How To Create An Online Booking System: An Ultimate Guide

How To Create An Online Booking System: The Ultimate Guide

Are you struggling to streamline your workload and take bookings easily and effectively? Have no fear! Using Baluu’s online booking system is a piece of cake. In this walkthrough, we’ll show you how to create an online booking system in a matter of hours.

Ben Carter

min read

Before the internet, taking bookings for your business was a time-consuming, laborious endeavour. Not only was it difficult to advertise your business, but most bookings were made over the phone. That’s a lot of unnecessary hours that could be put into growing your business.

Fortunately, today, business owners are able to utilize booking software to great effect. What separates Baluu from the rest of the pack is its ease of use and comprehensive tools. Providing an all-in-one software solution to small to medium businesses, Baluu allows you to create your own website, take bookings and add payments on one slick, user-friendly platform.

Below, we’ll guide you, step-by-step, to making your very own online booking system. We’re confident that, after following this guide, you’ll know everything you need to know to start taking bookings today!

Step 1 - Create events/activities

First things first, let’s create your events and/or activities. On the dashboard, click on Events in the left-hand menu. This will bring down a drop-down menu containing All events, and Add new event.

For the moment, we’ll focus on adding a new event.

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In this section, you’re able to add all your event’s relevant information. First, you need to pick the event type (we’ll explain these in more detail later on), then add the title of your event, a description, the price, an eye-catching image, and, if applicable, public keywords.

After this, click Create event at the bottom of the page. Bear in mind that this event will be saved as a draft until your website is published, at which point it will be available to customers.

Now, when you click on All Events, you’ll see your recently added event.

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But there’s still a little more information you need to add before the event can be published. Click Manage on the Event box and it will bring up a window where you can add more detail to your event.

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Here you can finetune your SEO, automate Checkout Prompts for more info on your customers, include FAQs, and more. We’ll cover this in more detail later. For now, in order to get the event online, you need to add dates to your timetable.

Click on Dates and Times in the top menu, and then either click Add Session or Add Recurring Session depending on which is preferable.

Clicking Add Session will bring up the window below.

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Here you're able to add the information you need in order to publish the event: the date and time, duration, instructor, maximum attendance, number of tickets available, and early access(meaning only customers with the early access link can see it).

Once you’ve done all this, you’re now ready to publish your first event!

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Hit publish, and hey presto!

Step 2 - Adding tutors

Secondly, let’s take a look at how to add tutors/instructors. Whether you have a large team or operate on your own, it’s essential your tutors have a bio and contact information filled out.

In the left-hand menu, click on Team. This will bring up a page showing all of your tutors. In the top right-hand corner, click Add instructor.

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This will bring up a window where you can add all the personal details of the instructor, including contact details, a short bio, a profile image, and social media handles.

Then simply click Add instructor in the bottom right corner of the window. You can add as many instructors as you like.

Step 3 - Adding your calendar

To manage the dates and times of your event, click on the Timetable section in the left-hand menu. This will bring up an overview of all your listed events.

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Above you can see the event we added along with the relevant information. Clicking on the three dots on the right side of the event will bring up a drop-down menu where you can add notes, update the date and time, edit information, choose between either live on online sessions, and more.

You’re able to view all your upcoming events in this section, edit them, and monitor attendees.

Step 4 - Syncing with your Google Calendar

Syncing your timetable with your google calendar is very straightforward. Simply click on Account settings in the left-hand menu on the dashboard. Then click on Calendar Sync.

Now, click on Sync with google, add your Google account, and voila! Now you’ll be able to view your upcoming events in your Google Calander.

Step 5 -Setting up payments

To set up your payments, again, click on Account settings in the left-hand menu on the dashboard. Then click Finance in the drop-down menu. In this section, you can either connect to Baluu’s Stripe to receive super-fast, secure payments or add your bank details to receive payments directly to your bank account.

Step 6 -Adding custom forms/information

Baluu has many features that allow you to improve and grow your business. Among these is the ability to gather useful information from your clients.

In the All Events section, click Manage in your chosen event.

To begin with, let’s take a look at Notes & Emails.

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In this section, you can write pre-event and post-event notes that will be automatically sent to your customers. Not only can this can them know about your code of conduct, what they need to do to prepare, etc. but also share relevant content, and maintain good customer relations.

Next, let’s explore Checkout Prompts.

Checkout prompts are a great, unintrusive way to gather valuable information on your clients. These questions are a useful way to get valuable feedback that can help your business run more smoothly. We recommended trying to make your Checkout Prompts as succinct as possible, so as not to make the checkout process too time-consuming,

By answering some of the most common questions customers ask FAQs are an effective way of limiting the hours you’d normally have to allocate to customer service.

