How much time to leave between massage clients

Plan a real gap between massages, usually 15 minutes, sometimes more, and build it into your slots rather than hoping to find it. A 60-minute massage isn't a 60-minute appointment: the client needs time to arrive, undress, get dressed again and pay, and you need time to change the linen, air the room, wash your hands and catch your breath. If you open back-to-back hour slots, every session eats into the next one, and by the fourth client of the day you're late and tired.

It's tempting to see the gap as dead time. In practice, each minute has a job:

Skip that time for a day and you can survive. Skip it every day and your hands, your back and the quality of your massages pay the price.

There's no single right number, but you can reason from what happens in your room:

Time yourself for a week. If you regularly need 20 minutes and have planned 10, the difference is being taken from someone, usually the next client or you.

The simplest approach is to open slots with the gap already between them. If your hour-long massage is really 60 minutes on the table, open a slot from 9:00 to 10:00, the next one from 10:15 to 11:15, and so on. Clients see and book the massage time; the 15 minutes in between never appear as bookable, so nobody can take them.

Another option is to make the slot a little longer than the massage and say so in the service description: "60-minute massage, please arrive five minutes early." Either way, the key is that the gap is decided when you open the slots, not negotiated with the clock during the day.

Before holidays or on Saturdays, it's tempting to squeeze in an extra client by cutting every gap to five minutes. You gain one massage and lose quality in all the others: rushed linen changes, clients who feel hurried, and a therapist who ends the day exhausted. If demand is high, open an extra slot at the start or end of the day instead of shortening the space between sessions.

Short gaps aren't a lunch break. After three or four massages, plan a real pause of 30 to 45 minutes. It's easy to do: simply don't open a slot at that time. Some therapists also limit the number of long or deep tissue massages per day, and alternate them with lighter treatments so their hands recover.

Clients who know the rhythm help you keep it. A line in the service description is enough: "Please arrive five minutes before your appointment. The massage lasts 60 minutes; sessions start and finish on time so every client gets their full treatment." When someone arrives late, you can then shorten their massage slightly instead of delaying the next person, and they'll understand why.

Mobile massage changes the maths. The gap between clients now includes loading the car, driving, finding parking, carrying the table up the stairs and setting up in a room that was not designed for massage. Open home-visit slots only on the days you are on the road, group clients by area, and make each slot long enough for the travel as well as the treatment. Price home visits as their own service, so clients see the difference with a massage at your practice.