About Booker

Booker is a comprehensive solution for spa and salon management that makes the daily operations of businesses in the beauty industry streamlined and efficient. This software provides a one-stop platform to run and grow businesses by handling booking, payment processing, customer management, and marketing tasks. With Booker, professionals in the spa and salon industry can focus on delivering exceptional services to their clients while the software takes care of the essential business functions. One of the standout features of Booker is its robust booking capabilities, enabling businesses to accept appointments online, through mobile devices, and even via social media platforms around the clock. Furthermore, the software supports sales through point-of-sale systems, eCommerce, and online gift card purchases, providing businesses with multiple avenues to generate revenue. Booker also helps attract new customers by listing businesses on partner sites like Yelp, expanding their online visibility and reach. Managing essential data is made easy with Booker's intuitive tracking and reporting tools, allowing businesses to monitor key performance metrics and make informed decisions. The software also facilitates effective customer relationship management, enabling businesses to retain clients and grow their revenue. With features like Membership and series management, businesses can offer personalized services that keep clients coming back for more. Booker's integrated AI solution, Messengerai, serves as a virtual receptionist that handles front desk tasks such as booking appointments, responding to client inquiries, and sending reminders. This AI assistant ensures that businesses never miss a customer interaction and helps in converting inquiries into bookings, all through text communication. Moreover, Booker provides powerful marketing tools to help businesses reach new clients, enhance customer loyalty, and drive repeat business through automated campaigns and targeted promotions. For seamless transactions, Booker offers integrated payment solutions that sync with the business management software, making payment processing hassle-free. Additionally, the software allows businesses to check-in clients from various touchpoints, including the front desk, website, or business app, enhancing customer convenience. Booker also features client booking tools that make it easy for customers to book appointments anytime, anywhere, boosting business visibility and accessibility in the competitive beauty industry. Additionally, Booker offers customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, employee scheduling tools, a business intelligence (BI) dashboard and features inventory management, customer loyalty programs and a reporting engine. Mobile functionalities for remote access are also provided by the solution. Services are offered on a monthly subscription basis that includes support via phone, email and other online resources.
Booker Software - Booker Memberships
Booker Software - Booker Calendar
Booker Software - Booker Calendar with POS
Booker Software - Booker Customer record
Booker Software - Booker Online booking example
Booker Software - Booker Products
Booker video
Booker Software - Booker Memberships - thumbnail
Booker Software - Booker Calendar - thumbnail
Booker Software - Booker Calendar with POS - thumbnail
Booker Software - Booker Customer record - thumbnail
Booker Software - Booker Online booking example - thumbnail

Booker pricing

Booker does not have a free version and does not offer a free trial. Booker paid version starts at US$139.00/month.

Starting Price:
US$139.00/month
Free Version:
No
Free trial:
No

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Browse Booker Reviews

981 of 981 reviews
Sort by:
Said
Said
  • Industry: Building Materials
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

4
Reviewed on 1/3/2023

Distinctive ways to book what you want

Easy to use and book and easy to refer to past reservations or even view upcoming reservations without any obstacles

Pros

Good rescheduling and ease of identifying customers with orders

Cons

The existing payroll is not comprehensive and this prompts us to use other programs and pay more money

Renata
  • Industry: Hospitality
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 5/10/2024

Good, but expensive

Worked with them for 5 years, love all the features, but with the economy the way it is, had to switch

Pros

Very complete with so many features, marketing and reports.

Cons

Charger are very, very high.. around $350/month plus the 3.5% and some flat fee cents on top of it

Corinne
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
2

2
Reviewed on 7/11/2024

Do Not Upgrade to Booker v2!!!

For many years Booker was a good, functional system. Version 2 was the worst. Not able to use to run the business. Had to leave the service and move to another scheduling company during our busy holiday system as we were losing revenue due to the issues and inability to check clients (who use credit cards) out! System just kept crashing. Do not use Booker version 2!!!!

Pros

The reports and ease of onboarding employees, setting security levels and booking appointments.

Cons

Once we moved to Booker v2, we found the software to be completely unusable. Constantly freezing, unable to check out clients without crashing, unable to view past transactions easily. Version 2 was completely unusable and we were told there was no way to return to version 1. We lost all of that data and ease of use.

Sally
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
3

5
Reviewed on 13/4/2024

Booker was better years ago. Not now.

It was great until around 2020 when Mindbody came around. Been struggling ever since with the software. Each update seemed to break booker more. I signed up in 2014 and left in December. Will not recommend booker or mindbody to anyone.

