The buyer and the user are two different people
At a kids' play area, the person who pays is not the person having fun. The parent holds the phone, the card, and the money. The child supplies the demand. Build the loyalty card for the parent, and let the child be the reason it gets used.
That sounds obvious until you watch how most play areas actually run a program. A paper card gets handed to a seven-year-old and is lost in a school bag by Tuesday. Or a tablet at the desk asks for a child's name and birthday while two more families queue behind. Both versions put the record in the wrong hands.
The version that survives is one card per family, living on one parent's phone. On Waya the parent scans your QR code, types a first name and a mobile number on a single screen, and taps once to add the pass to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. Any other device gets a web card at the same link. Nothing to install, no password, no account.
Two things Waya does not do, so you can plan around them. There is no POS or till integration: your staff add a stamp by scanning the parent's card on an ordinary phone, standing next to whatever terminal you already use. And there is no SMS. Reminders arrive as wallet notifications on the lock screen, so the parent's number never reaches a third-party messaging app.
Stamp per child, not per visit
A cafe sells roughly one coffee per person, so one stamp per visit tracks spend well enough. A play area sells entry per child. A parent arriving with three kids pays three times what a parent with one pays, and a per-visit stamp treats those two families as identical.
So stamp per paid entry instead. A family of three fills the card three times as fast, which is close to proportional to what they have spent with you. If your prices vary a lot, between an hour of open play, a full day pass, and socks and a drink, a points card tied to riyals spent is the more honest instrument. Points, balance, and discount cards start on the Growth plan; the free plan includes one stamp card.
Then pick a reward that pulls the sibling in rather than pushing paying customers out. Free entry for a second child is the strongest choice for most play areas: the marginal child is the cheapest sale in the building, the parent is already committed to the outing, and families tend to spend at the cafe once they are inside. A free hour on the next visit works too, and it is easier to say out loud at the desk.
One caution. If your Thursday and Friday slots already fill, a free-entry reward on a peak slot swaps a paying child for a free one. Write the limit into the reward wording on the card, something like redeemable Sunday to Wednesday, and you have moved demand into your empty hours instead of discounting your busiest ones.
A worked example, with the assumptions written out
Here are the assumptions so you can swap in your own. Entry is 45 SAR per child. The average party is 1.6 children, so about 72 SAR of entry per family visit. You see 250 distinct families in a month. The card is six stamps for a seventh entry free, one stamp per paid child.
Say 40% of those families enroll in the first month. That is about 100 cards, which is exactly where the free plan stops. Over the following two months, suppose 30 of them make one extra visit they would not otherwise have made. That is 30 visits at 72 SAR, or 2,160 SAR of additional entry revenue, before anything they spend at the cafe.
Now the costs. Past 100 customers you move to Growth at 85 SAR a month, so 170 SAR across those two months. Suppose 8 families reach the reward and redeem a free entry: 360 SAR at retail value, and less than that in real terms if you steer redemptions into weekday afternoons where the slot was empty anyway. Net, on these assumptions, roughly 1,630 SAR.
None of that is a promise, and the arithmetic is only as good as the enrollment rate. That rate is set almost entirely by where the QR code sits. A sign at the shoe shelf, where the parent is already standing with a phone in hand, beats a poster near the exit every time.
Time reminders to the school week, not the calendar month
Saudi Arabia's weekend is Friday and Saturday, so the school week runs Sunday to Thursday. The family outing decision usually gets made on Thursday afternoon, once school and work are done. That is your send window: Thursday, roughly 4 pm to 6 pm, while the plan is still open. A message at 9 pm on Friday lands after the family has already gone somewhere else.
Use the same card to fill your dead hours. Sunday through Wednesday, 4 pm to 7 pm, is thin at most play areas because homework wins. A double-stamp afternoon costs you nothing when the slot would have been empty, and it trains a habit on the days you need one.
The school calendar then flips the whole demand curve twice a year. Mid-term breaks and the long summer break, roughly mid-June to late August, turn weekday mornings into peak. Exam weeks do the opposite and are the worst possible time to spend a message. Ramadan, a lunar month that moves about 11 days earlier each Gregorian year and falls in February in 2027, shifts family trading to after iftar, often 9 pm to 1 am. Two fixed dates are worth a campaign of their own: Founding Day on 22 February and Saudi National Day on 23 September, both public holidays that create weekday peaks.
