*** IMPORTANT *** Update to Cafe Opening Hours & Evening Check In

Thankyou for taking the time to read the details. 

It is no secret that changes currently being made by the UK Government are giving the hospitality industry a battering with a triple whammy of increased rents, rates and taxation, thresholds for support shifting and of course the cost of seemingly everything, everywhere skyrocketing. We are seeing lots of wonderful independent businesses having to make incredibly hard decisions, with the sad reality being that a small number of incredibly hardworking and dedicated individuals have simply reached a point where they can’t continue taking body blows in the name of their passions from the systems that are supposed to be helping stabilise them. 

At the end of last year we double down on our commitment to create a space where everyone could enjoy access to sustainable and affordable wellness routines by fundamentally re-imagining how studio memberships worked and we have been so incredibly pleased with how amazingly that has been received! This year we’ve seen more of you get to more classes and commit to routines that underpin and sustain real and positive lifestyle transformation.

Whilst our classes are helping you all to stay resilient and flexible, we are constantly doing the same work behind the scenes to ensure that the Yoga x Life Studios also remains as flexible, resilient and relevant as ever. 

As I write this email it will soon cost us more in electricity to have the coffee machine on for one evening - even before we include rent, rate and tax increases! - than we can reasonably expect to make from coffee sales. We also understand that the solution isn’t simply to increase the price and keep on passing issues down the chain (plus we’ve never been big on passing the buck book anyway!). We have kept a close eye on the utility of the cafe space and arrival times for evening classes over the last few months and the numbers show simply that either it isn’t a priority, or a possibility for all of you at the moment.  We have therefore made the decision to stop offering hot drinks during the evenings and reduce our reception team. This means the evenings will be in the capable hands of our wonderful teaching team who will continue to greet you at the door with a smile from the reception desk and will have a fresh range of cold drinks and snacks you can continue to enjoy as a top up before or after class. The doors will now be locked whilst class is in progress, and we will utilise the individual studio doors in order to allow late arrivals to a reasonable limit. To ensure it all runs smoothly we will be tightening up our arrivals/cancellation policy and appreciate your support with this - we’ll pop full details in Sunday’s email and update the website/app reference points too. We will still be open all day Friday so you can come along anytime for frankly, the best possible start to the weekend! 

We’ve always believed in simplicity, sustainability and a focus on cultivating what really matters and so whilst we bid farewell (for now!) to our evening cafe operations, we are clear that this is a necessary step to continue delivering on our core values. If you’ve got a question please let us know by replying to this email but hopefully it’s all simple enough! 

Thank you for being part of this community, and for standing with small, independent spaces like ours. It means far more than you probably realise.

Chris, Debbie & the YxL Team. 

Here are the key points; 

• From the 15th of April the teaching team will be looking after the evenings which means the studio doors will be open from 15 minutes before each class starts but closed whilst the classes are running. (Don’t worry we’ve got a plan for letting late arrivals in still although we will be tightening up our late cancellation policy to make sure everything runs smoothly!) 

• From the 15th of April you will only be able to purchase cold drinks/snacks in the evenings (we’ve sourced some amazing new suppliers too!) 

• You can still come and soak up our super chilled cafe vibes every morning and all day Friday, and around our special classes and events.