Frequently Asked Questions

Sakaloz is a student discount platform for Lisbon, made from students to students. Verify once that you're a student, then redeem exclusive offers at partner cafés, restaurants, gyms, studios and more — by showing a QR code in store, or booking online for partners that work that way.

Yes — completely free for students. There's no subscription, no trial and no hidden cost: every feature in the app is included.

Eight: English, Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese and Japanese. Change yours anytime in Profile → Language.

Yes. As a guest you can browse businesses, offers and the map freely. To redeem offers, save favorites or book online you'll be asked to sign in first — those are student perks tied to your account.

The discounts are a student perk. Partner businesses offer them because Sakaloz guarantees that everyone redeeming is a real, current student.

Pick your student type (regular, Erasmus, exchange or international), upload a clear photo of your student ID (JPG or PNG, up to 5 MB) and submit. Your status shows as "pending" while our team reviews it — usually within 1–2 days — and you'll see the result in the app.

It's used only to review your verification and is deleted right after the decision. While it's stored, only you and Sakaloz admins can access it.

Yes — six months after approval, so we know you're still a student. The app shows a friendly reminder starting 14 days before the date, and your profile shows "Verified until {date}". Re-verifying is the same quick upload; once approved, a fresh six-month clock starts.

Yes, just re-submit with a clearer photo of a valid student ID. You can submit up to 3 times per hour.

Open the business (the exact location you're at), pick the offer, tap Get QR and show your screen — the staff scans it and the discount is confirmed on the spot.

It's a security window: a short-lived code can't be screenshotted and shared around. If it expires before it's scanned, just generate a new one — it's instant.

Each QR is single-use. If your discount wasn't actually applied, generate a fresh QR and have it scanned again.

Offers belong to a specific branch. Your QR is tied to the location whose offer you opened — if you're at a different branch of the same business, open that branch's page and use its offer instead. Nothing is lost; the code isn't consumed by a wrong-branch scan.

Three usual reasons: the business is currently closed (or temporarily paused), the offer is outside its active hours, or your verification has expired and needs a quick renewal. The app tells you which one it is.

Some offers are only valid on certain days or times (for example weekday afternoons). The card shows the window; it becomes redeemable when the window opens (Lisbon time).

Some partners (studios, clinics, gyms) take bookings on their own website instead of scanning a QR. For those offers you'll see a "Book online" button: after a quick confirmation, the app opens the partner's booking page in your browser. It's still a verified-students-only perk.

Yes — tap the heart on any business and find it later in your Saved tab (sign-in required).

A business can have several locations (branches), each with its own page, offers, hours and photos. Closed locations grey out and sink to the bottom until they reopen.

Yes — after you redeem there, you can leave a 1–5 star rating with an optional comment (one review per business, and you can update yours). Other students only ever see the average rating and the number of reviews — your comment and name are shared privately with the business owner and Sakaloz, never shown publicly.

Every business page has direct actions for whatever the business provides: call, website, Instagram and directions.

Exactly as described in our Privacy Policy — you can read it there anytime.

Contact us by email with the business name and time — we follow up with the partner directly. Businesses that repeatedly refuse advertised offers are removed from Sakaloz.

Profile → delete account, then type the confirmation word. It works the same for Google and Apple sign-ins, and deletion is permanent.

Use the email contact at the bottom of this page — we aim to reply within 24–48 hours. ---

Apply through sakaloz.com/join — we'll contact you to schedule your activation. The Sakaloz team sets up your business profile and your login, and you take it from there in the app.

Sakaloz is currently free for partner businesses during the launch period. Early partners will be informed well in advance of any change.

Yes — the same business login works on any number of devices at once, and each device independently chooses which branch it's acting as. The counter tablet can be locked to your downtown branch while you check overall stats on your phone.

The branch selector sets what your device is working as. On a specific branch, offers, stats and photos are that branch's own; on "All branches" you see the whole business aggregated. Creating offers and scanning require picking a branch first — so everything lands in the right place.

Branches → add branch, with its name, address, city and phone. Each branch can have its own opening hours and its own cover photo.

The business-level cover photo is reviewed by Sakaloz before going live (pending → approved or rejected). A branch's own cover photo goes live immediately on upload.

Three value types: a percentage discount, a fixed € amount off, or a special offer in your own words ("free registration", "no lock-in"). Separately, each offer redeems either by QR scan in store (default) or as a booking link that sends students to your website.

One offer per business can be flagged featured — it's highlighted first to students. Featuring a new one automatically un-features the previous.

Percentage offers have a platform minimum of 5%.

Yes — give any offer a schedule: days of the week plus a daily time window (Lisbon time). Outside the window students see it greyed with its hours, and it can't be redeemed — the scanner enforces it too. No schedule means always available.

Instead of a QR, verified students get a "Book online" button that opens your booking page (a secure https link you provide). Taps are counted on your dashboard as Link Taps — separate from scans, because a tap opens your site but doesn't confirm a booking.

Yes — every offer has an active toggle. Paused offers disappear from students until you re-activate them.

Open the scanner while acting as your branch and scan the student's QR. The result is instant: success applies the redemption, and any problem (expired, already used, wrong branch) is shown clearly.

Scanning is blocked on "All branches" — a redemption must be attributed to a real location. Pick your branch in the selector and scan again.

The student opened a different location's offer. Their code stays valid — ask them to open YOUR branch's page and generate the QR from there.

No. Codes are single-use and expire after 30 seconds, and the redemption is recorded atomically — a double scan shows "already used" instead of counting twice.

Successful QR redemptions recorded at your scanner, scoped to the branch your device is acting as (or the whole business on "All branches").

How many times students opened your business or branch page. Repeated opens by the same student within 30 minutes count once.

Your conversion: successful redemptions divided by card views, shown as a percentage. It reads "—" until you have views, and is capped at 100%.

Verified students tapping "Book online" on your link offers (deduped per student per 30 minutes). They're counted separately from scans because a tap opens your booking page — it doesn't confirm a booking happened.

Your name, description, contact details and socials, opening hours, photos, branches and every offer. Business categories are set by the Sakaloz team — message us to change them.

The pause switch shows your business as closed to students everywhere and stops QR generation until you unpause — handy for holidays.

Each branch follows its own hours (or the business default), in Lisbon time. They drive the "Open now" state students see, and QRs can't be generated for a closed branch.

Email us and we'll deactivate your listing — no notice period, no penalty.