Pros

Data from clients, calendar views, appt reminders, cloud

Cons

Lack of access to my client data. Wording in set up making it where my software was my own worst enemy- keeping seeking clients from booking available appointments I wanted to fill. My membership tracking and usage was difficult to track.

Chris
  • Industry: Consumer Services
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

3
Reviewed on 4/5/2024

Know the Limitations of Booker

Negative. They really have a confusing business model. Booker vs Mindbody. Seems really obvious that they need to combine the two. Booker seemed like an afterthought. They upgraded it regularly when I started, then it became apparent that the upgrades were few and far between and really meaningless. The cancellation experience was nothing short of a nightmare. I can't believe how they treated a company that had been with them for over 3 years. You know these companies are in trouble when they try to hold you to a policy that says if you say nothing, your contract auto-renews for one year. Very deceitful. I don't recommend Booker, there are many better options out there.

Pros

It was far more capable than our previous scheduling software. It is fairly integrated solution that does client management, scheduling and POS.

Cons

Dealing with Booker reps. They are not genuine and you get the runaround a lot. There is a lot of turnover in the company. They are very pushy with their acquisitions like Reach and Classpass. Neither are worth your time.

Verified Reviewer
  • Industry: Alternative Medicine
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 13/3/2024

There are better systems out there for cheaper too

The customer services is terrible, the asigned you with a manager and if they are busy you can not get a hold of any one. The are also very rude. It very hard to conect with them when you have an issue.

They like to locked you in with a contract. Most of booking systems out there allow you to cancel at any time.

Pros

the have a great couple massage systerm. d

Cons

a lot thing, like getting locked in a contract, event the sytem wasn't working for us we weren't able to dowgrade. They make it really hard for you to not cancel or downgrade.

Brandy
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 6/10/2023

Do Not be Swindled by Booker

Bookers sales team worked really hard to sell me on a contract and once it was signed the truth slowly came out. The features that I was promised do not work properly and the over all design & functionality of the software are outdated and slow.

Pros

The software keeps up with what rooms a service can be performed in as well as items that may be needed to complete a service, and that are available in limited quantity. They also recently came out with an AI receptionist feature for online booking. Which is why I switched over to them however non of the features work very well and with the credit card processing regularly not working I regret switching. They also flat out lied about the functionality of Booker to get me to sign a contract.

Cons

Their sales team is awesome but once you sign your contract, the customer service is garbage they do not care about you or the issues the software has and it is very apparent. Credit card processing is arguably, the most important aspect of any business and there’s is not working properly. It hasn’t been for years apparently, and they do nothing to fix it.

Stephanie
  • Industry: Consumer Services
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

3
Reviewed on 26/3/2024

Booker for salon entrepreneur

Pros

Text confirm and remind
Online booking

Cons

Customer appointment history is glitchy and sometimes dose not show history and notes as needed

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing Booker

Booker looked easier. Tech imported all my old contact info for me.

Switched From

Vagaro

Reasons for Switching to Booker

Messaging Someone uploaded all of my data for me from old software.
joseph
  • Industry: Accounting
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 3/2/2024

Pretty rudimentary app

Ive been waiting for 2 weeks to kickstart a marketing, text campaign. .....

Pros

the starting point seems to be settling with each of the modules, campaigns, contacts, sms, scheduling, automation...but the instanve one get into it, its a sticky mess

Cons

crashing features, dated modules, lack of common features, displaying itself as a market automation tool. Silly customer support

Tonja
  • Industry: Alternative Medicine
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

3
Reviewed on 16/10/2024

Booker software for RMT use

Basically it's very user friendly, but I've needed to also use a client management software as well.

Pros

E-commerce and online booking options are great, easy to use and customer service is very responsive.

Cons

Price is high and software does not have built in clinic insurance or client record management. Doesn't integrated with Moneris unless you pay for a 3rd party gateway

TONYA
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 11/12/2019

Booker is a very useful tool in our Spa

Very pleased. We've been using it since day 1 in our Spa -6 years. Like I said before, really like the add-ons of [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], for Marketing; and [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], for never missing a call.

Pros

You can be very thorough in booking your appointments. Especially like the details tab where you can add notes for each client & can even scan pages into their account. Can easily see their appointments & past orders.
We like the add ons to the software, as well - [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]

Cons

Sometimes, when you make a mistake, it's hard to back out of it, especially with payments. You just have to force other transactions to make the outcome that you needed in the first place.

