How Do I Set Up Online Booking for My Business?
Set up online booking so clients pick a time from your real availability, with no back-and-forth. What it costs, how it works, and how to automate it.
How Do I Set Up Online Booking for My Business?
You run a service business and scheduling is a nightmare. Clients email to ask when you are available. You check your calendar and reply. They come back with another time. You go back and forth three times before landing on something. Then sometimes they do not show up. Booking software eliminates all of this. Here is exactly how to set up online booking for your business, what it costs, and how to make it automatic.
What Online Booking Software Does
Online booking lets clients see your real availability and book a time directly, without any back-and-forth. You set your available hours. The software shows clients only the open slots. They pick one, confirm, and a calendar event is created automatically for both of you. You often never have to touch it.
A one-sentence definition: online booking software lets clients self-schedule appointments based on your real availability, eliminating the back-and-forth of manual scheduling.
The Best Options by Type of Business
For solo freelancers and consultants: Calendly
Calendly is the most widely used booking tool for individuals. Connect it to your Google Calendar or Outlook. Set your available hours. Share your booking link. Done.
Free tier includes one event type with unlimited bookings. Paid tiers from $8/month add multiple event types, payment collection, team scheduling, and reminders.
Go to calendly.com, create a free account, connect your calendar, and share your link. Takes about fifteen minutes.
For service businesses with multiple services: Acuity Scheduling
Acuity handles more complex scenarios: different appointment types with different durations and prices, intake forms before appointments, packages and subscriptions, and payment collection at booking. From $16/month.
For businesses that already use Square: Square Appointments
If you take payments through Square, Square Appointments is the most integrated option. Free for individuals, with Square’s payment processing fees.
For building booking directly into your own app: Cal.com
Cal.com is an open-source Calendly alternative with an API. If you want booking embedded in your own app rather than sending people to a third-party page, your AI can integrate Cal.com. Ask your AI: “Can you embed Cal.com booking into my app so clients can book appointments without leaving the site?”
Reducing No-Shows With Automated Reminders
The biggest problem after getting bookings is no-shows. Automated reminders dramatically reduce them.
Calendly, Acuity, and most booking tools send automatic email reminders. Enable them in your settings and set at least two reminders: one 24 hours before and one 1 hour before.
For SMS reminders, which have significantly higher open rates than email, Acuity and Calendly both offer this on paid plans. Alternatively, connect your booking tool to Twilio via Zapier for SMS reminders on any plan.
Collecting Payment at Booking
Requiring payment upfront at booking time eliminates most no-shows immediately. When someone has paid, they show up.
Calendly integrates with Stripe and PayPal. Acuity connects to Stripe, Square, and PayPal. Set the price for your appointment type and payment is collected automatically when the client books.
Connecting Booking to Your Other Systems
Once someone books, you probably want their details in your CRM, a welcome email sent, and a task created for preparation.
Set up a Zapier automation triggered by new booking events in Calendly or Acuity. Actions can include adding the client to your Notion CRM, sending a welcome email, or creating a prep task in Trello.
The One Thing to Remember
Online booking eliminates scheduling back-and-forth by letting clients see your availability and self-schedule. Calendly is the fastest free starting point for individuals. Acuity handles more complex service business needs. Enable automated reminders to reduce no-shows. Require payment at booking to eliminate them almost entirely.
Want your booking-connected automations running reliably? → Snapdock
New here? These might help: I copy and paste between apps all day. How do I automate it? → How do I add payments to my app? →