The membership card
was always a key.
Move it to the one place members never forget to bring. A pass in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet opens the door, identifies the member at the desk, and stays in sync with the membership itself.
MembershipActiveIn fitness, the card is the key.
A member who forgets their key-fob isn't missing out on points, they are standing outside the door. In a digital-first club with no reception desk, the credential has to work every time, for everyone, unattended. If passes can carry that, the easier jobs are comfortably within reach.
- The fob is the key. A member who forgets it is standing outside the door.
- Fobs get lost, lent and copied, and replacements have to be posted or handed over.
- A drawer of active fobs belonging to lapsed members, because access and membership drift apart.
- A fob can beep at a reader. It cannot tell the member anything.
- The phone is the one object members reliably bring to the gym. The pass inherits that.
- Enrollment issues the pass in one tap. Membership begins the moment the member says yes.
- The pass and the membership record are the same fact, held in sync by the platform.
- A credential that can also communicate: live details on the pass, push on the lock screen.
A pass on its own does not open anything.
The interesting engineering is the chain from pocket to lock, and every link is standard equipment. The pass adapts to your infrastructure, not the other way around.
The pass
Carries an encrypted NFC payload, read over Apple VAS on iPhone and Google Smart Tap on Android. Only a reader holding the matching key can read it, and account binding ties the pass to the member's own account, so a membership cannot be lent out the way a fob could.
The reader
An NFC reader at the door built to read wallet passes over both VAS and Smart Tap. One reader covers both ecosystems, unattended, at any hour. No payment terminal involved; we spec the reader with you through our hardware partners.
The access system
Stays put. Our reader partners speak the protocols access-control systems already use, OSDP and Wiegand among them, so your existing door controllers treat a pass read like any other credential.
The same pass identifies the member anywhere.
Check-in, personal-training sessions, the shake bar: one pass, two equal ways to read it.
NFC tap
The member holds their phone to the reader, the same gesture as paying. Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap hand over the membership over an encrypted channel, with nothing to open or show.
QR scan
Any pass can carry a barcode that any scanner reads, including handhelds. The same membership, the same speed, on the hardware each location already owns. Set a geofence on the club and the pass surfaces on the lock screen as the member walks in, ready to scan.
Issuing passes is a batch job. Keeping them correct is a platform.
Memberships start, change, freeze and end every day. The pass in the wallet reflects all of it, managed from the portal or over one REST API.
One-tap enrollment
A new member adds the pass from a link or QR code. No fob to post, no pickup, no wait for the mail.
Live membership state
When a membership starts, changes, freezes or ends, the pass reflects it and access follows. No drawer of active fobs for lapsed members.
Push to the lock screen
The pass gives the club a route to the lock screen when something is worth saying, with no app for the member to install.
Key management, handled
The encrypted tap works because passes and readers share the right keys. Stell manages the pass side for both Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap, so you configure keys once, not once per wallet.
What fitness teams ask first.
- Do we have to replace our access-control system?
- No. The pattern is new reader, existing protocol, existing controller. Our reader partners cover the protocols access-control systems already speak, OSDP and Wiegand among them, so the door controllers you run treat a pass read like any other credential. What changes is what the reader at the front can read.
- What happens to members who still carry fobs?
- Old and new credentials can coexist for as long as the rollout needs. Migrations can run progressively, club by club, with fobs and passes working side by side. No launch-day cliff, no member left outside.
- Is a wallet pass secure enough to be a door key?
- It is more secure than the fob it replaces. An RFID fob can be lost, lent or copied. A wallet pass is stored on the member's device and read over an encrypted NFC protocol, Apple VAS or Google Smart Tap, so only a reader holding the matching key can read it. With account binding, available for NFC passes, the pass is also bound to the member's own account and cannot be shared, so a membership cannot be lent out the way a fob could.
- Do members need your app, or ours?
- Neither. The pass lives in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, which ship on the phone. Members add it in one tap and present it the way they already present their phone to pay. If your club has a booking app, the pass can link straight into it, and on iPhone can offer the install directly from the pass.
- What if a location has no NFC reader at the desk?
- A pass can carry a QR barcode as well, so any scanner identifies the member. NFC tap and barcode scan are equal citizens of the same pass; use whichever each location's hardware already speaks. And adding tap at a desk is a small step: standalone readers read passes without any payment terminal, and we can help you pick one.
See it work on a real door.
Forty-five minutes with a specialist: your access system, your clubs, your pass design. We'll walk the chain from pocket to lock.