Alternatives Considered

Mindbody

Reasons for Switching to Booker

Booker just seemed to be a better fit and a better value for our money, for what we needed in a booking system for a small operation.
Angelica
  • Industry: Pharmaceuticals
  • Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for Free Trial
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 11/6/2023

Enhance Your Salon's Success with Booker's Integrated Business Management Platform

Although I did not actively work in salon management during my internship at the university in pharmaceutical product development and research, I did get the chance to learn more about Booker's features and functionality. Booker was a useful tool for improving our scheduling procedures and keeping client information as a member of a small team in charge of planning events and appointments. Smooth transactions and inventory management were made possible by the software's user-friendly interface and integrated point-of-sale system. Despite the fact that my knowledge of Booker was limited, it gave me a peek of what it might do as a whole salon management system.

Pros

A wide range of features provided by Booker simplify salon and spa operations. Its user-friendly interface makes staff organization, client administration, and appointment scheduling easier. The software's integrated point-of-sale system allows for easy inventory management and transaction processing. Automated email campaigns and loyalty programs are only two of the marketing techniques that Booker uses to draw in new customers and keep the ones it already has. The reporting and analytics tools enable data-driven decision-making and offer insightful information about business performance. Booker gives salon professionals and owners the tools they need to streamline their business operations and improve client satisfaction with the help of its configurable features and mobile app.

Cons

One drawback of Booker is its somewhat expensive cost, which could be problematic for independent or smaller salon businesses with tight funds. Some users could first have a steep learning curve that makes it difficult to become skilled in using all the capabilities. Although Booker provides a wide range of functions, some specialized or niche salon businesses could need more modification or integration with specialized software. There have been sporadic reports of technical issues or system slowdowns, which could affect how effectively salon operations run and how the user experience is.

Kristin
  • Industry: Apparel & Fashion
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 3/9/2024

love booking my appointments on the app

Very good. easiest booking online I've come across as a customer

Pros

easy to pick my service and schedule with the right person.

Cons

signs you out if you're not active on the app

Abdulaziz
  • Industry: Medical Practice
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Monthly for Free Trial
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 7/6/2023

Try the free trail and decide

Pros

The easy ability to manage booking routines and customer interactions and marketing activities

Cons

after free trail ends, it's quite pricy!

Denise
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
0

4
Reviewed on 19/8/2017

Booker has been a life changer for me and my Therapeutic Massage Practice.

The ease and functionality for my clients to have my app on their phone for scheduling wherever they are, no matter what time of day or night it is. It's also a reminder for them to schedule when they see my app At a glance! The reminder notifications allows me to focus on servicing my clients instead of scheduling appts, and making confirmations calls every day.

Pros

I love the way Booker works directly with my web page. My clients and potential clients can book right from my web site, purchase gift certificates from the comfort of their homes or offices, and print them or email them right from their computer without having to come to my office. I am often in service with a client and don't have a lot of time to answer or return calls during my work day let alone meet people to hand deliver gift certificates. I don't have a receptionist or assistant to assist in these matters. I love the fact that I have my very own App to give to my clients so they can save ME to their phones and book on line any time of the day or night, without having to try to find me first. I'm just a click away. The best part is that after you set up your booker to work with your website, it just makes scheduling my clients appts soooo much easier. They get an email notification with Appt details and directions. Then an appt reminder 24 hrs before their Appt so they can click the confirm button, so I don't have to make confirmation calls the day before, then a text reminder notification 3 hours before their Appt which cuts down on no shows, and late cancellations. I love it!!

Cons

I have 2 locations and Booker does not have a place to differentiate either location. So when my clients book on line, there is no way of telling them which days I am at one location and which days I am at the other. So when they are looking at my open appts, they don't know which location they are booking for. This kind of takes my 5 star Status and brings it down to a 3 because this causes my clients much confusion when trying to book, and me soooo much stress, because what good is it if I always have to call them anyway when they are trying to schedule on line?? This defeats the whole purpose of online scheduling. This needs to be fixed and upgraded. Another thing. The mobile app is limited to its back of the house functionality. It's very easy to schedule appts, but looking up Gift Certificate numbers and entering them for payment after a client redeems them is time consuming and not user friendly. I also wish I had Email/ text Marketing built in so I could send my clients daily, weekly and monthly specials. There are days that I would love to send out a quick text telling my clients what time slots I have available. This would be soooooo easy since all of their contact info is already in the system. I would also like to see yearly reports and just imagine how great it would be if the accounting software was built right in! All in one place! Now that would make Booker the leader in the industry!

