r/PreplyTutors

Hi, do you have some tips for start to teach italian??
I think my profile is really good, im 9$ at the moment.

Thank youuu

I’ve been on Preply for 5 months and it’s been going really well: $60/hr, strong retention, 100% 5-star reviews, including anonymous reviews, and recently ranking in the top 100 for weeks.

I know rankings ebb and flow, but today I’m back down to ranking of 1k+, and I attribute it to the new “0 years of experience” plastered at the top of my page as of today. For newer tutors, that feels like a public warning label. By all means, tutors with many years should display that but tagging new tutors with a huge zero only discourages business.

I’m upfront that I’m a business English/sales coach with a corporate background. My typically C1-C2 level students know this and book me for interview prep, sales calls, and business roleplays. I have experience, just not traditional tutoring experience.

I also wish tutors had more control over tags. Mine now says “structured classes,” based on their AI assessment, when I’d rather attract advanced students looking for conversational/business English.

in my opinion, better profile control would mean better matches, happier students, and more business for tutors, and Preply.

https://preview.redd.it/aqeszai0jb2h1.png?width=518&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a10bd8af9ae4793d6ce1ceee3b9fd9369b0eb30

I recently got started on Preply. I would like to make some changes to my bio. On my description page, I am able to find where to edit my bio and make changes. However, after clicking save and then refreshing the page, all of my edits end up lost. I also see no notification that anything was retained or that I might need to wait for some sort of approval before edits become live. It seems to just lose my changes permanently. This has been happening over my attempts a few times this week already.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Is there a known solution?

So from my observation it seems students cancle subscriptions for reasons not related to the tutor or even lesson quality. My conversion rate is pretty good around 43 percent and I have about 60 5 star reviews but it seems studnets dont stay long. Id get 3 new subscriptions and in the same week or a day later 1 or 2 older studnets would leave, some say why (personal reason) others say nothing at all. Most studnets stay for a few months though. Is this normal? It seems some times students are never satisfied and look for the PERFECT tutor or they just realize they have thousands of options for teachers

Hi. So basically I have a student that hasn’t came to class in 2-3 weeks. I always send him messages once the lesson starts, like “hello time to do lesson” in a more formal/appropriate tone of course. And then, after 15 minutes, I write that I will mark him as absent but I hope he’s okay.

He’s given me around 6-7-8 lessons for just doing that, and I’ve seen that sometimes he reads the messages but doesn’t show up for lesson. I’m a bit annoyed because he’s got fixed time slots in my schedule that students that pay slightly more could use, or I could be teaching instead of just taking the money. What would you do in this situation?

I would like to cancel the future lessons and fixed times in my schedule but Preply tells me that it could affect my attendance rate and my profile visibility. It’s just that I feel bad taking the money like this. Thanks.

And please be kind, I’m just trying to do the right thing and protect my time, my money and my job.

I have been a tutor on Preply for a few months. Due to my background, I am extremely popular with corporate students on Preply. I have only ever had bad experiences with them as learners, BUT they do seem to stay on for longer and don't mind paying me even when they miss classes, so the pros and cons balance out for me.

The problem is that I found out that Preply is charging some of my corporate students twice my going rate - yes, maybe this *shouldn't* happen, but it does. I have proof of it because one of my students works in the billing department of their company and showed me their contract. Once I factor in Preply's commission, the exchange rates, and the transfer fees I have to incur to get money into my bank, I'm getting around $15 per hour while Preply is pocketing around $35. Needless to say, I find this rather vexing. The fact that Preply are constantly trying to push me to sign up to their corporate tutor programme, which would freeze my hourly rate for a year, is even more vexing. Unfortunately there isn't much I can do about the issue.

I'm thinking of trying a different tack. $25 seems to be the magic cut-off number for corporate students atm. I could raise my prices up to that point and sign up to the corporate programme, locking both myself and Preply to that price point. Charging that much would basically obliterate my chances of getting "regular" students, but it would maximise the profit I get from each corporate student, and I could focus on those instead. Problem is, I don't know whether prices that high would mean that Preply would stop pushing corporate students my way. I also don't know what would happen if I decided to lower my prices later on, or even whether I'd be allowed to do that. If this strategy doesn't work out, could I opt out of the corporate tutor programme, lower my prices, then opt in again at a lower price point?