Two practical notes. If your play area sits inside a mall, set the branch location on the Branches screen to switch on proximity reminders, so a parent who came to the mall for something else sees the card surface on the lock screen. Typing an address into the card design fields does not do this; only the Branches screen does. And budget your sends: the free plan allows 100 wallet messages a month, which one busy Thursday campaign can consume, while Growth raises that to 5,000. On paid plans, messages are the metered resource, not customers.
Rules for anything involving a child's data
Start from the position that you collect nothing at all about the child. Waya's enrollment screen asks for a first name and a mobile number, and the correct answers are the parent's first name and the parent's number. No child names, no ages, no birthdays, no photos, no school.
This is not squeamishness, it is the cheapest risk reduction available to you. A record you never collected cannot leak, cannot be requested, and cannot be misused by a staff member who leaves next month. Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law treats children's data as needing extra care and guardian involvement, and holding none of it keeps you clear of the hard questions. To be plain: Waya makes no PDPL certification claim and this is not legal advice. Read our /privacy and /dpa pages, and take your own advice for your own setup.
The birthday field is the one to watch, because a child's birthday is simultaneously the most useful marketing data in this business and the data you would least want sitting in a spreadsheet. Run a party-season campaign to your whole list instead. Or let a parent claim a birthday reward by asking at the desk, so the date lives in a conversation rather than a database.
Two more operational rules. Never use a photograph of a real child as your card artwork: the card image is delivered to every cardholder, so treat it as public, even with a parent's written permission. And give desk staff their own staff accounts, five of them on Growth, rather than sharing the owner's login, so scanning duty never comes bundled with access to your customer list.
What it costs, and where the other options sit
Waya's free plan is 0 SAR forever: up to 100 customers, 100 wallet messages a month, one stamp card, one branch, your own logo and colors, and the full dashboard, with no credit card. The stop at 100 customers is a hard stop. Families already enrolled keep their cards and keep collecting, but new sign-ups pause until you upgrade.
Growth is 85 SAR a month, or 867 SAR a year, and is where most play areas settle: unlimited customers, up to 10 cards, 3 branches, 5 staff accounts, 5,000 messages a month, all card types, Excel import, and campaign tools. Premium is 149 SAR a month, or 1,520 SAR a year, for unlimited cards, branches, staff, and messages plus priority support. There is no commission on sales, no per-card fee, and no setup fee; annual billing takes 15% off.
For comparison, using vendor-published pricing as of August 2026: Niqati is the best-known loyalty name in Saudi Arabia and the leader by search share, priced by quote; Btaqa publishes tiers at 108, 250, and 380 SAR a month; OneCup is around 150 SAR a month; Watily is 149 SAR a month with loyalty bundled into a wider plan. These are credible products and most of them ship wallet passes. Prices move, so check each vendor's current page before you decide.
The one structural difference is the starting line. Every one of those begins with a paid subscription. Waya begins at 0 SAR and stays there to 100 customers. For a play area that genuinely does not yet know whether parents will enroll at the shoe shelf, that difference is the entire experiment.
Frequently asked questions
Do parents need to download an app to join my play area's loyalty program?
No. The parent scans your QR code, enters a first name and mobile number on one screen, then taps once to add the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. Any other phone or browser gets a web version of the same card. There is no account and no password, which matters when a parent is signing up while holding a toddler.
Should the loyalty card be in the child's name?
No. Put the card on the parent's phone under the parent's name, and store nothing about the child. The parent pays, receives the lock-screen reminders, and will still have the same number in two years. Keeping child names, ages, and birthdays out of the system removes a whole category of risk at almost no marketing cost.
How many stamps should a kids' play area put on a card?
Six stamps for a seventh free session is a sensible default if you stamp once per visit, and eight to ten if you stamp once per paid child. The per-child version tracks spend better, because a parent with three children fills the card three times faster than a parent with one. Print the reward wording on the card itself so your desk staff never have to explain it.
What happens when my play area passes 100 customers on the free plan?
New enrollments stop until you upgrade, and every family already enrolled keeps their card and keeps collecting stamps. A busy weekend play area usually reaches 100 within a few weeks. Growth is 85 SAR a month for unlimited customers, 5,000 wallet messages, 3 branches, and 5 staff accounts.
When is the best time to send a reminder to parents in Saudi Arabia?
Thursday between roughly 4 pm and 6 pm, because the Saudi weekend is Friday and Saturday and the weekend plan is usually settled on Thursday evening. Weekday afternoons from Sunday to Wednesday are the slot worth discounting, since that is when most play areas sit empty. Skip exam weeks entirely, and remember that Ramadan pushes family visits to after iftar.