Run your dojo's weekly timetable online, from beginner class to rained-out park session

Hemi runs a small BJJ and striking gym above a hardware store in Hamilton. Four mats and a heavy bag in the corner. By the door, a whiteboard that used to hold the week's timetable in blue marker. For two years that whiteboard was the booking system. People would text him to ask if Tuesday's beginner class still had room, and he'd guess from memory and say yes. Sometimes fourteen people turned up for eight pairs of pads.

The whiteboard was doing too much

The trouble with a whiteboard is it can't count. It can't tell a new person that the Wednesday no-gi class is full, and it can't take their fifteen dollars while they're still keen enough to pay. Hemi was losing beginners in the hours it took him to get back to them after his day job. By the time he replied at nine at night, half of them had gone quiet.

What he actually wanted was simple. He wanted every class on his weekly timetable to be something a stranger could find and book without talking to him first. A Tuesday beginner class at 6pm, eight spots, a set price, done. That's what a group session is on Bookatu. You set the date and the time, you set how many spots exist, you name the venue with its address and directions, and you put a per-person price on it. When those eight spots fill, the class closes itself. Nobody drives across town for a mat that's already full.

A timetable that books itself

Here's the part Hemi didn't expect to like so much. Once the week was up online, he stopped being the middleman. His storefront showed the whole timetable the way the whiteboard used to, except every class had a live spot count and a book button underneath it. Someone finds the gym on a Sunday afternoon, scrolls the week, sees three spots left in Monday's fundamentals class, books it, pays, and Hemi finds out when he next looks at his phone. No back and forth. No guessing.

A group session card carries everything a person needs to actually show up in the right place:

• The date and start time, so nobody books the wrong night
• How many spots are left, counting down as people join
• The venue address with directions, which matters when your gym is up a staircase behind a hardware store
• The per-person price, paid at the time of booking so you're not chasing cash on the mat

For the private stuff, Hemi does one-on-one lessons with a couple of competition guys and the odd nervous beginner who wants a solo hour before they'll set foot in a class. Those book like a normal appointment. Pick a time that works and lock it in, and it never touches the group timetable. Two different needs, one calendar, and Hemi isn't juggling two systems to run both.

When the outdoor session gets rained out

Every summer Hemi runs a Saturday morning conditioning session down at the park. Sprints and sandbags, the sort of thing that's miserable in the rain and brilliant in the sun. The problem with anything outdoors is the sky doesn't check with you first.

I used to send twenty texts on a Saturday morning telling people it was off. Now the forecast is right there on the class before they even book, and if I do call it, they've got their credit before I've packed the cones away.

For outdoor group sessions, the card shows a live weather forecast right where people are deciding whether to book. If the morning turns and Hemi has to call it off, he cancels the session and everyone who paid is credited automatically and emailed to let them know. No refund spreadsheet, no awkward messages. Nobody feels like they got stiffed for fifteen bucks because the weather turned. The credit sits there ready for the next session they want.

Let the room fill your room

The best advertising Hemi ever had was a member dragging their mate along. That still happens, but now it counts for something. He can send a member a referral link, and when they bring someone in, the gym rewards them for it. A free class or a bit off their next month, whatever he decides is fair. The people who love the place get a reason to keep talking about it, and the whiteboard never could have done that.

None of this made Hemi's gym bigger overnight. What it did was stop the small daily leaks. The beginner who would've drifted off waiting for a reply now books at midnight and shows up Monday. The rained-out Saturday crew don't feel cheated, and the regulars bring friends and get a little something back. And Bookatu doesn't take a cut of any of it, so the fifteen dollars a beginner pays is fifteen dollars Hemi keeps.

Where to start

If you've got a whiteboard doing too much, start by putting one week of your timetable online. Just the classes you already run, with real spot counts and a real price. See what it feels like when Monday's class fills without you touching your phone. You can add the outdoor sessions and the private lessons once the weekly rhythm is working, and the referral links after that. The mat's the same. You've just stopped being the thing standing between a keen beginner and their first class.