BOOTH RENT VS COMMISSION CALCULATOR
Booth rent keeps the full price of every ticket, but it also adds a fixed rent check, card fees, backbar, and often unpaid laundry and booking hours a salon used to absorb. At a light book, those fixed costs can cost more than commission would have taken. At a full book, the math flips, because rent stays fixed while commission keeps taking its cut of every new client. There is a specific client count where one flips into the other — this calculator solves for it as breakEvenClients.
On the calculator's defaults — $85 average ticket, 50% commission, a $275/week booth rent, 2.9% card fees, 10% backbar, and the other default costs — the break-even is about 8.4 clients a week. At the default 14 clients a week, that book is already past it: commission pays $603/week, booth rent pays $779.17, a $176.17-a-week ($8,808.50/year) edge for booth rent, and booth rent also wins on dollars per hour ($31.80 vs $30.92).
| Clients/week | Commission take-home | Booth take-home | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | $263.00 | $186.89 | Commission, by $76.11 |
| ~8.4 (break-even) | ≈ tied | ≈ tied | Flips here |
| 14 (default) | $603.00 | $779.17 | Booth, by $176.17 |
At 6 clients a week the same lease is $76.11 behind for the week, and needs about 2.4 more clients — roughly 8.4 total — to catch up. Below break-even, growing the book still helps both sides; it just helps booth rent faster, because commission only ever keeps half of each new ticket while booth rent keeps nearly all of it after fixed costs.
The same default 14-client book supports booth rent up to about $451.17 a week — not just the $275 in the example — before it stops beating the commission split. A salon offering a rent between the two is still worth checking client-by-client; a rent above the ceiling loses money against commission no matter how full the book is.
Open the calculator and enter your own ticket, client count, and costs — the breakeven, the extra clients needed, and the rent ceiling all update from your numbers, not these defaults.
On the calculator's defaults — an $85 average ticket, a $275/week booth rent, 50% commission split, and the other default costs — booth rent breaks even at about 8.4 clients a week. Below that, the commission chair pays more; above it, booth rent pays more, and the gap grows with every extra client because booth rent keeps the full ticket price minus fixed costs, while commission only ever pays half.
On the same defaults, 6 clients a week puts commission $76.11 ahead for the week ($263 vs $186.89), and you would need about 2.4 more clients a week — roughly 8.4 total — before booth rent catches up. Below breakeven, more clients help both sides, but they help booth rent more, which is why the gap closes rather than staying fixed.
On the default 14-clients-a-week book, booth rent could rise to about $451.17 a week — not just the $275 in the example — before it stops beating the same commission split. That gap between an offered rent and this ceiling is exactly what the calculator's own rent-offer field scores for you.
Not necessarily. This calculator scores both separately because they can disagree: booth rent usually adds unpaid hours a commission chair doesn't carry (laundry, booking, backbar prep), so a client count where booth rent wins on the week's total dollars can still lose on dollars per hour if those extra hours outweigh the extra take-home. Check both numbers, not just one.