The problem
A sauna that is booked by many, paid for in several ways and has to be hot when the guest arrives needs more than a calendar. Payments, memberships, cleaning, keys and the heater typically live in their own apps, and someone has to be the glue between them: manual messages, a key box and a drive down to check the heat.
What we built
A booking platform from scratch, where everything is one flow:
- Calendar with paid and membership bookings, capacity per session and manual sessions from the admin panel.
- Payments through Vipps and MobilePay, plus Stripe – including recurring memberships.
- Cleaner scheduling that follows the bookings, so nobody walks into a dirty sauna.
- Remote locks: igloohome directly over API, and Inlet to control several lock brands from one place. Guests get access in their window – no key box.
- Messaging: SMS via ClickSend and email via Resend, before and after the visit.
- Heater control: firmware written from scratch for Arduino Opta, and direct API control of HUUM heaters, so the sauna is hot when the booking starts.
- Monitoring around all of it, so we see faults before the guests do.
The stack
The web app and admin panel are built in Next.js and TypeScript. Database, sign-in and storage live in Supabase (PostgreSQL with Row Level Security), which also makes the platform ready for more customers. Each payment provider is integrated on its own, so adding one never touches the others. The firmware on the Opta talks to the platform over the network, and HUUM heaters are driven through the manufacturer’s API.
The outcome
HeatBooking is in production and run by us. Booking, payment, access and heat are one flow instead of five. Vestfjord Sauna runs on the platform today – read about it in the next project.