want that kind of cushy transition time, a 75 minute float is a nice-
Graham: With a 45 minute transition because it keeps things on the hour.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: So it would be every other hour there would be a float. And you’d have a little nicer transition then. I actually know some centers that have been transitioning, huh. I didn’t actually mean to say that. But they themselves have been transitioning their transition time length to be longer.
Ashkahn: To be longer. Right.
Graham: I know one that went up to 60 minutes in between floats.
Ashkahn: Wow.
Graham: But they’re a single person running their center and they just wanted to actually have time to sit down with clients afterwards and get back to that homey kind of feel, you know?
Ashkahn: Right. Sure.
Graham: But yeah, I know more than one that’s also switched to 45 minute transitions.
Ashkahn: Yeah. And I know somebody else who does 60 minutes too. So yeah, it’s definitely, like-
Graham: I wonder if it’s the same person.
Ashkahn: We can talk about it after this.
Graham: Yeah, yeah. Thanks for that. So I was gonna say, the thing that I don’t like about 75 minute floats is related to the exact same thing, which is if you’re doing 75 minute floats to try and fit more in a day, all of a sudden you can’t actually start on the same times. Like uneven times. So if you’re running a 75 minute float but want a half an hour transition, now your whole time slots are getting into 15 minutes.
Ashkahn: It’s getting all crazy.
Graham: You can’t just say it’s every other hour. You lose a little bit of simplicity in it.
Ashkahn: Yeah. I do feel like 75 is, in my mind, a decent improvement over 60. I feel like 75 is starting at the range where I feel like I’d feel comfortable with someone going in there and getting a nice … And we’re big fans of 90 minute floats.
Graham: Yes, full disclaimer here.
Ashkahn: That’s my kind of hard-core opinion here, so I always think, you know, a 60 minute first time experience is not as ideal and that people will kind of sink into it and get that deeper experience with 90 minutes. But I feel like 75 is something that can get people a nice experience too.
Graham: Yeah, and it’s also the level where you’d stop worrying as much about 5 minutes here and there, which is really nice, you know?
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Like, the thing about 60 minute floats is if someone gets in and you didn’t quite get them in on time, it just impinges so much, it’s such a high percentage of their overall float time. So I like 90 minutes, and even two and a half hour late night floats are better, you know? Like, you get one of our two and a half hour floaters in 10 minutes late because you’re the only one there and people were coming out slow and they’re like, “Whatever. I’ll chill and have tea.” You know? “Still got two hours and 20 minutes to hop in the float tank.” So I like that 75 minutes is edging on there. If you do get someone in five minutes late, it’s not as big a deal as with the 60 minute float.
Ashkahn: Yeah. I almost like 80 minutes. Like, and 80 minute float with a 40 minute transition.
Graham: Like 77?
Ashkahn: 77 and a half minutes.
Graham: Just in between.
Ashkahn: Just that nice time, you know?
Graham: It feels nice.
Ashkahn: So that would be my recommendation.
Graham: Then you have to have 27 and a half minute transitions.
Ashkahn: Uh-huh. And that extra half minute, I think is really what adds comfort to the entire thing.
Graham: Yeah, so in general I like them. I mean, I’ve floated for as short as only being in the tank for half an hour and as long as being in there for 12 hours. So as far as length of float and being able to have a good experience, I think it’s possible at any length that you’re doing it, long or short. So kind of what you were saying about first time experience too is interesting. Like, if someone is only offering 75 minute floats versus offering 75 minute and 90, or 75 minute and 60 is also kind of an interesting question.
Ashkahn: Yeah. It feels too close together. I feel like it’d be-
Graham: Weird to do.
Ashkahn: Not worth it to offer 75 and 90 or 60. Like, just 75 and
Graham: Three hours.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Something much more significant.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: And there’s some centers out there doing, we put out this industry report every year. Float Tank Solutions. And there’s a stat in there about what length of service people offer, so you can check it out. We’ll put it in the show notes of how many people out there offer 75 minute floats.
