Playlist launched a set of AI tools for operators this week. One of them will tell you how your studio is doing against businesses like yours.
It is a genuinely useful idea. Most operators have never seen their numbers next to anyone else's, and guessing is expensive. It is also worth reading slowly.
What actually launched
AI Insights is five things. Weekly performance summaries in plain English. An assistant you can ask questions without building a report. Daily flags for clients likely to leave and clients likely to spend. A revenue forecast, in beta. And Comparative Analytics, the benchmark.
Chief product officer Jess Huang framed it well: “a solo owner shouldn't need a data team to understand how.” That is the right problem to solve.
Where the comparison comes from
Comparative Analytics measures your sales, visits, members, classes and appointments against what the release calls “a customizable set of similar businesses in the same category or region.” Those benchmarks are informed by anonymised data from more than 110,000 venues across Playlist's brand portfolio.
That portfolio is worth spelling out. Playlist owns Mindbody, ClassPass, Booker, EGYM and Kite. So the pool reaches across booking software, a consumer marketplace and gym equipment.
Which means two things at once. You get to see how you compare. And your numbers are in the pool that everyone else compares themselves to.
You are reading the benchmark. You are also in it.
That is not a scandal. It is the trade every benchmark has always asked for, and a benchmark with nobody in it is worth nothing. It is just worth knowing you are on both sides of it.
| What the launch tells you | What it does not |
|---|---|
| Benchmarks draw on 110,000+ venues | How many of them are in your comparison set |
| The set is “similar businesses, same category or region” | What similar means beyond those two things |
| Data is anonymised | Whether multi-site chains sit in your set |
| Available to Accelerate and Ultimate tiers | Whether you can see or leave the pool |
Should you trust a benchmark from your own software vendor?
Cautiously, and only after you know what is in the comparison set. A comp set is the group of businesses you are being measured against, and it decides the answer more than your own numbers do. The release defines it only as similar businesses in the same category or region. Category and region are broad. A 14-location chain and a single studio can sit in the same category in the same city. Their cost structures are nothing alike. Being told you are behind them is not information you can act on.
Four questions to ask before you act on it
How many businesses are in my set? A benchmark drawn from eleven venues and one drawn from eleven hundred are different products with the same name. If the tool will not show you the count, treat the number as directional at best.
What makes them similar beyond category and postcode? Price point, size, staffing model and age of business all move the numbers you are being compared on. Two Pilates studios where one opened last quarter are not peers.
Are chains in my set? Multi-site operators have buying power and shared overhead an independent does not. A comparison that mixes them is a comparison to a different business model.
What happens when the benchmark and my plan disagree? This is the one that costs money. A benchmark tells you what is normal, not what is right for you. If your retention is below the set but your revenue per member is well above it, you may be running a deliberately smaller, higher-value business and doing it correctly. We built a retention benchmark guide on exactly that principle: a number without a date, a sample and a definition is not a benchmark, it is a rumour.
The bit worth watching
The churn flags sit in the same product. Daily predictions of which members are about to leave are genuinely useful. They also come from the company that runs ClassPass, the marketplace those same members can use to find somewhere else. We are not suggesting anything improper. We are saying your software vendor, your benchmark and your acquisition channel are now one company. Understand that shape before you lean on all three.
This is the vendor and operator gap we wrote about when Arketa opened its own studio, showing up from the other direction. Software companies now hold a clearer picture of your market than you do.
Use the benchmark. Ask what is in it first.