App to book CrossFit classes: a box owner's guide

The eight jobs of a class booking app

At a box with booked classes, members repeat the same actions every week. When one of them breaks, the message goes back to the owner's phone. The table shows what each job needs to do well, and the sign that it is handled badly.

None of these jobs is about training. Score logging, leaderboards and the daily workout are good to have. Booking is what a member opens four times a week. That is where the app earns or loses their trust.

The rules to set before you open bookings

A booking app enforces rules. If nobody sets them, it enforces its defaults, and those do not know your box. There are six decisions, and each one shows its effect in the first week.

One rule for the box, with exceptions by class type

The 07:00 class and Saturday open gym do not need the same cutoff. A good app lets you write the rule once for the whole box. Then you add exceptions by class type and by plan. If every class has to be set by hand, by month three nobody knows which rule applies where.

Members still in on-ramp

Many boxes run an on-ramp or fundamentals course before regular classes. Decide whether people in it can book regular classes, and write it down. If the app cannot enforce it, someone has to check it at the door, every day.

To set capacity with arithmetic rather than by eye, there is a whole article on it. How many spots a class should have

Waitlists: auto-book, or offer the spot first?

There are three ways a waitlist can hand over a spot that opens. Each one trades filling the class fast against booking someone who no longer wants it.

At a box where lunchtime and evening classes fill up, auto-book fills the most spots. It works when the queue is short and leaving it costs nothing. People who already know they cannot come then leave before the spot reaches them.

Waitlist rules and the cancellation cutoff, together and with worked examples, are in this guide.

Native app or web app?

A native app installs from the App Store or Google Play. A web app opens in the browser and installs to the home screen, with its own icon. For booking classes, both do the job. What changes is everything around it.

The useful question is not which one is better. It is whether your members can book on the first try, without help. Ask three members of different ages to install it and book a class on their own. Whatever goes wrong in that test will go wrong with everyone.

Payments, waivers and check-in in the same app

An app that only books leaves three jobs outside it. Each job outside is a place where your records split in two.

• Payment. If the membership is paid elsewhere, the app lets members who still owe book. Or someone at the box blocks them by hand.
• Waiver. If it is on paper, nobody at the door knows whether the new person signed. In the app, booking can ask for the signature first.
• Check-in. If attendance is not recorded, you cannot see who stopped coming. And people who stop coming are the ones who cancel next.

Check which payment methods the app takes in your country. Cards cover most people. Direct debit suits a membership that repeats every month, and some members prefer it to a saved card.

Drop-ins, visitors and members of two boxes

CrossFit always has someone from outside: travellers, people trying a first class, members of another box. The app has to know what to do with them.

• Drop-in. Someone without a plan pays for one class and books it, without going through the front desk.
• Trial class. A first-timer comes in with a name and a contact, and the box keeps them for later.
• Two boxes. One account works at both, and each box only sees what belongs to it.

The 30-minute test to choose a booking app

A demo shows the path where everything goes right. These ten tests show the rest. Run them with two phones and a test class with two spots.

1. 1.Book the last spot on both phones at the same moment. Only one can get it.
2. 2.With the class full, tap book. You should land on the waitlist, with your place in it.
3. 3.Cancel on the first phone. The second should get the spot and be told.
4. 4.Cancel after the cutoff. The warning should appear before the final tap, not after.
5. 5.Try to book with a class pack that has nothing left. The app should say why, not just “error”.
6. 6.Try to book without signing the waiver. It should take you to the signature.
7. 7.Book more classes than the limit. The app should refuse and say what the limit is.
8. 8.Raise the capacity of the full class. The queue should move on its own.
9. 9.Cancel the class from the box's side. Members booked in should be told, and keep their class.
10. 10.Turn off the internet and open the app. It should say it is offline, not show stale spots.

The first test matters most. Two taps in the same second are an ordinary Tuesday at the 18:30 class.

Getting members to book in the first week

1. 1.Write down the rules from the section above before inviting anyone.
2. 2.Test with three members for a week, in real classes.
3. 3.Message everyone on a Monday, with the link and the cancellation cutoff.
4. 4.In the first week, anyone who turns up without a booking is added at the desk. They get the link there.
5. 5.After two weeks, stop taking bookings by message. Give a week's notice.

The mistakes that send the messages back

• Opening bookings with no written rules. The first argument about a cancellation sets the rule, and sets it badly.
• Taking bookings by message “just this once”. The app stops being the one place where capacity is true.
• A waitlist with no cap. Whoever is tenth waits for a spot that almost never opens.
• Changing the cutoff without notice. A rule only holds if the member knew it when they booked.
• Leaving the waiver and payments for later. They stay outside the app for good.

How this works in Rummo

Rummo is management software for training spaces that run booked classes, with an app for members. Booking is one tap on the class row. When three spots or fewer are left, the number is highlighted.

The waitlist uses the auto-book model. When someone cancels, the spot goes to the first person in the queue who can still take it. They get an email and an in-app notice. Someone whose class pack has run out is skipped and keeps their place.

Before cancelling, the class page shows the box's cutoff. Past it, the confirmation warns that the class counts as used. Leaving the waitlist costs nothing.

Members pay by card or SEPA direct debit, straight into the box's own account. Waivers are signed on the phone, and check-in is a QR code at the door.

Two limits to know. The member app is in European Portuguese; the website is in Portuguese, English and Spanish. And it is a web app: there is nothing on the App Store or Google Play, and no phone notifications. Notices arrive by email and inside the app.

What each plan includes, with prices, is on one page. See pricing