# Lockers as a service: what is included

> Lockers as a service explained: what a no-upfront-cost locker deal should include, from hardware and payments to insurance, data, exit terms and ownership.

Canonical page: https://venueora.com/guides/lockers-as-a-service-what-is-included

Updated 30 October 2026. Author: Warren Doyle, VenueOra Ticketing Limited.

Lockers as a service means the provider supplies, installs, powers, connects, runs, maintains and insures the lockers at your venue and is paid from what guests spend on them, not by you. A complete deal covers hardware and sizes, power and connectivity, kiosks and payments, monitoring and support, refunds and lost property, maintenance and updates, insurance, reporting, term and exit, hardware ownership and refresh, card and personal data, and integration with your ticketing. Each item and what to check follows, with a checklist table at the end.

## What the provider supplies: hardware, power and connectivity

Ask which formats suit your site. LockVault, our smart-locker service, deploys fitted banks of 24 to 240 lockers for permanent sites, container hubs of up to 180 lockers that arrive on a lorry and run within hours, and parcel and click-and-collect lockers for apartment buildings and shopping centres.

Ask about sizes and variants. LockVault lockers come in four sizes, mini, small, medium and large, with charging variants that carry USB-C, USB-A and Qi wireless pads. Doors are sealed and rated for splash zones, with an electromagnetic latch and reinforced steel.

Then ask what the lockers need from your building. A "zero capex lockers" offer can hide a cost here: a bank that needs a mains feed and a cabled network drop is capital spend by another name. LockVault lockers are self-powered from a solar roof and an on-board battery and connect over Starlink, so most sites supply no mains power and no Wi-Fi. Where a site cannot see the sky, agree in writing who supplies power and data and pays for it.

## What the guest sees: kiosks, payments, refunds and lost property

Hire at a LockVault kiosk takes under 30 seconds: pick a size, tap a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the door opens. Lockers can also be pre-booked by phone with a QR code on arrival, opened with a cashless wristband where the venue runs them, and tied to the VenueOra ticketing and membership record. Ask which cards and wallets are accepted and whether cash is handled.

LockVault's payments run on LockerPay, built for short-duration hire: an authorisation hold when the door opens, capture on close-out, top-ups for late returns, partial refunds and disputes. Ask who issues refunds and how quickly. LockVault handles guest support and refunds itself, so your reception does not hold a float for locker disputes.

Lost property is the item most deals leave out. A locker not emptied by close has something in it, and someone has to open it, log it, store it and return it. Agree who does each step, how long items are held and how the guest is contacted, in writing, before the first season.

## What keeps it running: monitoring, maintenance, insurance and reporting

LockVault monitors every locker 24/7 from a remote operations dashboard and commits to a 99.9% uptime service level, so faults are seen on the dashboard rather than reported by guests. Ask what is monitored, who sees alerts, what hours guests can reach support, and how a Saturday-night fault is handled.

Maintenance, software updates and insurance should be the provider's job in full; LockVault handles all three. Ask about response times, spares, update frequency and whether updates take lockers offline, and what the insurance covers and to what value.

Reporting is how you check the money. LockVault sends an itemised statement on the 1st of each month showing hires, gross rental revenue and your share, pays out by the 15th, and reviews pricing once a year. Under the model the venue has no upfront cost and no operating cost; a typical venue share is 40% of gross, agreed after a site survey. The mechanics of the split are in [how locker revenue share works](https://venueora.com/guides/locker-revenue-share-explained). Ask whether hires can be seen live as well as monthly, and whether the statement breaks down by bank, size and hour.

## What protects you: data, PCI handling and integration

Two kinds of data pass through a locker. Card data should never reach the venue. With LockVault, card data goes to a PCI DSS Level 1 acquiring partner and never touches your tills, kiosks or lockers, with tokenisation, 3-D Secure 2 and machine-learning fraud scoring as standard. Ask any provider where card data is processed and who holds the acquiring relationship. As of October 2026 the PCI Security Standards Council describes PCI DSS as applying to entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data, so a kiosk that handles card data in its own software is within that scope. Which merchant level a venue falls into is covered in [PCI DSS for venues and attractions](https://venueora.com/guides/pci-dss-for-venues-and-attractions).

Personal data is the second question: a pre-booking holds a phone number or email, and a hire tied to a ticketing record holds a name. Under UK GDPR the parties need to be clear who is controller and who is processor for that data, and the ICO's guidance on controllers and processors sets out the test. Ask who holds the hire data, for how long, and whether you can export it when the contract ends; your own data protection assessment decides what you need.

Integration decides whether the lockers are a bolt-on or part of the venue. LockVault lockers can open with cashless wristbands and sit on the VenueOra ticketing and membership record, so a member's locker hire appears on the same record as their membership and tickets. Vendors building their own kiosks can use LockerPay's [locker and kiosk payments API](https://venueora.com/integrations-api); ask what any integration costs.

## What the contract says: term, exit, ownership and refresh

The clauses that matter are the ones that bite in year three. Ask how long the initial term is and what notice ends it. Ask what happens on the last day: who removes the lockers, who makes good the floor or pitch, and what happens to live pre-bookings. Ask who owns the hardware during and after the term. Under LockVault the hardware is funded, maintained and insured by LockVault; make sure any provider's contract says who owns what in writing. Ask how often hardware is refreshed and who pays, who can change guest prices, and when the split is reviewed; LockVault reviews pricing annually. Ask about exclusivity in both directions, and whether the agreement follows the venue if it changes hands.