Response from Mindbody

Denise -
Thank you for your review and the detail on why it's working so well for you and your clients. We'll share your feedback with the product team and if there's anything we can do to help, contact [email protected].

We love hearing that you've cut down on cancellations and no shows! You rock!

- The Booker Team

Replied 29/8/2017
Efraín
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 14/4/2017

Booker is not what it use to be

So after 4 years of being loyal Booker customers/users and thousands of dollars paid for their lackluster service, we have decided to jump ship and started looking for a more reliable & less restrictive online booking software.

We have had our complaints about Booker since day one because of how it is very restrictive on what our spa system administrators are allowed to do. We have always gotten the usual "oh you can not do that because we want to advice our clients on best business practices." Then we will counter by asking the Booker rep if they realized that the actual management team on site at the spa would know what's best for our day to day operations? Which we they always point us to their make recommendations page or they would claim to submit it to their development team, which neither ever received any follow up. So after many attempts to get them to make their system more intuituve and flexible for our day to day operations, we quite frankly gave up and just dealt with the system. And now we have their system performance take a rapid decline, which started well over a year ago. We even purchased new computer systems and increase our internet speeds in hopes of speeding up the system but nope, that didn't help what so ever. Their customer service has also gone to poop, the reps use to be somewhat knowledgeable on how to use Booker and nice. Now they don't seem to care about your issues and pretty much do not accept any responsibility or accountability on behalf of Booker on how the system performance has gone to poop, right along their customer service. Just last night when I inform a rep that we our fed up with the system performance and the numerous temporary "work arounds", that we have no choice but to start looking for another service. They replied with "sorry to hear that, let us know what we can do to help with the transition." Really!?! That was the cherry on top.

Booker has failed to realize that we are their loyal paying customers and their poor performance is being transferred on to our loyal paying customers which we will not accept because we do value our loyal customers. So some words of advice to Booker on best business practices, don't screw your customers.

Pros

Lots of features

Cons

Not intuituve or flexible enough for day to day operations.
Too many restrictions on in house system administrators.
System performance is not good at all.

Response from Mindbody

Efrain -
We're sad to hear you're leaving Booker and have been unhappy with the platform. If you're up for it, we'd love more information on which features you find restrictive and how we can address that feedback.

Thank you for using Booker for this time. We appreciate your business.

Best,
- The Booker Team

Replied 4/5/2017
Angel
  • Industry: Arts & Crafts
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 20/1/2023

Best booking app for Nail Tech

Pros

I love how easy it is to allow people to set up online booking without my intervention.

Cons

The reminders are great, when they work. Sometimes I don't always get notifications about an appointment.

Anna
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 10/4/2017

Booker? ARE YOU KIDDING?

This company is a joke. They may have tried to put together a Salon software, which has some good qualities and bad, but, the company has ruined their name and a host of other businesses because of their lack of understanding how their software has a direct effect and how they manage their software on a day to day basis. They are completely horrific! We continually try to deal with the issues, (Booker being slow, or totally down on a regular basis), and we have heard every unimaginable excuse, but the only people that are having a very costly, negative impact, are the businesses that purchased this worthless product. We came to Booker primarily through the recommendation of Spa Magazine. They touted Booker as being the Best Software Company in the market and they still continue to do so. We took their recommendation strongly and pursued Booker. We were courted with full Attention and Promises when we first met. We were promised complete support and excellent service, which was also written by American Spa. We signed on with Booker and slowly problems continued to arise. We worked through them but as time progressed, it became a regular ongoing occurrence. We were told that Booker was growing too fast and that the problems would be resolved; this couldn't be further from the truth. Things progressively got worse! We have issues getting through to Booker and the slowness and down times are becoming commonplace. Our business has suffered and lost customer satisfaction and comfort in quick appointments. Our good will has been damaged and through all of this, we have tried to be tolerant and understanding. Last week the experience in our company, using Booker software, became intolerable. The software was barely running or slow, and on our busiest day, it completely shut down. We were so dependent on Booker that we had to turn away our business. We cannot continue to do business this way! We would love to know if other companies are dealing with this issue and what they are doing to keep their business from this harm. While we wait on hold and continue trying to get through to the owner of Booker, we are searching for a software that can service our needs with minimal issues. Please let us know

Response from Mindbody

Dear Anna,

We take our role in your business very seriously. We've invested significantly in improving our servers so this won't happen again in the future. This investment of engineering resources and updated equipment has resulted in greater stability and faster speed, and we intend to continue the improvements.

