What a bespoke booking system is
A bespoke booking system takes bookings on your website and runs them in the office: what is available, what it costs, what was paid and what happens next. We build them for UK businesses whose pricing, extras or rules don't fit an off-the-shelf booking tool.
Where booking tools stop fitting
Most booking software is built for one shape of business: a slot, a price, a payment. It copes until your rates change by season, a booking needs three extras and a deposit, or two kinds of customer see different prices.
Then the workarounds start. A spreadsheet for the rates the tool can't hold. A shared inbox for amendments. Someone in the office reconciling payments against the accounts at the end of the month.
What we build into one
- Availability by resource: rooms, bays, seats, vehicles, staff or time slots, with the rules about what can be booked together.
- A rates engine for seasons, occupancy, group sizes and offers, set by the office without a developer.
- Extras and add-ons, priced and stocked like everything else.
- Deposits, instalments and balance reminders, taken by card through Stripe.
- Cancellation and amendment rules that work out what is owed automatically.
- An office view of the day: arrivals, what is unpaid, what needs confirming.
- Invoices and payments posted to Xero or Sage, so the accounts match the bookings.
Moving off a booking platform you have outgrown
We have built one of these for an activity holiday operator that had outgrown its booking software. It covers inventory, a rates engine, extras, cancellation rules, deposits and instalments, with Stripe as the record of every payment and invoices posted to Xero.
It is built to go live without a big-bang switch. The website and customer area talk to an API layer rather than to the booking platform directly, so the system behind that layer can be swapped while the site carries on as normal. The method is on replacing an outgrown SaaS.
Build one, or buy one
When bespoke is worth it
- Your pricing or rules need a spreadsheet next to the booking tool.
- You pay a fee per booking that grows with every sale.
- Bookings, payments and accounts are reconciled by hand.
- You want the booking flow on your own site, under your own brand.
Simple slots, simple prices
If you sell fixed appointments at fixed prices, a booking package will do it for less, and we'll tell you which. Bespoke pays off when the rules are what make your business different.
Questions about booking systems
Can you move our existing bookings across?
Yes. We export the bookings, customers and payments from the old system, load them into the new one and count them on both sides before switching. Future bookings move with their deposits and balances intact.
Will our website have to change?
Not necessarily. We can put a layer between your website and the booking system, so the site keeps working while the system behind it is replaced. Many clients rebuild the site at the same time anyway.
Which payment providers do you use?
Usually Stripe, which handles deposits, instalments and refunds, and Square where there is a card terminal in the building. Payments are written back to the booking and posted to your accounts package.
Do we pay a fee per booking?
No. You own the system, so there is no fee per booking or per user. You pay the payment provider's card fees and the hosting, which is in your name.
Tell us how a booking works
On a free call, walk us through one booking from enquiry to the balance being paid. We'll tell you whether a package would cope, and what a bespoke system would change.