The Urban Lockers idea started in 2021, somewhere quite far from software: by the sea in Barcelona. Jose had just bought a paddleboard and couldn't find anywhere to leave his belongings while he was in the water.
"I started to notice that this service was everywhere in the rest of Spain, but in Barcelona it barely existed."
Two years later, in 2023, he opened the first Urban Lockers shop at Plaza España — the point where thousands of tourists and visitors arrive every day, almost all of them dragging a suitcase, with hours to kill before their next flight or train.
Two attempts at software before LockMe
Like any operator getting started, the first thing he needed was a system to manage bookings, payments and locker openings. He picked a software vendor available on the market.
The problem showed up fast: customers weren't getting their access codes, or the system wasn't generating them at all. And when an incident happened — almost always on the weekend, which is when a luggage-storage shop has the most bookings — there was no one to call. He had to wait until Monday.
"For an unattended business you need to have a team behind you that understands this sector, that has solid and reliable software, and that offers real support when an incident occurs."
When he opened the second shop, he changed both the locker manufacturer and the software vendor at the same time. The new vendor had things the first one didn't — hourly bookings, card-reader payments — but it didn't allow online bookings. And the support response to incidents was the same: nothing until the next business day.
"After more than three years in this sector, you realise the customer doesn't care about your problems. An incident on your end affects the user's time and can cause bigger problems — missed trains, missed flights. That's why what I value most in a software company is a fast response to technical incidents."
Looking for something different
By mid-2025, Jose had made the call: running two lockers on two different softwares, both with the same problems, wasn't sustainable.
He started looking for alternatives. And he found out quickly that there weren't as many options as he expected.
"There are many companies that build software, but not as many that build software focused on the locker sector — and specifically on luggage storage."
Why LockMe
When he found LockMe, what stood out was the combination: specific experience in the luggage-storage sector, a young team, and ideas he hadn't seen in his previous vendors.
"If you want different results, stop doing the same thing."
That was the line that decided it for him.
What changed day to day
Onboarding was fast. The management software was easy to use. The UX for his customers — both online and at the in-store kiosk — runs in three steps and under two minutes.
"The success of a booking comes down to how easy and fast the payment is. LockMe has nailed this — friction-free."
But the difference that surprised him most was a different one: automatic review requests.
"One day LockMe told me: 'we're going to add a feature to request reviews by email when the customer finishes their booking'. That was a big change in how I run the business. It sounds trivial, but with the previous softwares I had to ask one by one over WhatsApp. This single feature saves me a huge amount of time."
The other operational improvement he highlights is automatic late-arrival management. Before, when a customer didn't show up on time to collect their belongings, Jose had to watch the clock so one customer's delay didn't affect another customer's booking. Now the system handles it on its own — for both hourly and daily bookings — and automatically charges the customer for the overage.
The feature he wouldn't give up
When we asked which feature he would defend if we tried to remove it, several came up: review requests, code delivery by email and WhatsApp, grace time, early access, discount coupons. But if he had to pick just one:
"The automatic review request."
What Jose would tell another operator
"If you're looking for something new and different, go for it. You won't regret either the software or how the whole team works with you. LockMe offers a very good product — robust and with great functionality. The proof is that I have two shops running on their software, and whatever I open next is going to run on it too."
— Jose, Urban Lockers, Barcelona