Graham: Yeah, and you can see the bulk of people really are just 60 and 90 minutes, and that’s …
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just like three weirdos out there. You know who you are.
Graham: Awesome. Anything else about 75 minute floats?
Ashkahn: You three weirdos. Get in touch with … I’m kind of interested to hear what peoples’ experiences are. I guess I want to see if there’s a center that only offers 75 minutes.
Graham: We answer questions, Ashkahn. We don’t ask them.
Ashkahn: Oh, okay. Well, nevermind. I guess this will just remain a mystery forever. No, I’m good then.
Graham: All right. If you are one of those centers though, reach out. And you can reach out if you have a question or anything you want to send us at floattanksolutions.com/podcast.
Ashkahn: That’s right. And we’ll talk to you later.
Graham: Bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Using Ozone in Float Tanks – DSP 340
Ashkahn and Graham talk about Ozone in this episode. Everything from different types of ozonators to the efficacy of it as a water treatment system compared to other systems.
Ozone is very effective, but there are concerns about its use that aren’t present in other types of water treatment, and fortunately the guys give us a lot of information on what to consider when putting together our own systems.
Credit Card Processing – DSP 339
Graham and Ashkahn delve into the wild world of credit card processing. There’s a massive industry of businesses that exist between when your customer swipes their credit card and when it goes into your bank account. The industry seems to be designed to be confusing and some companies only perform certain tasks, making it very difficult to compare services.
The guys give their advice on how to handle finding the right credit card processor for float centers and what to look out for when you’re on the hunt.
Floating While Pregnant – DSP 338
There are tons of anecdotal stories about pregnant people having great experiences with floating, but what are some of the things you should consider if you’re going to encourage floating while pregnant.
Graham and Ashkahn share what they’ve heard about it and how to frame the conversation with an expecting parent while still covering your bases from a liability standpoint.
Giving Shares of Your Company – DSP 337
A lot of small businesses have a romanticized idea of what “shares” in a business actually mean. Float On did, once upon a time. What does it mean to give shares of your company to someone? Is it a good way to reward a valuable and dedicated employee? Are there other, more appropriate rewards that you can offer instead?
Graham and Ashkahn review this question in detail, sharing many questions that any float center owner should consider before offering an employee ownership of your company.
Is a Business Plan Necessary When Buying an Existing Center? – DSP 336
Do you need a business plan if you’re not building a business from the ground up?
Graham and Ashkahn chime in and give a solid “maybe” as a response. It depends on a lot of factors, for sure. Do you already have financing? Are you maintaining the existing business model or revamping it?
Latest Blog Posts
Beginner’s Guides from Everywhere!
If you’re not familiar with the Beginner’s Guide, it’s basically our intro brochure at Float On. About 5 years ago now we made the creation files easily available so folks could edit it as they pleased and sent it out to everyone with an open invitation to do with it as they pleased for their own centers. We know most centers don’t have graphic designers on staff so it seemed like a nice way to help others have reliable, easy to access information for their clients and also serve as a way to save them time and money from having to create their own.
The result of this is that years later, dozens and dozens of centers have a version of these brochures, some of them not even realizing where they originated from. Naturally, we’ve taken a copy from all the centers we’ve visited and we thought we’d share some of them with the rest of you.
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes from March
Here we go again. Another month, another difficult choice of deciding which episodes will make it into the Top 5. We had some really killer episodes this month, including our 100th episode and a special interview with Justin Feinstein. Here are the episodes that we...
Float Success Story – Float Los Alamos
At the Float Conference every year we hear inspirational stories from float center owners who have carved a piece of the industry out in their salty image. Everyone defines "success" in their own way, and we thought it would be cool to share what that meant to some of...
The Daily Solutions Podcast – Our Top 5 Episodes from February
Well, we’ve done it again. We’ve gone through an entire month listening to Graham and Ashkahn share their floaty knowledge. In any case, here are a few of our favorites from the month of February. We're almost at episode 100 (in which we have something special...
