Understand how membership renewals work

Renewals keep your members with you season after season, without anyone needing to remember to rejoin. Here's how they work, so you can answer members' questions with confidence.

Continuous and fixed-length plans

How a membership renews depends on its price plan:

• Continuous: Renews automatically every week, month or year until you or the member cancels
• Fixed-length: Runs for a set period and then ends. You can choose to send the member a reminder when it ends, inviting them to continue

How do members pay?

Continuous memberships work as a card subscription, much like a streaming service, rather than a direct debit. The member's card is held securely by Stripe, eola's payment provider, and members can see their membership and update their card from their eola account.

If you sell a membership at the desk for cash, the cash covers one billing period. As renewal approaches, eola asks the member to add their card so their membership carries on smoothly.

When is a renewal charged?

Each member's renewal date is based on the date they joined, and their card is charged on that date for the next period. This means renewals are spread through the year rather than all falling on one day.

If you'd like everyone on the same season, or want members to commit for a set time such as three months, a fixed-length plan is a good fit.

What if a renewal payment fails?

eola emails the member, and they can update their card and pay under Manage billing in their eola account until the final payment attempt. If it's still unpaid after that, the membership is cancelled and the member would need to join again.

Changing or stopping a renewal

• Stop a renewal: Open the membership, click Manage and select 'Cancel at end of cycle'. The member keeps access until the end of the period they've paid for, and no further payments are taken
• Upgrade: The difference is charged straight away, based on the member's renewal date
• Downgrade: The lower price starts from the next payment
• Price increase: Create a new price plan and move members onto it, so they pay the new price when they renew
• Pause: No payments are taken while paused, and the renewal date stays the same

Helpful tips:

• Send your own friendly reminder ahead of renewal dates too, as members are more likely to notice a message from you
• Remind members to check their card details in their eola account before they renew
• Filter Reports -> Members by Past Due to see who needs a nudge
• If some members pay you outside eola, contact our team at help@eola.co and we'll help you get them set up

Related guides

• Create a membership price plan
• Increase a membership price
• A customer's membership is showing as cancelled