We'd love to discuss this further with you if you have time. We thank you for using Booker and for your feedback.

Thank you,
The Booker Team

Replied 4/5/2017
Jeremy
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 20/6/2019

Worst Experience! Horrible customer service and a software full of glitches

Pros

Overall, the system is very user friendly internally and for clients. Clients find the online booking easy, WHEN it is working. I have appreciated the customization of the membership features.

Cons

Customer service has been horrible. Whenever the software has a glitch (which I get a new one 2x or more a month), it takes about 2 weeks to get a response and over 6 months to fix the issue (if they even fix it). I consistently have to follow-up by emails and calls to get any kind of response. They provide no updates along the way. Currently, the software does not allow clients to book multiple services at the same time. This feature worked for months and then suddenly just stopped working. When clients try to book online, it shows that my schedule is completely full for 2 months when there are spots available. Due to their error, I have been getting an influx of calls and emails from clients which is wasting so much time in the office. The whole purpose of an online booking system is for clients to book themself and decrease the demand on front desk staff. Additionally, I have been losing clients in the process. Ever since the most recent glitch, I have seen the number of online bookings go down and my schedule is significantly lighter. Whenever I reach out, they state that they have other work orders with higher priority. When clients are unable to book, this should be number 1 priority! I am losing clients and business. Booker is a premium price compared to their competitors but they certainly do not provide a premium service. My experience with schedulicity was so much better for $20/mo compared to the forever faulty Booker system for $200.

Amy
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

3
Reviewed on 7/3/2019

Booker has gone from limping along to ruined by mindbody online, customers are fleeing

It's constantly broken, ESPECIALLY for enterprise level clients that have 'Brand' accounts with multiple locations. Their outage record is deplorable and now that theyve been bought out by MindBody Online, they've made themselves the highest price product on the market by a HUGE margin with nothing to back it up. We have signed contract pricing with booker and they are now refusing to honor it after the acquisition. Customers all just got hit with HUGE new bills, are pissed, and are leaving in droves. Us included and we are taking all of our locations. Bye Booker. Dumb move.

Pros

Booker is one of the more intuitive to use softwares on the market, and I've used them all. It is easy to find your way around even without training which makes it great for new employees still learning

Cons

It's constantly broken, ESPECIALLY for enterprise level clients that have 'Brand' accounts with multiple locations. Their outage record is deplorable and now that theyve been bought out by MindBody Online, they've made themselves the highest price product on the market by a HUGE margin with nothing to back it up. We have signed contract pricing with booker and they are now refusing to honor it after the acquisition. Customers all just got hit with HUGE new bills, are pissed, and are leaving in droves. Us included and we are taking all of our locations. Bye Booker. Dumb move.

JENNIFER
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

3
Reviewed on 18/8/2017

Pretty good, need a more affordable tier for solo practitioners

In general I already covered the benefits....but one thing I forgot to complain about is the difficulty in moving a client with multiple treatments!!! I may have a client booked for 3-4 treatments lasting 2-3 hours, and say the opportunity comes up for them to come in an hour earlier. I can't just move the whole appt up! I have to edit each item one by one, updating the appt after each adjustment!!! or just cancel the whole damned-able thing and reenter it?!

Pros

Seems to be everything I need, like that it's cloud-based, like that it tracks inventory and gives me reports, allows me to keep great notes....I do think it provides all that's needed.

Cons

Problems with SPEED this past year! Especially if you are in minimum itier. I will say that I'm seriously interested in switching to another company. mindbody offers ASCP/ABMP members a program. It doesn't have as much capability as booker, I think I wouldn't be able to sell products online, etc., but that's not something I use very much anyway.

Response from Mindbody

Hi Jennifer - Thank you for your feedback. We've made a lot of in speed/stability this year so you should continue to see improvements there.

We'll share your feedback with our product team regarding appointments as well. We're always working to make Booker better and take your suggestions very seriously.

Thank you for sharing and for using Booker.

- The Booker Team

Replied 21/8/2017
Laura
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
2

3
Reviewed on 5/10/2017

Better than others

I hope they put the document management settings back on the brand level, so our new employees don't have to log into both locations on different browsers in order to upload documents.

Pros

It is pretty simple to use, and they work on improving it often. We were able to edit our membership even though when I called, they told me it could not be done.

