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After two and a half years of ideas, dreams, plans and finally a final solution, it became a floating fjord sauna. In its simple form, it consists of a sauna and changing room, placed on a float element securely anchored to a breakwater at the town's bathing site, Dulpen in Holmestrand. As soon as the building, sauna stove, electrician and plumber had been ordered, we got to the questions about operation, booking and access.
After a process of offers and meetings with several providers of booking system, the presentation we received of Period made the selection easy for us - it became Period.
Some background: We briefed ourselves on what solutions existed, asked other sauna associations and ended with a call for tenders and interview round with the three most relevant providers. Everyone gave us solution suggestions and price. Two of the vendors relied on standard software with customization and tailoring, annual licensing costs, maintenance costs and hourly billing of changes. In sum, this would entail both high start-up and annual costs. Money we didn't have. The finished sauna of Holmestrand Badstuforening - spreading the heat, has been made possible by the benevolent support of associations, enterprises, the county council, the municipality and splice among private individuals.
Last supplier out was Periode.no
We were presented with a neat finished system, specially made for booking a sauna and which had already been used elsewhere. All member management is taken care of by the system. Payment is made securely via Vipps where identification of members and Drop-in guests are authenticated via VIPPS/BankID. Best of all was that we could launch immediately and link Period into the existing web solution without any startup costs.
It turned out that Period has a system of integration against a lock system as well, which was the next challenge we envisioned.
After a short internal trial period, we opened the sauna on Saturday, April 1. We have chosen 1-hour sessions at half-hour intervals so that the guests who have finished can change in peace and quiet - and the new ones come and change before the next hour without crowding the changing room. We are very pleased with 50 visitors on the first weekend and that it has been so to speak fully booked every day since. Booking and payment go astonishingly smoothly. Some adjustments were made during the first few days on reservation times and when to book in, making cancellations and publishing new times. All administration is done via the web. When we have had questions, Period has stepped up at short notice and solved the challenge.
In the system there is good reporting on members and payment, easy to customize times and not least; settlement takes place via Vipps, right to account.
After the first meeting with Vipps, we did not have to discuss which of the three solutions to choose. It became Period.
