Automating an Unmanned Tanning Salon: How Tanlux Works

Tanlux is a cloud-native platform built by Things at Web that automates unmanned tanning salons in Sweden. It combines a customer mobile app with a back-office system so a salon can run with no on-site staff: visitors verify their age with BankID, pay by Swish or card, unlock the door remotely, book a sunbed and earn loyalty points — all while owners watch occupancy in real time.

What "unmanned" actually requires

A tanning salon without staff sounds simple until you list everything a receptionist quietly handles: checking that a customer is old enough, taking payment, opening the door, pointing them to a free bed, and keeping the place from being misused at 2 a.m. Remove the person, and every one of those tasks has to become software that is reliable enough to run alone, 24 hours a day.

Tanlux is the system that fills that gap. It is delivered as a cloud-native SaaS plus a mobile app ecosystem for iOS and Android, with the app available on both the App Store and Google Play. The customer never speaks to anyone; the owner never has to be on site. The architecture below is what makes that trade safe rather than reckless.

The customer journey, step by step

The whole experience is built around a single flow described on the Tanlux site: download, verify, book, pay, enter. In practice it breaks into five steps.

1. Download and register. The visitor installs the app and creates a profile with secure age verification during setup.
2. Verify age. Identity and age are confirmed up front, so the salon never has to gate-keep at the door.
3. Book a session. The customer reserves a sunbed and time slot through the app.
4. Pay. Payment is handled digitally before access is granted, so there is no cash and no terminal to maintain.
5. Enter and tan. Authentication unlocks the door and releases the chosen bed for the booked window.

Because each step is gated by the previous one, the door physically cannot open for someone who has not verified their age and paid.

The technical building blocks

Under the friendly flow sits a stack of integrations that each replace a human responsibility.

Capability	What it does	Why it matters unmanned
BankID age verification	Confirms identity and legal age at registration	Removes the single biggest legal risk of a staff-free salon
Swish & card payments	Collects payment digitally before entry	No cash handling, no on-site card terminal
Remote / automatic door entry	Unlocks the salon for verified, paid customers	Replaces the receptionist who would let people in
Booking engine	Reserves beds and time slots	Prevents two customers arriving for one bed
Loyalty program	Awards points per session	Drives repeat visits without manual punch cards
Occupancy analytics	Tracks usage in real time, 24/7	Lets owners run multiple sites from one dashboard

Identity and age: BankID first

Age verification is the hard requirement that makes everything else possible. By confirming age with BankID at registration, Tanlux moves the legal check away from the front door and into the onboarding step. The salon owner is never relying on a teenager's honesty or a missing employee's judgment.

Money: Swish and card, never cash

Payments run through Swish and card rails, settled digitally before the door opens. That eliminates the two classic headaches of a small salon — reconciling a cash drawer and maintaining a physical card terminal — and means revenue is captured up front rather than chased afterwards.

Access: the door is just an API

Remote and automatic door control turns the physical entrance into something the software opens only when conditions are met: verified identity, valid booking, completed payment. The same mechanism lets an owner manage entry across locations without driving between them.

Running the business from a dashboard

For the operator, the value is not any single feature but the fact that the salon reports on itself. Tanlux exposes a 24/7 occupancy analytics view so owners can see which beds and which hours are busy, identify dead time worth discounting, and decide where a new location makes sense. The loyalty program feeds the same loop, turning anonymous walk-ins into recognised repeat customers.

This is the operating model Things at Web has proven at scale elsewhere. Through its StoreTech platform, the same company powers 24-Sju, described as Europe's largest unmanned grocery chain with 130+ stores. Tanlux applies the unmanned-retail playbook — identity, payment, access, analytics — to the tanning vertical, where age verification carries extra legal weight.

Where Tanlux fits

Tanlux suits owners who want to:

• Open or convert salons that run outside staffed hours.
• Operate several sites without a receptionist at each one.
• Remove cash and the legal exposure of door-side age checks.
• Use real occupancy data to plan pricing and expansion.

For a deeper look at the product and onboarding, see the Tanlux product page or get in touch with the team.

FAQ

How does Tanlux verify a customer's age?

Age is confirmed with secure verification during profile setup, using BankID, before the customer can book or enter. Because the check happens at registration rather than at the door, the salon never depends on staff to gate-keep, which is the central legal requirement for running a tanning salon without anyone present.

What payment methods does Tanlux support?

Tanlux collects payment digitally before the door unlocks, supporting Swish and card. There is no cash drawer to reconcile and no physical card terminal to maintain on site, so revenue is captured up front and the salon can operate fully unmanned around the clock.

Can one owner run multiple unmanned salons with Tanlux?

Yes. Remote and automatic door control plus a central 24/7 occupancy analytics dashboard let an owner manage access, bookings and usage across several locations from one place, without needing a receptionist at each site or driving between them to open doors.

Is there a mobile app for customers?

Yes. Tanlux ships a customer mobile app for both iOS and Android, available on the App Store and Google Play. The app handles registration, age verification, booking, payment and door access, so the entire visit is self-service from a phone.

Who builds and operates Tanlux?

Tanlux is built by Things at Web (legal name Thingsatweb Sweden AB), a digital engineering company headquartered in Lidköping, Sweden. The same team operates StoreTech, which powers Europe's largest unmanned grocery chain, giving Tanlux a proven foundation in unmanned-retail technology.