RFID wristbands for locker control

Free assignment or fixed assignment

Free assignment lets a guest touch their band to any open locker and claim it for the session, which maximises utilisation and needs no desk. Fixed assignment allocates a specific locker at check-in, which suits a spa or a gym with memberships and lets you put a guest in the same locker every visit. Free assignment needs more lockers than guests at peak; fixed assignment needs an allocation step. Choosing the wrong one is the most expensive mistake here, because it is set by the lock firmware, not by policy.

The batteries are the real operating cost

Each lock is an independent battery-powered device, and a two-hundred-locker changing room is two hundred batteries on their own decay curve. Locks report low battery only if someone is reading them, so the maintenance model matters more than the battery life on the datasheet: either a scheduled bulk replacement every season regardless of state, or a management system that reports. Ad-hoc replacement — waiting for a guest to report a dead lock — means the failure is always discovered by a guest standing in a towel.

Override, and the record it leaves

A guest will lose a band with clothes and a phone inside a locker. There must be a staff override — a master credential or a mechanical key — and every use of it must leave a record of who opened which locker and when. This is the procedure most likely to be abused internally and the one most likely to be needed at eleven at night, so it should be tested during commissioning by someone who was not involved in installing it.

Clearing at close

Sessions end and lockers stay claimed by bands that have left the property. A daily clearing routine — release all, or release anything untouched for a set period — is required, and it needs a rule for the contents. Most properties bag and log anything found, hold it as lost property and clear the locker. Without a written routine, staff improvise, and the first improvisation is opening lockers and leaving them open, which loses whatever was inside and the trust of the next guest to use it.