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.
Booking lessons and group classes without losing your evenings
A guitar teacher's tale of taking 1:1 lessons and small group classes online, capping seats, taking payment up front, and turning a rained-off park session into one calm tap instead of an hour of refunds.
How one nail studio stopped drowning in messages and let clients book themselves
A small Mount Eden nail studio was drowning in booking messages until it let clients book their own appointments and filled its slow days with group sessions that regulars now bring their friends along to. A plain, human look at how online booking and referrals grow a salon.
How a Small Restaurant Filled Its Quiet Nights With Online Reservations
How a twenty-eight seat trattoria stopped losing tables to a ringing phone and filled its quiet midweek nights with fixed-time supper clubs people book and pay for online, with happy regulars bringing the crowd and no commission to pay.
Fill every day of your school-holiday sports camp
How Bex, who runs a school-holiday sports camp out of a New Lynn park, put every camp day online so it fills itself, forecast and rain-outs included.
How a barber shop filled its chairs and stopped the no-shows
A New Plymouth barber was losing four cuts every Saturday to no-shows. Here's how online appointments and a small deposit turned his best day of the week back into a full one.
How a Wednesday night run club counts itself now
Reuben runs a Wednesday night club from the boat shed by the lake. Here is how putting each week's run on his page as a capped, bookable group session, with a live forecast on the card and payment taken up front, quietly handed the admin back to the runners.
How to fill every bike in your spin studio without chasing texts
A whiteboard and a phone full of maybes is no way to run a room of fourteen bikes. Here's how one Wellington studio put its class timetable online and filled the room before opening.
How a Piha surf school stopped dreading the Friday-night phone
Ana teaches beginners to surf at Piha, where the wind decides everything. Here is how running lessons as bookable group sessions, each with a live forecast on the card, gave her back her Friday nights and her rain-day sanity.
How a Tuesday night tennis clinic runs itself now
Meet Will, who runs a beginners tennis clinic every Tuesday at his local club. Here is how running it as a fixed-time group session, with a live weather forecast on the card and payment taken online, quietly fixed the whole thing.
Mini-session days that fill up before dinner
Priya sells out a full Saturday of fifteen-minute autumn mini-sessions at the botanic gardens. Here is how laying the day out as bookable sessions, with one location and a live forecast on every slot, took the DM avalanche out of it entirely.
A class timetable that fills its own spots
Mara runs eight classes a week off a clipboard by the door, and it shows. Here is how putting every class on the timetable as a capped, bookable session let her members sort their own spots and filled her Saturday reformer by Thursday.
Why there's a tiny weather forecast on your booking page
There is a small animated weather forecast on the booking page for outdoor sessions, and it is not only there to look cute. It answers the question everyone asks before booking, and when a session is rained off, everyone gets credited back automatically.