Cons

They have taken some features away that make it very inconvenient. The Brand level is separate from the location levels, so we have to change locations on our screen when we need to do certain things. Also, their customer support is not very good. They prefer you email them, which works in some cases, but most of the time you need more than an email to convey the issue. Second, I have called more than once to find out how to do something, and they were wrong. Last time, I called to see if we could edit our membership to include more than just one service that the benefits could be used for. He told me no, unfortunately I'd have to cancel all of our memberships, make a new one, and then resell all of them. This would take far too long. I did some digging and found the solution on my own, and it was not only possible, but really not that hard. They also update during our open hours. Since we're 6 hours different, it's not surprising but it is very inconvenient to have our system down during that last hour or two of our day.

Jennifer
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

4
Reviewed on 23/5/2017

overall has been good, sometimes tough to get questions answered or get a CSR

Easy on line booking, easy pos, easy scheduling,

Pros

I like how easy it is for people to book appointments, how it keeps track of room usage, payroll and other functions. Great that is can be used on smartphones for booking appointments on the fly, notifications via text and email!

Cons

System slow downs have been awful the last few months, we have had intermittent notification glitches (ie people not getting notified of appointments), problems with people thinking they booked appointments but for some reason it didn't go through this needs to be better - customers are unaware that it didn't go through because of missing information on their end - a tiny red star doesn't really cut it for people to see. Should say somewhere - at the end if you do not get a pop up saying Thank you for your appointment - you are missing information or your selection didn't go through. I wish there was a more integrated system for marketing that allows target marketing, I didn't like having to purchase yet another system like Mail Chimp and now HireFredrick. Really gets very expensive.

Response from Mindbody

Thank you for using Booker and for your thoughtful feedback. We've put a lot of effort into helping the system run faster with greater stability so hopefully you're seeing those improvements. Happy to hear that it's working so well for you overall!

- The Booker Team

Replied 28/7/2017
Melanie
  • Industry: Consumer Services
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
0

4
Reviewed on 12/1/2023

Booker is cool

Pros

It was easy to check appointments and see when your client has arrived.

Cons

I thought that it wasnt innovative or modern at the time of use.

Emily
  • Industry: Cosmetics
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 24/1/2017

Booker Review

We love Booker here at our spa. I love the features we use for creating yoga classes and memberships as well. It's very easy to use in that aspect. Scheduling appointments is a breeze and checking customers out couldn't be easier.

I do wish there was a way to put notes onto gift card codes or under a customer's name so that if there is any confusion with an order or if someone gave their gift card to someone else, we could go back and see who they gave permission to use that gift card.

Another thing that would be a great feature to add to Booker is the use of storing a client intake form on a client's file in the system. If we were able to take a photo of a signed client consent form with all of their information on it and upload it to Booker as a PDF file, it would be truly magical. Paper piles up... we would love to go digital :)

Pros

The ease of scheduling. It is simple to teach new people and services just pop up when you start typing them. I like that.

Cons

Sometimes the system can be a little bit slow. It is truly only difficult when there are lots of people waiting on you.

Response from Mindbody

Thank you for your excellent feedback Emily. We're thrilled that using Booker is working so well for your business.

You can use the Document Storage feature to save information on clients as you mentioned in your review. If you have questions, please contact [email protected].

Thank you for using Booker!
- The Booker Team

Replied 31/1/2017
Maggie
  • Industry: Hospitality
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 20/10/2023

Excessive down time and Booker does not listen to customers

Lack of responsiveness to customer inquiries and valid concerns with downtime and non-functioning software. Most recently their denial of my subscription cancellation. They do not send a renewal notice or offer a reasonable cancellation window. These are very antiquated, predatory subscription practices.

Pros

Booker originally seemed to have a robust suite of functionality including marketing.

Cons

Booker has such excessive downtime that has cost my small business revenue (inability to book clients!) and poor client experience trying to book online. Because of this, I am switching to another platform and Booker will not let me cancel my subscription. Talk about antiquated, predatory subscription practices!

Katherine
  • Industry: Medical Practice
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
0

2
Reviewed on 20/10/2023

drives me to tears on the regular

It's hard to argue that it's not nice to have an all-in-one, web-based software that truly does do everything. The problem is that everything it does, it does poorly. It's impossible to teach to new staff, the bugs are frustrating, and the server downtime is unacceptable.

Pros

Booker is truly all-in-one, it manages employee schedules, hours, bookings, online bookings, services, products, retail management, and point-of-sale.

