The Bookatu blog
Practical, no-nonsense advice for service businesses. Cutting no-shows, building steady income, getting found online, and keeping more of what you earn.
GDPR without the panic: what Bookatu handles for your salon
Clients serve themselves a copy of their data, deletion requests run on rails with a 30-day countdown in your dashboard, and you can export your whole business any day. GDPR when the software does its share.
Let Claude book your clients: Bookatu's MCP server in practice
Bookatu runs an MCP server, so an MCP-capable assistant like Claude can see your services, check live availability and create real bookings with a key you issue. Here is how that works, in plain words.
Your next client might not use your website: when people ask ChatGPT (or any AI agent) to book
People are starting to hand whole errands to AI assistants, and booking an appointment is a natural errand to hand over. What agent-ready means for a salon, and how Bookatu keeps you bookable when the one doing the booking is software.
AI agents and your booking data: what a key lets in, and what it never touches
Bookatu has two doors for AI: the assistant inside your admin and outside agents that connect with an API key. What each one can do, how keys and scoping work, and the lines nothing is allowed to cross.
Run your salon from a chat: book, reschedule and block time by typing
The Bookatu admin has an assistant you can talk to in plain words. Type what you want and it books, reschedules or blocks time for you, shows you the change first, and never touches your calendar until you confirm.
Receive a whole delivery by photographing the supplier invoice
A box arrives with a paper invoice. Photograph it, send it to the assistant, and it reads the lines, matches them to the stock you already carry, and proposes the receipt for you to confirm. Sold something? Tell it, and the count drops.
Set up a new service, its consent form and a deposit in one go
A new treatment usually means three separate trips into settings: the service, the consent form, the deposit. Describe it once and the assistant lays all three out as a plan for you to check, with the pieces already wired together.
Undo anything the assistant does, and never end up with duplicate clients
Two fair worries about letting software make changes: that it does the wrong thing, and that it quietly messes up your client list. The assistant is built around both. Nearly every change undoes in a tap, and it picks the client you meant instead of inventing a new one.
AI for your salon: the end of the blank description box
Every description box in Bookatu now has a Write it for me button. It drafts the wording in your voice and keeps your real prices, with an Undo one click away.
Digital consent forms from the PDF you already use
Waxing, peels, lash and microneedling all need signed consent. Upload the intake PDF you already use and Bookatu builds the digital form for you to check.
AI booking software: what it should actually mean
AI in booking software should hand you back an evening, not put on a show. Where Bookatu uses AI, and why every feature still works with it switched off.
Client intake forms your clients can finish on a phone
Most intake forms are built for a desk and filled in on a phone. Here is how a phone-first form gets finished in a few minutes, signature and all.