Scheduling Plugin – Online Booking for WordPress

Online scheduling and booking plugin

At Start Booking, we believe that a simple online booking experience is critical to any highly converting website. Start Booking is a WordPress booking plugin that is focused on helping individuals and businesses manage customers, book more appointments, and sell their services.

The appointment scheduling plugin seamlessly connects with the Start Booking cloud platform to power your online booking and display your services or classes anywhere on your WordPress site. The plugin has been developed to adopt and inherit your WordPress theme styles, so minimal (if any) updates are needed to give your website a performant and professional looking booking calendar.

With appointment booking from Start Booking, you will find a nice balance between the booking tools available to you straight from the WordPress admin and that which is available from within the Start Booking platform itself. From our experience, most businesses don’t want to run the day-day of their business directly within their WordPress admin. Because of this, we developed the Start Booking online scheduling software to help you manage your services, appointments, classes and business better while leveraging your WordPress website as a tool and integral part of the experience.

Embedding the booking system

Once the plugin is installed, there are a few options for displaying your booking calendar. If you are using the Gutenberg editor (WordPress 5.0+), you will have the option to use our blocks to embed your booking form. If you are not using Gutenber, we still support shortcodes for the legacy booking experience.

Gutenberg Blocks

To use the Gutenberg blocks, navigate to any page or post that you want to display your booking form.

Services Block

The first and most popular option is the services block. This block will display a booking flow (which is configurable) for a user to select a service and date they want to book and the plugin will return available openings based on your Start Booking settings.

Single Service Availability

The second appointment booking option is a lot like the services block except with the single service availability shortcode, you predefine what service you want selected so that the user skips selecting a service and only selects a date & time.

Example usage for this would be if you have single pages on your website for each of your services. You could embed the single service availability shortcode directly into each page so your user could book that service in context. This really helps your user by not having to search for the service in the general service availability booking experience.

To use this shortcode, place [startbooking_cta services="YOUR SERVICE ID" ]Book Now[/startbooking_cta] shortcode in your post, page, widget etc. Be sure to replace “YOUR SERVICE ID” with your actual service ID. You can view your service ID’s directly from the plugin wp-admin settings page. Lastly, you can add multiple service ID’s (comma separated) to have a bundle of services preselected for booking appointments.

Class & Group Booking Block

The third booking calendar option is to display a list of your classes that your users can join. Classes can be anything from yoga classes to group meetups. The main difference between the service and class booking experiences is that services will display to your customers available openings (times that you have open) where as the classes experience displays times that were predefined and can support multiple users joining a class.

To use the the classes block, add the block in any of your posts or pages that you want.

For each of these options, there are additional settings such as the ability to change the booking button colors so they better match the look of your online calendar, changing the text in the flow, etc. To learn more about the available options of the WordPress booking plugin please visit the Start Booking WordPress plugin knowledge base.

Booking Integrations

Google Analytics

With the Google Analytics integration, you’ll be able to understand how and when customers are booking appointments with you.

Google Calendar (Two-way Sync)

The Google Calendar integration takes all your appointments and pushes them (including a brief description) directly into your Google Calendar.

Stripe Payments

Accepting payments from your customers has never been easier with the Start Booking Stripe integration.

The Stripe integration enables you to accept payments from customers directly from your website and gives you the flexibility to require payment to book appointments if you want. In addition, the Stripe Booking integration gives you the ability to review customer payments, storing customer credit cards all from your own Stripe account.

Learn more about how to setup Stripe payments for online booking.

Mailchimp

With the Mailchimp integration, all your customers will be automatically added to the Mailchimp list of your choosing.

Webhooks

As a developer, you have the option to configure webhooks for your online booking, which makes it incredibly easy to integrate the scheduling plugin with other systems and applications. This feature enables developers to receive real-time notifications as soon as events occur, such as new bookings or cancellations. The webhooks are straightforward to set up and can be customized to meet individual requirements. As a result, developers can create a booking system that caters to their specific needs and integrates smoothly with their existing systems and workflows. You can learn more from the Start Booking developer center.

Zapier

Start Booking is seamlessly linked to over 5,000 applications and services through Zapier. These include CRM systems, payment gateways, communication apps, and more. Enhance your Start Booking experience by integrating it with the tools you’re already accustomed to, simplifying the management of your bookings within your established workflow.

Zoom

Automatically create Zoom meetings with the Start Booking Zoom integration. Stay connected with Zoom meetings and start offering virtual appointments. Learn more about the Zoom and Start Booking integration.

Online Booking Feature List

• Streamlined Online Booking: Start Booking offers a user-friendly and intuitive booking process, allowing customers to easily schedule appointments and services.

• Calendar Integration: Seamlessly integrate Start Booking with popular calendar platforms, such as Google Calendar, ensuring accurate scheduling and preventing double bookings.

• Multiple Service Offerings: Efficiently manage and offer a wide range of services with different durations, prices, and availability.

• Automated Notifications: Keep customers informed with automated email and SMS notifications for appointment reminders, confirmations, and rescheduling updates.

• Resource Management: Easily allocate and manage resources, such as staff members or rooms, to ensure efficient scheduling and utilization.

• Payment Integration: Integrate with Stripe payment gateway, enabling secure and hassle-free online payments during the booking process.

• Reporting and Analytics: Gain valuable insights into your business performance with comprehensive reporting and analytics features, allowing you to make data-driven decisions.

• CRM Integration: Connect Start Booking with your CRM system to streamline customer management, capture client information, and enhance personalized customer experiences.

• Zapier Integration: Seamlessly connect Start Booking with over 5,000 applications and services via Zapier, expanding its capabilities and integrating it into your existing workflow.

• Mobile-Friendly: Access Start Booking and manage appointments on the go with a responsive and mobile-friendly interface.

• Customizable Booking Rules: Set specific rules and restrictions for your bookings, such as minimum or maximum lead times, cancellation policies, or booking prerequisites.

• Booking Integrations: Integrate Start Booking with other third-party software, such as communication tools, marketing platforms, or project management systems, to create a seamless workflow.

• Custom Fields: Collect additional information from customers during the booking process, providing a personalized experience for you and your customers.

What’s Next

The team at Start Booking have assembled an aggressive roadmap and look to provide you and your customers the best WordPress booking plugin on the market.

While we strive to provide the best calendar booking plugin, we know sometimes issues happen. During those times we will do everything we can to resolve your issues and problems as quick as possible. You can find us at the Start Booking help center.