Cons

Booker is full of the most confusing bugs (which are never fixed eg. finding the next available appointment auto-fills the last viewed client, you can't add products to $0 services booked online), the servers go down regularly, the mobile app is terrible, the integration with our payment processor is shoddy, is extremely difficult to learn, has a lack of functionalities that are just bizarre (eg. impossible to mark doctor services as non-tippable, adding notes to client tickets, changing the names of service subcategories). Customer service is responsive, but unable to help in any concrete way. I use this software for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week and I despise it utterly.

Chantel
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 7/6/2024

Easy appointment management, schedule settings could be improved

Overall easy set up and navigation. User friendly for clients, however could use some minor upgrades with scheduling customization.

Pros

They notified you via email for every new appointment, making it easy to keep track of client appointments.

Cons

Their practitioner scheduling could use some improvement, in terms of making it more customizable. There was no way to have practitioners on a bi-weekly schedule and had to be input manually week by week.

Marnie
  • Industry: Design
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 22/6/2024

Ease of use

Pros

I like it's ease of use and it's streamlined process in order to schedule.

Cons

Sometimes the software can be a bit glitchy which can be frustrating and you have to start from square one.

Laura
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
2

2
Reviewed on 26/11/2023

Lots of features, that don't work.

The system does not work as it is supposed to, I have spent too much time calling support without anything getting resolved. The time an energy spent on using this system is not worth the price.

Pros

I liked the appointment booking system. Easy to use and works without any problems.

Cons

I have had booker for over 7 years. The system is really flawed and has a lot of bugs.

Sierra
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
2

3
Reviewed on 23/6/2023

A good starting point for a scheduling platform

Fairly user friendly, easy to learn, and always loved all the details available.

Pros

I mostly liked all of the details available for us - such as time stamps for appointment details, membership history, and so much more!

Cons

There were frequent glitches in the system and eventually the platform simply did not have the infrastructure in place for our clientele size.

Tabetha
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 16/9/2023

So easy my 10 year old brother could use it

Pros

The features make sense, and I've noticed as Booker is updating and adapting it just gets better.

Cons

Although the updates are helping, it's just constant. Some of the updates don't really feel needed (like adding on upgrades during services. I liked the options just popping up. Now I have to do an extra step to add it.)

Jennifer
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

3
Reviewed on 7/7/2023

Booker

It was good, it was our first booking system so it worked at the beginning since we ere not sure what we needed.

Pros

I liked the ease of clients being able to book online and how it integrated into our website.

Cons

Clients could not purchase their sessions, packages, or memberships online, also their forms were not available when we first started, and the check out process was not the easiest.

Marylet
  • Industry: Arts & Crafts
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 30/5/2024

Own opinion

Pros

Organized appointments for our customers.

Cons

It is sometimes confusing to use for our customers.

josh
  • Industry: Leisure, Travel & Tourism
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
0

3
Reviewed on 14/6/2023

Not my first choice

Pros

It was recommended to us by our franchise partner, nothing to like about it

Cons

It crashes and freezes frequently, appointments just disappear

Charles
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 26/2/2023

Are the Other Reviewers Using the same Booker as Myself: Terrible App

I can't believe that 956 people left a review on this website and the average is 4.10! My best guess is you are only using the software as a glorified version of paper schedule book. If you are using more than just the most very basic functions of this software you would know just how bad it is. Again not boasting, but I have multiple IT related degrees and various certifications plus 25+ years experience in various IT roles. I say that to tell you that we would be spending a fortune on tech support to help us, hours on the phone with Booker and without a doubt we would have already switched to another brand of software by now. If I had the time, I would research other products and switch tomorrow. Unfortunately I wear MANY hats at this business and also have my own online marketing and analytics business, so I'm resigned to make the most of it for now. One last thing, I was told that Mindbody bought Booker to use it solely for hair salons, spa, barbers and similar types of businesses. I notice quite a few reviews on here that aren't remotely related to the Beauty industry. I can also tell you that the software still has categories like Transportation, Swimming, Soccer, Auto Repair, Floral, Electronics repair and many more when setting it and the services up.

Pros

It's hard to list any pros when there are so many cons to this App.

Cons

Too many issues to list. There are literally options on the App and on the web version that do not work. I mean I have literally called Booker support to discuss an option I am looking at to find out it doesn't currently work. The least they could do is remove the option to save people from wasting their time. There are options that are available that have not worked in the nearly 3 years we have been using the software. I've sent trouble tickets to support and received replies that were not even related to the question I asked. I'm not boasting, being sarcastic, etc, but I guarantee you that I know more about the Booker software than their Level 1 Techs and probably more than some Level 2 techs.

