GUIDE · PADEL BOOKING SOFTWARE Choosing booking software for your padel club.
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Getting ready to open your padel club, or looking for software that suits the way you work? The choice has to work as well for your team as for the players who will book.
This guide helps you compare tools against your day-to-day work and pin down their cost before you commit. It is written by the Palarena team, who build software for clubs.
What to check before choosing
To compare several options, ask each vendor to go through the same steps in the demo, with your courts and your prices.
Every booking in one place
A booking taken at the front desk or by phone should appear on the same schedule as one made online.
In the demo, ask them to record a booking taken by phone, then move it.
Each player’s payment
In padel, a court is often shared by four. Check whether each player can pay their share online, or whether the organiser has to cover the whole court.
Ask when each player pays, and what happens if a share is still missing before the game.
Helping players fill a game
When a game is one player short, an open match lets you offer the place to other players.
Look at how they find the game, and what information helps them decide to join.
Your prices and their rules
Write down the pricing rules you use today, such as off-peak hours, member rates or a different price per court.
Ask to see them set up, then check the price a player sees when booking.
Staying in touch with your players
Check what information your team can see and export, and how you can contact players.
Ask too what you could take with you if you change software.
Getting started
Before the first online booking, your courts, opening hours and prices need setting up, your team needs training and, if you are switching software, your data needs carrying over. If payments go through a provider such as Stripe, its check of your account also takes its own time.
Ask who does the work, how long it takes and what it costs.
What is available today
A feature that has been announced is not always one you can use.
For each point that matters to you, ask whether it will be available when you go live, in testing or only planned, and get the answer in writing.
How much does padel booking software cost?
The cost adds up the subscription, any commission and the fees for online payments. A commission varies with the bookings it applies to, sometimes all of them, sometimes only those from a given source. A subscription is a fixed cost, depending on the billing period, the commitment and the options in the offer. Neither model is the cheaper one in every case.
For an existing club, start from your online takings over the last twelve months. For a club that is opening, run the numbers on several activity assumptions, from the most cautious to the busiest.
| Collected online per month | Simulated 3% commission | Simulated 5% commission | Palarena monthly subscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| €2,000 | €60 | €100 | €149 |
| €5,000 | €150 | €250 | €149 |
| €10,000 | €300 | €500 | €149 |
| €20,000 | €600 | €1,000 | €149 |
In this simulation, a 3% commission costs less than the subscription as long as the club collects less than about €5,000 online a month, and a 5% commission below about €3,000. The table compares prices, not services. It leaves out payment fees, which apply under both models, and what each offer includes, such as presenting your club to new players.
What Palarena offers
Palarena is management and booking software built first for padel and pickleball clubs, with the club’s other sports on the same schedule. Your team records bookings taken at the front desk and follows payments. You create your tournaments, sanctioned or not, your camps and your lessons, with online sign-up and payment, and you sell your memberships and game packs. Your pricing rules by day, time or court apply straight away to online bookings.
Your players book in your club’s web app, under your name, with your logo and your photos, from their phone and with nothing to download. They can add it to their home screen like an app. Each of them can pay their share, and a game with places left can be opened to other players, with the level sought. Your team can see your list of players and export it.
Your club also appears in the Palarena app, where players look for a club or a game near them. The players who find you there book with you, at your prices, and join your list of players. No other club can see that list or their history with you. A version of the Palarena app for the App Store is in preparation.
The subscription is €149 excl. VAT a month, or €1,490 excl. VAT a year, for the whole club, however many courts you have. Palarena takes no commission on the bookings, passes or memberships you sell, and charges your players no service fee. A commission could only be added with a rate announced at least 15 days in advance, and you could cancel before it applies. Online payments go to your club’s Stripe account, and Stripe charges its own fees. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period.
A club can be set up and ready to sell in about 30 minutes, and the Palarena team supports you throughout the go-live.
Frequently asked questions
Do my players need to download an app?
Not necessarily. Some software works in the phone’s browser, some asks players to install an app. With Palarena, your players book in your club’s web app, in their browser, with nothing to download, and can add it to their phone’s home screen.
I am opening my club. Should I choose the software now?
Choosing before you open leaves time to set up the schedule and prices and for your team to learn the software. Ask when billing starts and when online booking opens. At Palarena, the subscription can only start once the club’s Stripe account is ready to take payments.
Can padel and pickleball be managed in the same software?
Yes, if the software brings several sports onto one schedule, each with its own courts and prices. Palarena does, and also handles tennis, squash, 5-a-side, futsal, basketball and volleyball.