Reward Loyalty · Industry guide · Illustrative settings
https://rewardloyalty.co/use-cases/bathhouse-loyalty-program
Industry guide · Saunas & bathhouses
A bathhouse loyalty program built on admission, not treatments
Sell a counted pass for standard admission, keep every reward away from how long or how hot a guest bathes, and leave occupancy and timed entry with the venue system.
Recommended starting program
Start with one mechanism customers can remember.
Sell ten standard admissions for an illustrative $280 instead of ten separate $32 entries. Keep the pass valid for 150 days and record one use per admission.
Pass
10 standard admissions
Illustrative price
$280 instead of $320
Validity
150 days
Redemption
1 use per admission, per date
Why this fits
The trade decides the mechanism.
This guide covers staffed saunas, bathhouses, and thermal bathing venues that sell standard admission to shared heat and cold facilities. It excludes appointment-led treatment spas, massage practices, medical or therapeutic programs, hotel leisure suites, private-hire-only venues, and gyms where a sauna sits behind a membership. If the business sells treatments by appointment, read the spa guide instead.
A bathhouse sells access to a room, not an hour of a therapist's time. One use covers one admission on one date, whatever the guest does inside: how long they stay, how many rounds they take, and which rooms they use are theirs to choose and stay outside the program.
The room sits at temperature whether it holds four bathers or fourteen, so the direct cost of one more admission is close to nothing until the session is full. That is the opposite of a treatment spa, where each booking consumes a therapist hour.
Occupancy caps and timed entry slots live in the venue system. A pass use records that an admission happened. It never proves a slot was free or a locker was available.
Customer journey
From the first QR to a reason to return.
The program should follow the transaction or appointment that already exists. It should not create a second queue.
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01
See the pass
A desk card names ten standard admissions and the 150-day window.
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02
Buy at the desk
Staff take payment at the counter and sell the pass to the guest's own account.
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03
Clear admission
The venue system confirms the slot, the occupancy cap, and its own entry rules.
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04
Record one use
Staff record a single use as the guest collects a locker key, before the phone goes away.
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05
Bathe as they choose
Session length, rounds, and room choice belong to the guest and the venue's posted limits.
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06
Return
The wallet shows admissions left. Nothing in it asks for a longer or hotter session.
Exact program setup
Configure the base program before the campaign.
Complete the steps in order. Each documentation link opens the current 5.x setup guide for that task.
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1
Create the ten-admission pass
Set ten uses, an illustrative $280 price, and 150-day validity. Name the standard admission it covers, and say that each use is one admission on one date.
Create the admission pass -
2
Draw the product boundary
Exclude treatments, private and group hire, robe and towel rental, food, alcohol, retail, and event nights. A pass buys admission and nothing else.
Review pass boundaries -
3
Record the use at the locker handover
Staff record one use while the guest still has a phone in hand. After that the phone is in a locker, so a later scan will fail.
Sell and scan the pass -
4
Activate four fixed milestones
Turn on First pass used, 5 loyalty days, 4-week regular, and One year together. Keep every one as recognition, with no reward attached to heat.
Review milestone conditions -
5
Place codes where a phone is still out
Put the join code at reception and on the receipt. Do not put a code inside a changing room, a wet area, or a heat room.
Prepare venue QR materials
Achievement strategy
Use milestones as a supporting layer.
Reward Loyalty provides a curated catalog of predefined, one-time milestones. The business chooses which achievements to activate and whether to attach an optional reward. Names, thresholds, measured events, and formulas stay fixed.
A loyalty day records qualifying loyalty activity on a distinct business-local date. It is not a configurable product, service, branch, booking-source, or purchase-count rule. See the fixed achievement catalog and progress rules.
Exact Reward Loyalty name
First pass used
- Fixed milestone
- Use a prepaid pass for the first time.
- Why it matters here
- A first recorded use checks the path from a counter sale to an approved admission, which is the only path this program owns.
- Reward approach
- Use recognition. The pass price already carries the benefit.
- Guardrail
- It records an admission. It does not prove a booked slot, an available locker, or that the venue admitted the guest under its own rules.
- 30-day check
- Passes sold, first uses, days from sale to first use, and undone uses.
Exact Reward Loyalty name
5 loyalty days
- Fixed milestone
- Earn loyalty days on 5 different dates.
- Why it matters here
- Five distinct dates shows a bathing rhythm forming, and dates are the only unit the product measures.
- Reward approach
- Use recognition. Add no free session, food, or alcohol.
- Guardrail
- It counts dates. It says nothing about session length, rounds taken, or room temperature, and it must never be presented as if it did.
- 30-day check
- Completions and the median days to reach five.
Exact Reward Loyalty name
4-week regular
- Fixed milestone
- Earn a loyalty day in 4 weeks in a row.
- Why it matters here
- A weekly run recognises a guest who returns once a week. One admission a week is a rhythm, not a dose.
- Reward approach
- Use recognition. Never attach a reward that grows with time spent in heat.
