Features compared to Salon Booking WordPress Plug-in
Hoping someone can help... We have multiple Lash, Blow Dry, Facial and Waxing studios with a WordPress site and are currently using Salon Booking for our booking system and at 1st it was fine but since we've added multiple shops it's become challenging. I had a couple of questions about Bookly and whether it would be beneficial for us to switch systems.
1. The 1st challenge we had was with the integration of Square and payments by location. We have a SquareUp location for each of our shops and would need to be able to have payments diverted to each location's respective account in Square when taking payments online. Can Bookly accommodate?
2. The next challenge we ran into was deposits. Does Bookly have the ability to take deposits? If so, does Bookly allow forcing a deposit to be paid BEFORE a booking takes place online? With Salon Booking, I can take a deposit, however it still sends a payment pending email and adds the reservation to the booking calendar before any money exchanges hands. We'd like the booking and any notifications after to be halted until said deposit is paid online.
3. AND the biggest challenge so far. Google Calendars! Salon Booking is supposed to allow a Google calendar sync so that bookings show on the Google calendar once confirmed. It works for the overall, however when we went to add multiple shops we ran into the following challenges: a) in the calendar (when we were using the same calendar) bookings were showing up for each location but they were not labeled with the location. b) we are attempting to have bookings for each location show in their own respective calendars instead of one singular calendar for ALL shops. Are either of these an option or a problem?
4. All of this is of course based on the ability to assign services by shop, by assistant and be able to book multiple services in back-to-back time slots in a single booking. We currently have 2 locations open and a 3rd opening in a couple of weeks. We have a couple of assistants at each location right now but that will grow when the new location opens. Right now we're not utilizing assistants for booking, we're only allowing one booking at a time as their specialties and schedules vary, however someone can go online and book a facial for 10am and add a brow wax and a lip wax and the scheduling system knows to book off the combine amount of time based on the time parameters I have set for each of the services.
I hope that makes sense :)
Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
Comments
Hi Stacey,
Thanks for your message.
1. I'm afraid Square and the ability for payments for multiple, for example, Stripe accounts aren't implemented yet.
However, please check if the Bookly Locations Add-on: https://support.booking-wp-plugin.com/hc/en-us/articles/210229885-Locations-Add-on will work as a workaround.
This allows you to manage multiple locations where you provide your services: associate employees with locations, let clients choose locations for their visits, manage appointments for locations separately so your customers choose at which location they would like to receive services during the booking process.
Kindly note that the payments are through one account for the payment gateway used. Please check this article: https://support.booking-wp-plugin.com/hc/en-us/articles/212413769-Payment-Options for available payment options then let me know if you have additional questions.
2. The Bookly Deposit Payments Add-on: https://support.booking-wp-plugin.com/hc/en-us/articles/212234945-Deposit-Payments-Add-on lets you divide payment into 2 installments: a portion of the price paid online during booking, with the rest to be paid offline when the client arrives for their appointment.
3. With the Bookly Locations Add-on installed, you should be able to add the {location_info} and {location_name} shortcodes into the 'Appointment section' and 'Customer section' in Google Calendar. Please check this article: https://support.booking-wp-plugin.com/hc/en-us/articles/203572552-Google-Calendar-Sync for more information and instructions regarding Google Calendar sync.
4. Please check if the Bookly Chain Appointments Add-on: https://support.booking-wp-plugin.com/hc/en-us/articles/210316865-Chain-Appointments-Add-on will work for you.
It allows your clients to book several different services for back-to-back appointments on the same day (i.e. one visit). So the "Add service" button is added in the first step of the booking process and customers are offered time slots when all services can be provided sequentially during a single visit with employees chosen at the first step of booking.
Please check the demos (https://www.booking-wp-plugin.com/demo/locations/ & https://booking-wp-plugin.com/demo/deposit/ & https://booking-wp-plugin.com/demo/chain/) or try the sandbox on a live website before making the purchase to get a better understanding of how Bookly PRO and its add-ons work, and be able to discern if Bookly PRO and its add-ons fit your business needs.
To access the sandbox mode, please go to https://www.booking-wp-plugin.com/demo-list/ and add your email address and click on the "Configure" button then follow the rest of the steps that you'll receive on your mail.
Many thanks!
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