Under the assumptions in this model, a spray tan costs about £18.70 when an employed therapist delivers it. If you perform the treatment yourself, the cash cost is about £12.34 before paying yourself for your time.
Neither figure is a recommended price. Your price also needs to provide a reasonable income for you, cover quieter weeks and leave enough profit to reinvest in the business.
Published price ranges can tell you what other salons appear to be charging, but they cannot tell you what your treatment needs to earn.
A national range does not know your rent, staffing costs, appointment volume or local market. Two salons can charge the same price and make completely different amounts from the treatment.
Start with your own costs, add the pay and profit the business needs, and then use local prices as a sense-check.
What a price floor means
Your price floor is the minimum amount a treatment needs to bring in to cover the costs included in your model. It is the starting point for pricing, not the price you should necessarily charge.
In this example, a £30 spray tan has a modelled cost of £18.70 when an employed therapist delivers it. That includes:
- Solution
- Disposables and filters
- Laundry
- Card fees
- Twenty-five minutes of employed treatment time and payroll on-costs
- An allocated share of the room and general overhead
If the owner delivers the treatment, removing the employed labour cost reduces the cash figure to £12.34. That does not make the owner’s time free. You still need to add the amount you expect to earn for performing the treatment.
| Delivery model | Modelled cost | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Employed therapist | £18.70 | Includes employed treatment time and payroll on-costs |
| Owner-delivered | £12.34 | Before paying the owner for their time |
The full treatment-cost model shows every line.
Your sustainable price needs to cover more than the basic cost:
Direct costs + labour or owner pay + overhead + profit = sustainable price
What changed in April 2026
Wage rates and the business-rates system changed in April 2026. The effect is not the same for every salon, so use the sections that apply to your business.
National Living Wage
The National Living Wage increased from £12.21 to £12.71 an hour on 1 April 2026.
In this model, twenty-five minutes of employed treatment time, including the payroll on-costs used in the calculation, increased from £6.11 to £6.36.
That adds approximately 25p per tan, or £156 a year at twelve completed tans a week.
The minimum rate for workers aged 18 to 20 rose from £10.00 to £10.85, an increase of 8.5%. Salons employing younger team members should recalculate their treatment costs using the rate that applies to each employee.
Employer National Insurance
Employer National Insurance is charged at 15% on eligible earnings above the secondary threshold of approximately £5,000 a year.
Eligible employers can claim an Employment Allowance of up to £10,500. Depending on your business structure and total payroll, this may cover some or all of your employer NI bill.
Check your payroll rather than automatically adding 15% to every treatment. Different rules and thresholds can also apply to younger employees and apprentices.
Why business rates need your actual bill
Business rates are the part most likely to produce a misleading national calculation. Your bill depends on your country, rateable value, reliefs, revaluation, and whether the room has its own business rates assessment.
If you rent a room inside a larger salon, business rates may already be included in your rent rather than billed to you separately.
Small Business Rate Relief in England
If your property has a rateable value of £12,000 or less and it is the only property used by the business, you will normally receive 100% Small Business Rate Relief.
Relief then tapers between £12,001 and £15,000. Eligibility can change if you occupy more than one property or your rateable value changed in the April 2026 revaluation.
If you continue to receive 100% relief, there is no business-rates bill to add to the treatment. The wage increase in this example would still add approximately 25p per tan.
An England salon with a £20,000 rateable value
The headline calculation for an eligible salon with a rateable value of £20,000 looks like this:
2025/26: £20,000 × 49.9p, less 40% relief = £5,988
2026/27 headline bill: £20,000 × 38.2p = £7,640
Before any transitional or supporting relief, that is an increase of £1,652.
However, salons that received the 40% Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief in 2025/26 may qualify for 2026 Supporting Small Business Relief. This limits the first-year increase to the greater of £800 or the relevant transitional cap.
With the rateable value held at £20,000, the first-year increase in this example would normally be capped at approximately £800, giving an estimated bill of £6,788 rather than £7,640.
Across 624 completed tans, that is:
£800 ÷ 624 = £1.28 per tan
Add the modelled 25p wage increase and the combined change is approximately:
£1.28 + £0.25 = £1.53 per tan
Your actual council bill may differ because the 2026 revaluation changed rateable values and other reliefs or adjustments may apply. Use the difference between your real 2025/26 and 2026/27 bills rather than relying on the headline multiplier alone.
