Do golfers need the OpenTeeSheet app to get in?

No. The door code arrives in the confirmation email, and by text when the golfer opts in. The app is optional.

What if the studio's door has no keypad?

The confirmation carries that booking's own unlock link. It opens in any browser, with no sign-in and no install, and opens every door on the way to the bay in order.

Does anything ask for my location?

No. The OpenTeeSheet app has no location library and no location permission, and searching for a venue is typed text.

Can I get my code again if I lose the email?

Yes. My Bookings shows the code and the unlock button in a browser, and the booking page says what to do when a code does not work.

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Do I have to install an app to get through the door at a golf simulator studio?

How a paid booking at an unstaffed golf simulator becomes a door code in your email or a text with nothing to install, what happens when a door opens from a phone instead of a keypad, and why no location permission is ever asked for.

Updated 2026-11-06. Every quote links to where it was published.

In owners' own words

“Had to download the app to go in a door but didn’t end up using it.”
App Store reviewer of a phone-unlock door app (role not shown) · source

“share my location at all times with this shady company just to unlock a door? Absolutely not.”
App Store reviewer of a phone-unlock door app (role not shown) · source

“This thing demands 24/7 access to your location just to unlock doors.”
App Store reviewer of another phone-unlock door app (role not shown) · source

What it is

A golfer books a bay at nine in the evening, pays, drives over, and stands at a locked door. Whatever has to happen next happens on a phone in the dark, in a parking lot, at a studio with nobody inside. Every step added before the door opens is a step that can fail there: an app to find and install, an account to make inside it, a permission dialog to accept, a wallet card that pops up over the thing you were trying to tap.

Door-access products built for offices put those steps in the way, because an office badge is a long-lived credential for a known employee. A golfer is the opposite: a stranger with one booking, often their first and maybe their only one. The credential has to arrive in something they already have open, and it has to work the first time, with nothing installed.

How OpenTeeSheet does it

A paid booking's door code is in the confirmation email, with the window it works in and the doors it opens. Nothing has to be installed to receive it or to use it.	Pinned by automated tests: booking-finalize.test.ts, door-access-realdb.test.ts
A golfer who ticks the text box at booking also gets the code by SMS, inside the venue's own text budget; the email carries it either way, so a studio with texts switched off still delivers.	Pinned by automated tests: booking-finalize.test.ts, twilio-budget-realdb.test.ts
When a door on the path has no keypad and opens from a phone instead, the email and the text carry that booking's own unlock link: it opens in any browser, needs no sign-in and no install, and opens every door of the booking in order.	Pinned by automated tests: booking-finalize.test.ts, lock-multidoor-realdb.test.ts, every-door-opens-realdb.test.ts
The unlock link grants nothing by itself: it is signed for one booking, works only inside that booking's access window, and is rate limited, so a forwarded link is useless to anyone else.	Pinned by automated tests: door-unlock-realdb.test.ts
The code can be read again, and the door opened, from My Bookings in a browser, and the booking page says what to do when a code does not open the door.	Pinned by automated tests: golfer-self-serve-widget.test.ts, door-unlock-realdb.test.ts
The OpenTeeSheet app is optional for a golfer and asks for no location: the app has no location library and no location permission, and venue search is typed text.	Pinned by automated tests: answers.test.ts
A wallet pass is never on the way to the door: the code and the unlock link are in the email either way, and a pass is an extra a venue can switch on.	Pinned by automated tests: wallet-pass.test.ts

The bar we measure it against

A paid booking's door code reaches the golfer by email, and by text when they opt in, with no app needed, proven by the booking-finalize tests.

Where it stands today: Met today. Every confirmation carries the way in: a keypad PIN, or a one-tap unlock link for a door that has no keypad, and the tests named above pin both paths, including the browser-only route through My Bookings.

What owners report from other tools

Reviewers of phone-unlock door apps describe installing software for one door, a wallet card opening over the unlock screen, and a demand for location access at all times. Those apps are sold to the venue, but the first-time visitor is the one who has to accept them in the parking lot.

Questions

Do golfers need the OpenTeeSheet app to get in?: No. The door code arrives in the confirmation email, and by text when the golfer opts in. The app is optional.
What if the studio's door has no keypad?: The confirmation carries that booking's own unlock link. It opens in any browser, with no sign-in and no install, and opens every door on the way to the bay in order.
Does anything ask for my location?: No. The OpenTeeSheet app has no location library and no location permission, and searching for a venue is typed text.
Can I get my code again if I lose the email?: Yes. My Bookings shows the code and the unlock button in a browser, and the booking page says what to do when a code does not work.