Before anyone tells me to "just" get the info from Preply - I have tried. There is currently a lot of contradictory info from Preply about the exact nature of their corporate tutor programme - unsurprising, given what's going on regarding pricing. I have tried to discuss the issue with Preply support but I keep getting contradictory answers, or answers focused on what should happen, rather than on what actually happens. I'm looking for recommendations from tutors currently enrolled in the corporate tutor programme with higher hourly rates, or anyone who's opted in and out of it.

I do not want to teach corporate students, for a number of reasons. I wrote in my profile that I am not taking on corporate students. I don't know whether people don't read or don't care, but around two thirds of my trials at the moment are with corporate students. Asking them to cancel the trial doesn't always work, because the students in question don't respond or don't even read their messages. On one occasion, the bookings were made by a company employee (not the student(s) themselves) who got upset with me, demanded to know the reason why I was turning them down, and reported me to Preply.

I'd like to avoid these issues, but I don't want to tank my ratings in the process. I also don't want to turn away other students by raising prices beyond the corporate price point (which seems to be 25$, but I'm not sure). At the moment, all I can think of is:

- Blocking off my daytime availability. I can explain to my existing students that they need to contact me to make bookings. Unfortunately, it would turn away some new non-corporate students and it won't turn away all corporate students, so it's not a great strategy.

- Telling corporate students that I am unable to meet the requirements of the corporate program because I cannot commit to the 12 month period. It's a lie and utterly irrelevant to the issue at hand, but at least it might stop them from running to Preply to report me because they don't like my reasons. It would only work for the students who read my messages, though.

When everything fails and a student books and remains unresponsive, I don't know what's my best bet. If I go through with the trial and tell them (again!) that I don't take on corporate students, they would have a right to complain to Preply. If I cancel the lesson at my end, I will be penalised, and it won't stop them from rebooking. If I block students too often, Preply is likely to notice and be unhappy about it. If I reschedule the lesson until they read their messages and cancel at their end, I'll be penalised AND risk upsetting the students.

I understand that this will all be immaterial when the new corporate programme is finally rolled out. However, I'd still like a strategy for minimising damage until that happy date. Any informed suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Teaching English on Preply and trying to grow. Would love to hear your honest journey!

I have a student who is a friend I know in real life but also more than friends but not in a relationship and he subscribed with me to learn the language of the country we both live in, we have a complicated relationship Rn and he decided to stop talking to me until he figure out the situation we have meanwhile he has around 7 unscheduled lessons in his balance and the subscription ends by the end of the month, so what happens if he doesn’t schedule them? Will preply take the money? Should I schedule them and report them as canceled and take the money myself? But I’m too shy to make any moves since we agreed to no contact but I also feel bad that the money might be wasted?

Last week I had a trial lesson with a student that has a very specific profile: she works in tech but understands almost everything in the target language, but she wants to go through books and articles about her area of expertise. This isn't the issue since I have done this with other students, my problem is she is very, and I mean VERY demanding. She started sharing her screen out of nowhere and began reading her book aloud, she didn't even ask me if I had prepared something for our class. If I wanted to ask her something or correct her on pronunciation she didn't even listen, she didn't ask any questions, but she has a list of very specific demands and I'm already feeling drained.

After our trial lesson I didn't think she would subscribe but she did, and now I don't know what to do! Is there any way I can not teach her without her giving me a bad review or complaining about me?

Hi guys, i just joined preply and recentl lost my job so this will be my full time job for now until i get something. My profile was recently approaved about 2 or 3 days ago. i just have a few questions:

1. what can i do to get students? i tried ro edit my profile as best as i can and i finished the certified preply tutor course.

2. how long did take all yal to get your first trial and conversion students?

3. my hourly rate is $12, i heard starting too low can be just as bad as starting too high considering the preply commision. Is $12 too high?

Hi! I teach conversational Spanish and i might be running out of ideas with some students that I’ve had for years now. Does anybody has any ideas or resources that might help? (It can be English resources as well since I would just translate it)
Thanks!

I’ve seen this one discussion in one community saying that tutors who teach a language only need to know how to speak the target language (besides ones that English).
They argue that English tutors (who are native) still can teach people from other countries without having to know that country’s language so why do they need to know English to teach their native language.
What is your opinion on this? Be straightforward

A little context:
I quit my job 3 months ago and moved into teaching Spanish full time on Preply, and things have actually been going well. I’ve been getting more students, recurring subscriptions, and my schedule is slowly filling up. The problem is that I think I built my schedule around growth and availability, not around sustainability.