For event sites the same questions apply on a shorter clock; [festival locker hire costs and set-up](https://venueora.com/guides/festival-lockers-uk-costs-and-hire) covers delivery, siting and teardown. The table gathers the whole guide into one list.

| Item | What to check | With LockVault |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hardware and sizes | Formats, sizes, charging, door build | 24 to 240 per bank, up to 180 per container, four sizes, charging, sealed steel doors |
| Power and connectivity | What the building supplies, who pays | Solar roof, on-board battery, Starlink; most sites supply none |
| Kiosk and payments | Hire time, wallets, pre-booking, wristbands | Under 30 seconds; cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay; QR pre-booking; wristbands |
| Refunds | Who issues them, how fast | Handled by LockVault |
| Lost property | Who opens, logs, stores and returns | Agree the process at the site survey |
| Monitoring and support | What is watched, who responds, what hours | Monitored 24/7; 99.9% uptime service level |
| Maintenance and updates | Response time, spares, update schedule | Handled by LockVault |
| Insurance | What is covered, to what value | Handled by LockVault; confirm scope |
| Reporting | Frequency, breakdown, live access | Itemised statement on the 1st, payout by the 15th |
| Card data | Where processed, who is the acquirer | PCI DSS Level 1 acquiring partner; never your hardware |
| Personal data | Controller roles, retention, export | Agree in the contract |
| Integration | Ticketing, membership, wristbands, API | VenueOra record and wristbands; LockerPay API |
| Term and exit | Length, notice, last-day obligations | Ask; proposal within 48 hours of enquiry |
| Ownership and refresh | Who owns, who upgrades, who pays | Funded, maintained and insured by LockVault |
| Pricing control | Who sets guest prices, how often reviewed | Agreed with the venue; annual review |

## What VenueOra does here

VenueOra provides [smart lockers on revenue share](https://venueora.com/smart-lockers) through LockVault, with hardware, power, connectivity, monitoring, support, refunds, maintenance, updates and insurance included and no upfront or operating cost to the venue. For councils and trusts, [leisure centre software, passes and lockers](https://venueora.com/industries/leisure-centres) shows how locker hire sits on the member record alongside swim sessions. Revenue figures are estimates from footfall and typical conversion. The final split and forecast come from a site survey.

## Sources

- [PCI Security Standards Council: PCI Data Security Standard](https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/standards/pci-dss/) for the scope of PCI DSS, as of October 2026.
- [ICO: Controllers and processors](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/controllers-and-processors/) for the controller and processor roles under UK GDPR, as of October 2026.

## Questions

Q: What does lockers as a service mean?
A: It means the provider supplies, installs, powers, connects, runs, maintains and insures the lockers at your venue and is paid from what guests spend on them rather than by you. With LockVault the venue has no upfront cost and no operating cost, provides a pitch or floor space and footfall, and receives a share of gross rental revenue, typically 40%, with the final split agreed after a site survey and paid monthly.

Q: What should a no-upfront-cost locker deal include?
A: Hardware in the sizes your guests need, power and connectivity that your building does not have to supply, a kiosk that takes cards and wallets, 24/7 monitoring, guest support and refunds, maintenance and software updates, insurance, an itemised monthly statement, clear data and card-handling terms, and a contract that states the term, exit, hardware ownership and refresh. Anything missing from that list is a cost that lands on the venue later.

Q: Who handles refunds and lost property?
A: Under LockVault, support and refunds are handled by LockVault, so your reception does not hold a float for locker disputes. Lost property is the item most deals leave out, because a locker not emptied by close has something in it and someone must open it, log it, store it and return it. Agree who does each step, how long items are held and how the guest is contacted, and have it written into the agreement before the first season.

Q: Does the venue handle card data from the lockers?
A: No. With LockVault, card data goes to a PCI DSS Level 1 acquiring partner and never touches your tills, kiosks or lockers, with tokenisation, 3-D Secure 2 and fraud scoring as standard. Ask any provider where card data is processed and who holds the acquiring relationship. Personal data from pre-bookings or a linked ticketing record is a separate question, and the contract should say who is controller, who is processor, how long data is kept and whether you can export it.

Q: Who owns the lockers and what happens when the contract ends?
A: Under LockVault the hardware is funded, maintained and insured by LockVault for the life of the agreement. For any provider, ask who owns the lockers during and after the term, how long the initial term is, what notice ends it, who removes the lockers and makes good the floor or pitch on the last day, what happens to live pre-bookings, and how often the hardware is refreshed and at whose cost. Get each answer in writing rather than implied.

## Related pages

- How locker revenue share works: https://venueora.com/guides/locker-revenue-share-explained
- Festival lockers hire UK: costs and how it works: https://venueora.com/guides/festival-lockers-uk-costs-and-hire
- PCI DSS compliance for UK venues and attractions: https://venueora.com/guides/pci-dss-for-venues-and-attractions
- Smart lockers: https://venueora.com/smart-lockers