Simply write as many questions and answers as you think are appropriate, then these will appear on your Event page.

Today, given that most commerce takes place online, SEO (search engine optimization) is an integral aspect of any business. Fortunately, Baluu knows this better than most.

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The SEO & Keywords section allows you to set Public Keywords and Private tags. Public Keywords will be visible on your website and are used to find similar events in your listings to show to customers.

Private Tags can be used to create additional landing pages on your website.

Sometimes, things happen, and you may have to cancel the event. Therefore, it’s essential you have a comprehensive Cancellation Policy to ensure good customer relations and not compromise conversions.

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In this section (you can also navigate to it via the Account Settings in the left-hand menu) you can provide the information relevant to cancelation. Choose your policy type. These are self-explanatory:

‍Cancel or Reschedule allows customers to either cancel or reschedule their session.
‍Reschedule Only means customers can't cancel but are allowed to reschedule to another session.
‍No Cancelation means customers can't cancel or reschedule their session once booked.

In these sections, you can Include info like a Policy Cut-off, additional Event Terms, along with Private Event Terms (if applicable).

It’s important to note that it’s a legal requirement that any bookings can be cancelled or rescheduled within 24 hours of the booking being made, and these will always be allowed regardless of the policy created here.

Step 7 - Utilise Marketing Tools

Providing deals and discounts is a great way to improve your conversion rate. Fortunately, Baluu has the option to do so.

In Marketing on the left-hand menu of the dashboard, click on Discount Codes in the drop-down menu. Now click New Code. The codes you create are valid on your website for your events and products.

In the Marketing section, you can also monitor your customer reviews to garner useful feedback on your events. Lacking reviews? Don’t worry! Baluu also allows you to invite your customers to review any of your events using a provided link you can either email or share directly on social media platforms.

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Step 8 - Different event types explained

When adding a new event, you’ll have the option to choose between 3 event types. Let’s take a look at the difference between them.

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‍Singular: these are sessions that customers can purchase independently of one another.
‍Group or Series: this refers to a group of sessions that can not be purchased independently of one another
‍Termly: a term allows you to create a series of events that can all be booked at once, or optionally also booked as drop-ins. You can check customers in for each individual session throughout the term.
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Step 9. Integrating the system on your existing website

While you’re able to build a booking website from scratch with Baluu, it also has the option of integrating its booking system with your existing site

To do this, click on Website Integration in the left-hand menu on the dashboard. Now click Get Started.

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To integrate the booking system with your existing website, all you have to do is copy the HTML code provided to add a Book Now button to your website. It’s as simple as that.

And don’t worry if you’re struggling with any of this, as Baluu’s customer service team is always on hand to help.

Step 10 - Using Baluu as your main website

To make the most of what Baluu has to offer, you can also use their in-built website builder. To build a website from scratch—one that’s fully integrated with Baluu’s booking system—click on the Website integration, and then Customization.

Using Baluu’s pre-rendered templates, you can customize your individual webpages—Homepage, Events, About, Contact Page, Products, Blog, Landing pages—adding text, your choice of images, colours, and more.

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As part of its subscription fee, Baluu enables you to able to build a fully integrated booking website— one that’s aesthetically pleasing and has an intuitive customer view—in a matter of hours with zero coding experience.

Step 11 - Customising your booking page

Baluu enables you to customize your booking page with minimum hassle and great results. We wrote a step-by-step guide to creating a booking website that will serve you well will should you choose to do so.

Take a look at the site we created in only a few hours!

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But if you still feel a little daunted by the prospect of using Baluu, it has plenty of instructive tutorials, along with a friendly customer service team that can guide you through the process should you need help.

Conclusion

As we’ve shown, making a booking system with Baluu is a walk in the park. What separates Baluu from other online booking systems isn’t only its ease of use, but how much functionality you get for an affordable subscription fee. Even though it's a relatively young company, many small businesses are using Baluu’s booking system to great effect. So say goodbye to developer fees and finicky coding; say hello to a streamlined workload, and a beautiful, efficient booking system!

Need more advice?

Have a read of some related guides on the Baluu blog below, or book a demo with one of our friendly team today. We'll be happy to walk you through the Baluu system and how it can help you manage and grow your bookings business.

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Try Our World Class Bookings System. Free For 30 days.

Run a business that takes bookings? Need a single place to manage all your bookings, accept payments and track revenue? Baluu is for you!