At the beginning, I opened hours from 7 am to 9 pm because I was scared of not getting enough students. It worked, but now I feel like my calendar owns my life.

Some things that are affecting me:
- I’m available too many hours during the day “just in case” someone books.
- My evenings are becoming fragmented and mentally exhausting.
- I feel guilty closing availability because I’m afraid of losing momentum or hurting the algorithm.
- I have students in many different recurring slots, so I feel trapped between protecting my income and protecting my health.
- I also struggle with anxiety, and not exercising consistently is making it significantly worse.

Before teaching full-time, I used to exercise regularly (4x/week), and I’m realizing how important that was for my mental stability and energy levels. Right now I barely know where to fit it anymore.

I’m trying to figure out:
- How do experienced tutors create stable schedules without feeling available 24/7?
- Is it normal to start pulling back availability after initial growth?
- How do you protect time for exercise/self-care without panicking about losing students?
- Have any of you experienced a slowdown during summer/vacation months? I’m wondering if I’m catastrophizing future demand too early.

I think I’m entering the phase where I need systems and boundaries instead of maximum availability, but psychologically that transition feels terrifying.

I’d really appreciate hearing how other people handled this stage. Be kind, please!

I’m a new tutor. I teach Finnish and I have a pretty low price because I’m just starting ($5). I already have my first student which is great. I had a trial lesson with a woman who lives in Finland and is trying to learn the spoken language.

Anyways, from the start of the lesson, she behaved a bit creepy. She’d ask me random personal questions about my life (if I lived alone, if I had a girlfriend, etc.) and I was mostly dismissive and tried to refocus on the lesson’s content. She was wearing a sweatshirt and asked if I minded if she took it off because she was really hot. I was like ???? I told her that’s fine, wear whatever you want. So this lady takes it off and she’s got nothing underneath. I thought she meant like, she’d keep a blouse on or something.

I kid you not I started getting extremely nervous because I was like what the actual fuck. So she just had her stuff… hanging there. So like I tried to ignore it and continue teaching like nothing happened, and after like 5 minutes I instinctively closed the call. But when I went to block her I started thinking “what if she tells preply that I was inappropriate? What if I get my account shut down? What if I get reported or something?”

Do I report her? If I do, what if they don’t believe me? What if she says I did something inappropriate?

If a student wants to follow a book that they already have, what do you do? Do you buy a copy yourself? Do they scan you the pages?

Thanks!

Looking for info. Would you have an issue doing trial lessons if they were truly free? Meaning Preply doesnt charge students at all?

I’m a newer tutor on Preply and wanted to ask experienced tutors here what the normal etiquette/protocol is for rescheduling a lesson as a tutor.

I have a single 30-minute class scheduled late Saturday night, and it’s my only lesson that day. I may need to reschedule it, but I don’t want to come across as unreliable or unprofessional.

A few questions:

• How much notice do you usually try to give students?
• Do students generally mind if it’s just a one-off reschedule for a short lesson?
• Is it better to message the student first, or directly send a reschedule request through Preply?
• Does occasional rescheduling affect tutor stats/profile visibility in any noticeable way?

Just trying to understand what’s considered normal/best practice on the platform. Thanks!

I had a pretty weird trial lesson as a language tutor today. The student first missed the original lesson but said he was there and didn’t see me, then asked to reschedule immediately and ended up getting a full 50-minute lesson instead of the 25-minute trial. During the lesson he kept suggesting moving communication/payment outside the platform, asked for WhatsApp, talked in a slightly flirty/weird way and seemed more interested in chatting privately than actually learning.

I stayed professional and kept everything on-platform, but now I’m wondering: would you report this to the platform or just ignore it unless he contacts me again?

I am also annoyed because it will probably affect my statistics if he doesn’t sign up for a subscription but I also don’t want him to.

I currently teach 2 siblings who are in a country at war with another nation. Often, they bring it up and have said things like, "what do they expect? If they attack us why shouldn't we bomb them?" or, "They teach their children to hate us. They teach it in their schools." I carefully say that there are many perspectives and try and get back into the lesson but, these are young kids-9 and 10 years old- and I find it extremely jarring. I am considering telling their parents I have decided to not work with any children for the time being and have them find another tutor. How would y'all handle this?