September 18, 2025
Building the automation layer behind a fully unstaffed gym
We built the automation layer that lets Gym&Go run a fully unstaffed gym, bridging bookings, smart locks and notifications into on reliable flow.
Goals
Gym&Go is the venture of a founder we'd worked with on previous projects, this time launching something different from anything in his portfolio. The concept was a private gym where members book a slot, walk in, train, and leave without ever interacting with staff, an idea that only works if the path from booking to physical entry feels effortless to the member.
The ambition behind the brief was specific. Gym&Go wanted the member experience to feel premium rather than transactional, the kind of thing where people never have to think about how access works, only that it does. Booking, payment, communication, and entry needed to feel like one system from the user's side, even though they would be stitched together from independent platforms underneath.
Challenges
Most of the difficulty wasn't in any single component but in how they had to behave together. The brand promise was a premium, frictionless experience, which meant every failure mode had to be invisible to the member and every communication had to read as personal rather than templated.
The booking platform didn't natively track rescheduling. From its perspective, a rescheduled session was just a new booking plus a cancellation, and that ambiguity propagated into both the smart lock and messaging layers. A member moving their Tuesday slot to Thursday should not receive a cancellation followed by a separate new-booking confirmation, and their old door code should not linger as a valid entry token. Timezones added another axis of confusion: the booking system always sent user timezones, the smart lock API had its own handling, and DST transitions created edge cases where a 7am session in March could activate access at 6am or 8am. All of this had to feed codes that activate the exact minute a session starts and stop working the exact minute it ends.
Booking system and the translation layer
Backend integration and orchestration was the heart of this project. We built a dedicated server-side layer that takes a single member action (a booking, a reschedule, a cancellation) and translates it into coordinated state across every external service that depends on it. This phase covered the booking surface itself, the webhook server we built around it, and the translation logic that resolves ambiguity before it propagates downstream.
The website runs on a content-flexible CMS so the Gym&Go team can edit pages and publish new locations themselves. Every booking event fires a webhook to a TypeScript service we built specifically for Gym&Go. That service receives the raw event, normalizes timestamps to UTC while preserving the user's timezone for member-facing communication, and decides what the event actually represents. Those rules live in one place instead of being duplicated across each integration, which is what lets every downstream system act on a single coherent view of what happened.
We also built a small operator panel that draws from the same source of truth. From a single view, the team can see every upcoming reservation, every code currently active at the door, and the status of recent bookings. There is no dashboard with charts or analytics, just an unambiguous view of the gym's state at any given moment, which is what they needed in order to run a location with no one in the room.
Smart lock integration with Tedee
Hardware integration was the next pillar of this build. We connected the orchestration layer to the smart lock at the gym door so that bookings translate directly into physical access. This phase covered the lock's API integration, the lifecycle management of access codes, and the synchronization rules that keep digital intent and physical state aligned.
We integrated with Tedee, the smart lock platform powering the gym door. The orchestration service talks to the Tedee API directly, requesting time-bounded access codes for each session and tying their validity windows to the exact start and end of the booking. When the translation layer signals a reschedule, the existing code is revoked and a new one is issued for the new window, all without member intervention. Cancellations revoke the code and remove it from the system entirely. Because every timestamp reaching this layer is already in UTC, the lock activates and deactivates on the minute it should, regardless of which timezone the member booked from or whether a daylight saving transition fell across the booking.
Notifications via Email and WhatsApp Business API
Member-facing communication was where the system either earned or lost the premium feel Gym&Go was selling. We built a multi-channel messaging layer that turns each booking event into a contextual message reaching members through the channels they actually pay attention to.
The orchestration service emits messages on every booking event the translation layer recognizes. Each message carries the access code, the precise window it's valid for, and the location, written to read as a personal note rather than a system alert. Email handles the durable record, while WhatsApp covers the same content in the channel members are most likely to read on their phone before walking through the door. We owned the WhatsApp Business API integration end-to-end, including the Meta verification process, rather than routing through a reseller, which gave us tighter control over message templates and approval cycles.
Results
The first Gym&Go location is open and running at roughly 80% occupancy. The system has handled every booking, every door open, and every reschedule in production without manual intervention. The occupancy figure isn't ours to claim, but it does mean the infrastructure has been tested under real demand and held.
A second location is now in development. Building toward multi-location operation is where the original design decisions earn their keep, particularly the choice to keep all orchestration logic in one place rather than spreading it across integrations.
Testimonial
Nevexo doesn't just execute projects. They think ahead, anticipate potential issues, and offer scalable solutions. They've been instrumental in transforming Gym&Go from an idea into a fully functional, next-generation fitness concept.
David Rudnyanszky, Founder @ Gym&Go