In short
A website with online booking lets your customers pick a free slot, receive a confirmation and then a reminder, without calling you. At Orbitoile, the package starts at €890 during the launch period, and the site goes live in 3 weeks. The site, your service pages and the booking button on every page are included; the calendar, reminders and deposit are handled by a specialist booking tool, which may have its own fees.
What a website with online booking includes
| Item | What is planned |
|---|---|
| The site | The whole showcase site: up to 5 pages, approved mockup, phone-friendly, headings and markup for Google |
| Services | One page or section per service: what it includes, its duration, its price if you display it |
| Booking | The booking tool built into the site, and a “Book” button on every page |
| Visibility | Google Business profile and directory listings within the week following launch, with your booking link |
| Timeline | 3 weeks from receipt of your texts and photos |
Net prices, VAT not applicable (art. 293 B of the French General Tax Code). The booking tool has its own terms: free for some uses, paid by subscription or per SMS sent for others. We choose it together before the quote, so you know the total cost.
How online booking works
Six functions make a good website with online booking. For each one, here is what the customer sees and what you set up.
| Function | Customer side | Your side |
|---|---|---|
| Slots | They only see the slots that are really free | Your opening hours, the duration of each service, a break between two appointments, the minimum notice before a booking |
| Confirmation | They receive an e-mail, sometimes an SMS, as soon as they confirm | Automatic confirmation, or you approve each request |
| Reminder | They receive a reminder before the appointment | When the reminder is sent, the day before or two hours before, and the channel: e-mail or SMS |
| Synced calendar | Nothing to do on their side | Your appointments appear in your usual calendar, and your time off blocks slots, if the tool handles that calendar |
| Cancellation and rescheduling | They cancel or move from the link they received | The cut-off time, for example 24 hours before |
| Deposit | They pay part of the price when booking | The amount and the services concerned; payment goes through a payment provider, with a fee per transaction |
Online booking: what is included, what depends on the tool
In a website with online booking, the work is shared between the site, which I build, and the booking tool, which keeps the calendar.
Included in the site
- the complete showcase site, up to 5 pages;
- one page or section per service;
- integration of the tool into the site, in the site’s colours when the tool allows it;
- a “Book” button on every page, visible on a phone;
- the initial setup with you: services, durations, opening hours;
- the booking link added to your Google Business profile.
Handled by the booking tool
- calculating free slots and the calendar;
- confirmation and reminder e-mails and SMS;
- synchronisation with your calendar;
- cancellation and rescheduling by the customer;
- collecting a deposit, if the tool offers it;
- the list of your customers and their appointments.
There is a reason for this split: a custom-coded, fast site without a database cannot keep a calendar in real time. Entrusting it to a tool made for that is more reliable, and you can change tools without rebuilding the site.
Choosing the booking tool
For a website with online booking, the tool depends on your trade and the number of appointments. Before the quote, I compare these five points with you:
- cost: free, monthly subscription or commission per appointment;
- SMS: included, limited or charged per message;
- deposit: possible or not, and with what fees;
- several calendars: useful if you work with others or in several places;
- your data: can you export your customer list if you change tools?
Some trades have their own booking platforms. They bring customers, but sometimes take a commission and show your competitors next to you. A tool built into your site keeps the customer with you. The two can be combined: nothing prevents you from being on a platform and also offering booking on your site. For a restaurant, booking is about tables and sittings rather than services: see the restaurant website in Lyon.
Example journey: a haircut on a Saturday morning
Let’s take a fictional hair salon in Lyon 6th, set up with a reminder the day before at 6 pm.
- On Thursday evening, a customer searches “hairdresser Lyon 6” on her phone and lands on the “Cut and blow-dry” page.
- She taps “Book”: only the free slots of the week are shown.
- She chooses Saturday at 10 am, enters her name and phone number, and confirms.
- She immediately receives the confirmation, with a link to cancel or move the appointment.
- The appointment appears in the salon’s calendar, and the slot disappears from the site.
- On Friday at 6 pm, she receives the reminder.
Thanks to its website with online booking, the salon did not pick up the phone once. The journey is the same for a coaching session, a private lesson or a car service; only the duration and the cancellation rules change.
Personal data and rules to display
Personal data
Only ask for what the appointment needs: a name and a way to contact them are usually enough. Inform your customers how their data is used and how long it is kept, as the CNIL (the French data protection authority) requires, and check where the tool stores it.
Health professions
Do not ask for any medical detail in the booking, and check the communication rules of your professional body or organisation.
Cancellation, lateness and deposit
Display your terms before confirmation: cancellation deadline, tolerated lateness, deposit and refund cases. Rules read before booking prevent most disputes. They come on top of the website legal notice.
When a website with online booking is not useful
- you have few appointments per week and your customers prefer to call: a showcase site with a clearly visible phone number is enough, from €590;
- every job requires a discussion first, such as a building work quote: a contact request suits better, as on the website for tradespeople;
- you also note appointments in a notebook that is not synced: double bookings will happen. Online booking assumes a single up-to-date calendar.
To be found for “hairdresser Lyon 6” or “osteopath Villeurbanne”, the Google profile counts as much as the site: see the local SEO in Lyon guide.
Key takeaway
A website with online booking combines two things: a site that presents your services, included in the package from €890, and a booking tool that manages the calendar, confirmations, reminders and deposit. Choose the tool before the quote, to know the total cost.