Offer online sessions and let the video link make itself

Marcus trains people out of a small studio behind his house. His problem was not finding clients. It was keeping the ones whose lives moved. One flies out every second week for work. One had a baby and could not get to the studio for months. One moved two hours up the country and still wanted to keep her programme going. In every case the training did not need to stop. The drive did.

The link was the annoying part

He tried running check-ins by video, and the sessions themselves worked fine. The admin around them did not. He would agree a time by text, then remember the night before to create a meeting link, then paste it into another text and hope it did not get buried. Twice a client sat waiting in a call Marcus had accidentally made under an old account. It was a five-minute job that still managed to go wrong about once a month, and it made online sessions feel second-class next to his studio ones.

One service, marked as an online call

In Bookatu the video link is a property of the service, not a chore per booking. Marcus added a service called Online check-in, 30 minutes, priced a little under a studio session. Then he changed three settings, once:

• He connected one business Google account to Bookatu in his settings. Nobody on a team has to link a personal account for this to work.
• He turned on the master switch in his booking rules, called "Add a Google Meet link to online bookings".
• On the Online check-in service he turned on "Online / video call" and saved. His studio sessions keep that switch off.

That is the entire setup. From then on, any booking for that service creates its own Google Meet link the moment the booking is made. Nothing to paste, and nothing to remember the night before.

What the client gets

Sarah, the client who moved away, books the check-in on his page the same way she used to book studio time. Her confirmation email tells her it is an online appointment and carries a Join the video call button, with the link written out underneath it in case the button does not load. When she adds the booking to her own calendar from the confirmation page, the link travels with it. At two o'clock on Thursday she taps the button and she is in the room.

What Marcus gets

His side is just as quiet. The email that tells him Sarah booked has a Join the call link in it, and the appointment lands on the connected Google Calendar with the video link attached. On a bigger team there is a nice detail here: if a trainer has connected their own Google Calendar with sync turned on, that trainer's video bookings run through their account instead, so the calendar entry and the link stay with the right person.

The sessions were never the problem. The link was. Now the link makes itself.

Where online sessions earn their keep

An online service is not a lesser copy of the real thing. It is a different product with its own uses:

• Check-ins between studio blocks, so a travelling client keeps momentum instead of restarting every month.
• A short paid consult before a first session, so new clients arrive assessed and ready to train.
• Programme reviews for clients who train alone at a gym near work and just need the plan adjusted.
• The same idea works outside training. A skin clinic can run pre-treatment consults by video, and a tennis coach can walk a player through match footage.

Keep the mix honest

The per-service switch matters more than it looks. Because you mark exactly which services are online, a hybrid week needs no thought. Studio sessions stay exactly as they were. Online check-ins get a video link. A client never receives a Meet link for something that happens in person. Marcus did not move his business online. He added one online service next to his real ones, and the bookings run themselves.

Video appointments are included on every Bookatu plan. If you have clients you have quietly lost to distance, add one online service this week and send them your booking page. The first booking will make the link for you.