If your salon provides several services, do not automatically allocate the whole rates increase to spray tans. Spread the cost across the business using a reasonable method, such as appointments, room hours or revenue.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Business rates are devolved, so the England calculation does not apply across the whole UK.
In Wales, the 2026/27 food and drink hospitality relief does not include salons, although transitional arrangements may phase in some revaluation-related increases. Scotland has a separate 2026/27 relief scheme that includes eligible hair, beauty and tanning properties, subject to rateable-value and location conditions. Northern Ireland also operates a separate rating system.
Use the bill issued by your local authority or rating body and take advice if you are unsure which reliefs apply.
What a £1, £2 or £3 increase produces
The following table assumes 624 completed tans a year, a 1.5% card fee, no VAT and no change in appointment numbers:
| Price increase | Additional amount per year after card fees |
|---|---|
| £1 | £615 |
| £2 | £1,229 |
| £3 | £1,844 |
In the employed-therapist model:
- If you pay no business rates, the 25p wage increase is covered by a £1 rise.
- If the £20,000 England rates example receives the expected £800 first-year cap, the combined £956 annual increase is covered by a £2 rise.
- If a salon genuinely experienced the full uncapped £1,652 rates increase and the £156 wage increase, a £3 rise would only just cover the £1,808 total.
This is why there is no single increase that works for every salon. The right number depends on the costs that actually changed in your business.
If you are VAT-registered, part of any consumer price increase will be VAT. Recalculate the table using the amount the business retains after VAT and payment charges.
Your price should do more than break even
Covering your costs keeps the treatment available. It does not automatically make it worthwhile.
Your price also needs to provide:
- Reasonable pay for the owner
- A contribution towards quieter weeks and cancellations
- Money for equipment replacement and training
- Enough profit to support and grow the business
Once you have calculated that number, compare it with similar salons in your area. Local pricing is useful as a market check, but it should not replace your own calculation.
Price reviews are already common
Raising prices can feel uncomfortable, particularly when you have regular clients. However, price reviews are taking place across the wider hair and beauty sector.
In the NHBF State of the Sector survey conducted in February 2026, 72.6% of respondents expected to raise prices during the following three months. Of the 423 businesses surveyed, 54.8% were breaking even or making a loss, while only 7.8% described themselves as making a good profit.
ONS figures also show that prices for hairdressing and personal-grooming services were approximately 3.9% higher in June 2026 than a year earlier.
These figures do not prove that every client will accept every increase. They show that reviewing prices in response to rising costs is normal across the sector.
How to introduce a price change
Give clients clear notice. Four weeks gives regular clients time to understand the change before their next appointment.
Keep the message brief and confident. You do not need to apologise repeatedly or provide a detailed cost breakdown, but a short explanation is respectful.
For example: “From 1 September, a spray tan will be £33. This allows us to maintain the products, time and service included in your appointment.”
Update every booking channel. Change your website, booking system, social profiles, treatment menu and confirmation messages at the same time.
Review the whole treatment list. Look at the cost and demand for each service rather than assuming that every price should increase by the same amount.
Put an annual review in the diary. Smaller, regular adjustments are often easier to manage than holding prices for several years and then needing one large increase.
Calculate your own sustainable price
Use your last three months of trading rather than relying on a national average:
- Calculate your average number of completed tans each week.
- Add the solution, consumables, laundry and payment costs.
- Add employed labour or the amount you need to earn for your own time.
- Allocate room and general overhead fairly across all services.
- Use your actual 2026/27 business rates and payroll figures.
- Add the profit and reinvestment the treatment needs to produce.
- Compare the result with local prices and your market position.
- Set the new price, give clients notice and update every booking channel.
Review the result after three months. Track completed bookings, treatment contribution and regular-client retention. That will tell you far more about your business than a national price range.
These figures are a model, not a forecast. The calculations assume 12 completed tans per week for 52 weeks, a 1.5% card fee, and a non-VAT-registered salon. The business-rates example applies to England and holds the rateable value at £20,000. Actual bills depend on revaluation, relief eligibility, location and local adjustments. Check your bill, substitute your own figures and take professional advice where necessary.
