One app for 10,000 beach chairs: how digital rental works

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Sun, wind, sea and sandy beaches: balm for the soul – but anything but easy for technology. Everyone knows the saying about sand in the gears. There are easier environments for a start-up to bring analog into the digital age than making beach chairs digitally accessible.

The author was correspondingly surprised when, during a recent walk in Hooksiel on the North Sea, he spontaneously decided to rent a beach chair to sit and enjoy the waves and wind. The beach chair has a long tradition and is considered a typically German phenomenon. It is indispensable on the beaches of the North and Baltic Seas, but it is unknown in many places abroad. And because it is so rich in tradition, the image of the thick key that you have to get from a landlord in a beach house far away to open the lock to lock the basket has somehow become ingrained.

But think again: here in Hooksiel and in many other beach resorts on Germany's coasts, you have long been able to dial into the beach chair of your choice via an app, either planned from a distance or spontaneously on site. This is made possible by technology from various providers. Companies such as BeachNow, Strandscanner and Strandbutler vie for the favor of basket renters with varying degrees of success. Although Germany is united in its love of beach chairs, the differences could hardly be greater when it comes to whether they are rented out open or closed, whether they are rented out by the municipality or by a private individual with a license.

The guest wants it simple

Naturally, bathers want nothing to do with such subtleties. What counts for them is the result: their own beach chair – as quickly and easily as possible. And we achieved this result quickly in our spontaneous test in Hooksiel: after downloading the Strandbutler app from the App Store, we first select the town on the map, then the beach section and land on a display similar to that of airlines, where the desired seat is selected on the plane. Basket 77, in front of which we are standing, is actually available. For a not insignificant 8 euros, it will be at our disposal for the rest of the afternoon.

The thick lock hanging in front of the wooden barrier of the beach basket has to be asked twice to open. Meanwhile, there are already doubts about its functionality. But the app knows all about it and advises you to press the bar and lock together slightly while the smartphone is making the connection: click – and it's open.

How the lock works

We asked Managing Director Bernhard Sourdeau from Strand & Mehr GmbH in Hamburg, which operates Strandbutler, how exactly this works: According to him, the app contacts the lock via Bluetooth. This then checks whether the transmitted authorization period matches the current time. If you prefer to go to the beach chair rental shop and don't have a smartphone with you, you can also pick up an NFC chip there to open the lock.

The Hooksiel lock, he tells us, is no longer the latest model. Also on the North Sea coast, in Neuharlingersiel in East Frisia, a new version is already in use, which is equipped with a SIM card integrated into the chip, the nuSIM from Telekom, and can also transmit the exact location of the beach chair to the landlord via GPS. The lock networked in this way enables the landlord to see where the basket is, whether the lock is working and what the battery status is. Without a mobile radio module, at least the last two pieces of data were previously "radioed" to Strandbutler via the user's smartphone app - but depending on how a basket was used, it could sometimes take a while to receive an update.

High demands on the lock

After initially working with rechargeable batteries that were charged via USB cable, it quickly became apparent that this was quite a lot of work with sometimes 500 baskets on a beach, recalls the Strandbutler boss. In Hooksiel, there is therefore a button cell battery in the device, which experience has shown can last an entire beach basket season – usually between Easter and the fall vacations. There is therefore no need to change the batteries in between. The fact that the lock goes into a kind of sleep mode when unused also contributes to the long battery life. Users have to press it to put it into active mode. The newer locks even have a small solar cell integrated, as the baskets are usually located where people seek the sun.

Strandbutler, a start-up company with currently six employees, has built its service and software around locks that are manufactured by a hardware partner in China. The basis was a standard product, which was further developed, says Sourdeau. The challenge was to adapt it to the extreme conditions on the coast, where sand, weather and salt water mercilessly put the technology to the test.

10,000 beach chairs across Germany

The fact that Strandbutler alone covers around 10,000 beach chairs across Germany with its service shows that the hardware obviously copes well with wind and weather - although the locks are only used on 40 percent of the chairs. In some places, the baskets are always open, and the beach operators check whether someone is authorized to use them. Here, too, the app offers the option of purchasing a ticket.

Although a niche market, the start-up boss still sees plenty of room for growth. The number of beach chairs on German beaches is estimated at 100,000. Due to the German beach chair phenomenon, the company has not yet launched abroad - but at least close to the border and with a view to the promise of comfort, opportunities for the future are certainly seen here.

(mki)