How Equinox uses unified payments to elevate member experiences

As Equinox expanded across regions and services, its payments setup became increasingly complex. The brand was managing three to four different providers across its architecture—supporting in-person purchases, recurring memberships, and in-app transactions across multiple countries. This complexity was slowing the business down.

“There were a lot of challenges with our previous payment setup,” said Veluri. “There was no interoperability between countries. We had stability issues where payments wouldn’t work. And whenever we wanted to add a new payment method, it was a massive project.”

For a luxury brand, failure wasn’t just an operational issue—it was a risk to member experience. 

“We’re trying to provide a luxury experience. So whether you’re joining as a member in an advisors office or buying a training package for $10,000, you don’t ever want something to not work.”

The fragmented setup put pressure on internal teams. Quarterly review meetings were consumed by incident management and troubleshooting problems rather than discussing new opportunities.

“We wanted a partner who would meet our needs today and were 4 or 5 years ahead of us.”

Eswar Veluri

EVP, Chief Technology Officer at Equinox

That long-term mindset shaped how Equinox approached its search for a payments partner. “What stands out about Equinox is how intentionally they approached the partnership. They weren’t just solving an immediate problem, they were setting themselves up to move faster over the next several years.” said Eric Mahecha, VP of Account Management North America at Adyen.

After an extensive vendor search, Equinox chose to unify its payments tech stack with Adyen—selecting a partner that could simplify complexity while supporting long-term growth. 

"As soon as we started incorporating the Adyen components, we realised the platform was as advertised," said Veluri. "It was clear during development that we'd made the right decision, because engineers are usually the first ones to tell you whether you made the right decision or not."

Equinox initially began working with Adyen for its spas, before expanding the platform across the business to retail stores and club memberships. Over time, payments for in-club purchases, memberships, and in-app transactions were brought onto a single platform—supporting in-person, subscription, and digital payments across 113 clubs, spas, and retail locations in three countries.

What Veluri described as a “subway map” of systems became “a LEGO block” with one input and output. That simplicity created ripple effects across financial, engineering, and support costs, lowering Equinox’s total cost of payments.

"With a small team of technologists and finance, we're fortunate now that we don't have to worry about incidents, reacting to outages, or customer complaints."

Eswar Veluri

EVP, Chief Technology Officer at Equinox

Throughout the transition, Adyen worked closely with Equinox to address regulatory requirements, improve performance, and move faster—without disrupting the membership experience. 

And once the platform was in place, the partnership extended beyond implementation. Account management, product specialists, and technical experts continued to bring recommendations to Equinox—surfacing new ways to improve performance and reduce cost without adding operational complexity.

“We do not have to actually look out as much, and as Adyen brings up new features and new avenues for us, it’s as simple as a configuration where we turn something on and something goes live for our members.” noted Veluri.

That proactive guidance has translated into tangible savings. As more members shifted to debit cards, Adyen advised Equinox on routing US debit transactions through the most cost-effective networks—without requiring additional engineering work from Equinox’s team. “One day we were just told, ‘Turn this configuration on, and you’ll get immediate savings.’”, Veluri noted.

Treating payments as core infrastructure, not an afterthought, changed how Equinox operates day to day. “Equinox is a strong example of what happens when payments are treated as core infrastructure, not just an add-on. When everything runs through a single platform, teams can focus on improving the experience instead of managing exceptions.” Eric Mahecha noted.

Today, a member can fly from Boston to London and visit Equinox Kensington without giving payments a second thought. The same consistency now extends across every interaction, whether a member is paying in-club, renewing a subscription, or making a purchase in the Equinox+ app. 

All of these experiences now run on a single payments platform, giving the company one consistent view of transactions across physical and digital channels. 

That same platform underpins the in-club experience. As Equinox expanded payments across clubs and retail locations, Adyen terminals—including P400 Plus, V400c Plus, and P630—were rolled out to support fast, reliable in-person payments at scale.

Behind the scenes, payments now support growth instead of slowing it down. With all transactions unified on one platform, Equinox has been able to focus on optimisation rather than maintenance—reducing fraud, improving authorisation performance, and lowering debit processing costs through intelligent routing. In one example, Equinox has achieved a 38% cost reduction through intelligent US debit routing.

"The savings have been substantial. Adyen is at the forefront of fraud detection and has helped us navigate the myriad of credit card fees in a very positive way."

Eswar Veluri

EVP, Chief Technology Officer at Equinox

Best of all, Equinox no longer manages different POS systems or banking relationships. Engineers spend less time firefighting. Finance benefits from faster reconciliation and improved forecasting, thanks to greater transparency in payments data.

"We don't have to look outward as much now," said Veluri. "Adyen brings up new features and new avenues for us, and it's a simple configuration. We turn something on, it goes live for our members. The stability of the Adyen ecosystem speaks for itself."

For Equinox’s members, the technology stays invisible—which is exactly how it should be.

See how unified payments can elevate your customer experience.