- Guardrail
- It needs one loyalty day a week. Do not describe it as a reason to stay longer, take more rounds, or bathe on consecutive days.
- 30-day check
- Runs started against runs held for four weeks.
Exact Reward Loyalty name
One year together
- Fixed milestone
- Earn a loyalty day a full year after your first.
- Why it matters here
- A qualifying loyalty day a full year after the first recognises a long relationship with the venue.
- Reward approach
- Use recognition, or a small retail item. Add no admission or heat promise.
- Guardrail
- It does not prove continuous membership, current admission, or any health outcome.
- 30-day check
- Eligible members, completions, and later recorded admissions.
Before attaching value, review achievement reward availability, expiry, and grant caps.
Reward economics
Show the arithmetic before approving the reward.
Illustrative calculation
Illustrative example: ten standard admissions at $32 equal $320. A ten-use pass at $280 saves the guest $40 and records $28 of revenue per admission.
The stated pass discount is 12.5% when the guest uses all ten admissions. Unused admissions expire with the pass and the product does not refund them.
The heat rooms run at temperature whether four bathers or fourteen are inside, so the direct cost of one more admission is close to towel laundry, water, cleaning, and reception time. The binding cost is the occupancy cap. Cost a full session, where a pass use displaces a paying walk-in, separately from a quiet one, where it displaces nothing.
Margin protections
- Define one use as one standard admission on one date, whatever the session length.
- Exclude treatments, private and group hire, robe and towel rental, food, alcohol, retail, and event nights.
- Keep the pass personal. It is non-transferable, and locker and session rules make that a practical limit as well as a product one.
- Refuse stacking with a member, voucher, event, or group discount.
- Cap or narrow the pass if its uses land in sessions that are already at the occupancy limit.
Where to promote it
Put the invitation inside the existing visit.
- Reception: show the pass beside the single-admission price.
- Receipt: print the admissions left, with no offer attached to heat or alcohol.
- Locker-room notice: name the join code where a phone is still in hand.
- Post-visit note: explain the 150-day window without urging a faster return.
Staff script and operating routine
One line, at the right moment.
“Ten standard admissions are $280, and the pass stays valid for 150 days on your account.”
- Best moment
- At the desk, as the guest collects a locker key, while the phone is still out of the bag.
- Operating habit
- Confirm the venue admitted the guest, then record one use per admission before the phone goes into the locker.
- Common staff mistake
- Waiting until the guest leaves. By then the phone has been in a locker for two hours and the pass QR will not load.
- If a scan or lookup fails
- If the phone is already in a locker, search for the member by name or email at the desk and record the admission before you hand over the key.
First campaign
Wait until the base program works.
A campaign should address one observed behaviour. It should not compensate for missed awards, unclear terms, or an untrained team.
- Audience
- If the account includes Member segments, save one for members who hold an active pass, then send to it as a saved segment. Otherwise postpone this campaign, because the built-in audiences cannot express it. No supported rule can filter on admissions remaining.
- Offer
- No discount and no heat promise. Remind the holder how many admissions remain and when the pass expires.
- Timing
- Send after four weeks of clean pass use, timed to a quiet stretch the venue has already identified.
- Intended behaviour
- Bring back a guest who has already paid, so a pass is used before it expires, without asking for a longer or hotter session.
- Measure
- Delivered emails against later recorded admissions and unused expiring admissions. Reward Loyalty does not track email opens or clicks.
30-day review
Use the first month to fix operation and economics.
Thirty days can reveal adoption, workflow, progress, and reward-cost problems. It is too early to claim proven lifetime value or long-term retention.
Pass sales and days to first use
A slow first use points at unclear admission terms before it points at price.
Admissions used per sold pass
Change the price or the window if unused admissions expire in numbers the plan did not assume.
Pass use against the occupancy cap
Narrow eligible sessions if pass admissions keep landing when the venue is already full.
Uses recorded after the locker handover
If staff record uses late, they will fail. Move the moment to the key handover.
Excluded-product exceptions
Rewrite the desk terms if staff apply a pass to treatments, hire, food, or alcohol.
Common mistakes
What to stop before launch.
- Rewarding longer sessions, more rounds, or a hotter room.
- Making any health claim about detox, immunity, weight, or circulation.
- Rewarding alcohol at a venue whose main risk is dehydration under heat.
- Recording a use after the phone is already in a locker.
- Selling the pass as if it reserved a slot or a locker.
Printable launch checklist
Saunas & bathhouses launch plan
- Name the standard admission the pass covers.
- Confirm the occupancy cap is the real limit, not staff hours.
- Cost a full session and a quiet one separately.
- Create the ten-use pass at 150 days.
- Exclude treatments, hire, rental, food, alcohol, and retail.
- Test the sale, desk search, use, and undo.
- Activate the four fixed milestones as recognition.
- Brief the desk to record the use at the key handover.
- Book the 30-day review against occupancy.
Owner: __________________
Launch: ________________
30-day review: __________
Implementation guides
Open only the setup pages this program needs.
These links point to the current Reward Loyalty 5.x documentation.