Padelya started with a frustration. We loved playing padel, hated the booking flow. WhatsApp threads with the front desk. Three different club apps to track which slot was free at 7pm on a Tuesday. Group chats that died the week someone got injured. Padel is a doubles sport — every game is a four-person logistics puzzle, and the tools we had were not built for any of it.
So we built the platform we wanted as players, and tried to keep clubs happy at the same time. Padelya is what came out.
What Padelya is
Padelya is a padel reservation network. One account, every participating club nearby, live availability you can see and trust. You search by neighbourhood, court surface, time. You pick a slot, you confirm — no card form — and you get a confirmation in your inbox with directions and the cancellation policy spelled out in plain language. You pay the club at reception when you arrive, exactly as you always have. No phone calls, no "let me check with the manager".
For the players who do not have a fixed crew, we built an open-match marketplace. List your slot, set the level band, and other players can request to join. Skill-matched, mediated chat, level-banded so a beginner does not end up across the net from a federation-ranked competitor. We track reputation gently — show up on time, do not cancel last-minute, climb the trust ladder. No badges, no dramatic gamification, just signal that helps the next host pick the right people.
For clubs, the equation is simple. Get listed in about 10 minutes, keep the schedule and pricing model you already use, sync Google Calendar, Outlook or any iCal feed in both directions so you do not double-book. Your players keep paying you at the club; we invoice a flat 6% at the end of the month, only on the bookings the platform brought you, and nothing else: no setup fee, no monthly subscription, no hardware. We earn when you do.
What is coming
The product today covers the booking flow, the open-match marketplace, two-way calendar sync for clubs (Google, Outlook, iCal) with conflict detection, monthly statements with CSV and PDF export, and three languages — Georgian, English, French. Since this post first went up, a few things have landed that are worth naming:
- Levels that are measured, not declared. Your level comes from a technical questionnaire and then moves with your results and with what the players across the net report. Six bands, one number underneath.
- More than doubles. Americano evenings, team tournaments and coaching sessions with online sign-up, plus women-only and recurring matches — created by clubs or by players.
- A match chat that stays open, before and after the game, with no phone numbers and no surnames exchanged.
- Trust primitives that bite: a reliability score hosts see before approving, automatic suspension for repeat no-shows, block and report.
- Push, email and in-app notifications, including the reminder the day before you play. Padelya installs from your phone browser — no app store, no download.
What we are still building:
- Online payment in GEL. Today every club takes payment at reception and we invoice the 6% at the end of the month. Card payment in the app is in development with a Georgian provider; each club will choose whether to enable it or stay as it is. In development, no firm date — and we would rather say that than print a launch month we cannot hold.
A note on building this in public
We are a tiny team and we are going to make mistakes. The best way to help us is to use the product, then tell us what is broken. Every help-center contact form lands in the founder's inbox. We read all of it. We do not have a marketing department to filter the unhappy notes — and we do not want one.
If you are a player, the fastest way to start is the search bar. If you are a club, hit the "List your club" button and you will be live within an afternoon. If you are a journalist, our press kit is at /press. If you are something else, write to us — we want to know.
Thanks for reading. Now go play.
— The Padelya team