Valerie
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

3
Reviewed on 10/2/2023

Look elsewhere for scheduling & business software

disappointed

Pros

can access schedule from mobile devices || clients can book appointments via web link

Cons

unreliable , inconsistent, lack of ownership when software not working, lack of ownership when they add services to our list that we don't offer, no report is accurate

Abhishek
Abhishek
  • Industry: Market Research
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

3
Reviewed on 22/1/2023

Decent platform for business management and booking appointments!

I found it an average platform for providing a decent appointment scheduling service to our customers.

Pros

Convenient to use and make online appointments. Integration is easy and its mobile application is also very user-friendly. Its loyalty point feature is also very useful in attracting customers.

Cons

Interface can be improved. Very frustrating to use due to its frequent down-time. Additional features of adding samples or images can be an added advantage.

Jeffrey
Jeffrey
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 15/1/2022

More disappointed than impressed

Poor experience. Sure, extra stuff was neat, but that's not what I got Booker for. We need a R E L I A B L E system. Not one that I have to always complain about. Oh, on that note, customer service wasn't helpful, but rather sarcastic and unprofessional. Extremely unhappy. The only time I actually had a decent experience was when I was cancelling. That was the most painless experience I had. The irony there.

Pros

The email marketing functionality and the reporting was great.

Cons

Beyond the email marketing functionality/analytical reporting, I am very disappointed. There is so much down-time with the software - unreliable. As a high volume, high end nail salon, we need to make sure that this cloud-based software is up 99% of the time, which was also their guarantee. During the busy summer months, the software would go down every other day. Absolutely unreliable. The user interface (UI) is so ugly compared to other modern softwares. There's a lag during the appointment bookings. Easy-of-use is a fail. Difficult to use as the software wasn't logically built. They probably need to rebuild from the ground up.

Alternatives Considered

Meevo

Reasons for Choosing Booker

Fresha had a reliability issue as well, but on the user interface they were a 10/10. Easy to use. Modern. Many awesome features that we used frequently. If it wasn't for the reliable part, I still may use it.

Switched From

Fresha

Reasons for Switching to Booker

Meevo doesn't have a trial available. How can you trust a product that you cannot test drive? WTF? That's what I call garbage.
Laurie
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 23/11/2020

Booker wants you to use endless work arounds because they can't get it right

I am stuck in Booker because I have been using it since 2014. My client data base and content are huge, they have been purchased by mindbody and I had hoped for an improvement, but its worse.

Do not get stuck with this software, purchase something else. They require you to do work arounds because the software does not function properly. The reporting is shite. Please do your self a favor and look else where.

I have tow spas and they are on different versions of booker. I have asked multiple times to be placed on one version or the other.

Pros

It has a lot of useful features, sadly very few of them work as expected.
- membership processing
- gift certificates
- embedded special codes for marketing
- pixels for marketing
- cancellation policy implementation
- customer service availability
- appointment scheduling
- sales reporting
- freezing memberships
- mail campaigns and marketing

Cons

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING with this software requires a work around.
-I have lost members because the software randomly double and triple charges them each month and doesn't represent it in the recent orders tab so it looks as if it hasn't
- freezing members is great, but then booker charges them for ALL the months they have been frozen
- you cannot put special deals on for the holidays on gift certificates = no holiday gift certificate promos
- special codes for marketing do not auto populate for orders and cannot be found from within the order
- pixels for marketing from their marketing tools do not work
- cancellation policy is great but if the person does not have a cc on file then you cannot close the order which makes it impossible to close the drawer at the end of the night
- groups often book under the same name , booker requires you to CANCEl that appt rather than just changing the name - ridiculous
-sales reporting is not customizable, past membership reporting cannot be done. it only shows current numbers regardless of the date you enter. kind of hard to measure growth
-members may freeze their monthly billing, no benefits are accrued but when you take the freeze off it autocharges all previous unpaid months
- customer service is available - but they are often unknowledgeable and can only submit requests to development and they take months even years before they fix your problem.
- the marketing tab does not load on my booker if im running from chrome.

Alternatives Considered

ZENOTI

Reasons for Choosing Booker

Mindbody was old and clunky, I switched after only a couple months of use.

Switched From

Mindbody

Reasons for Switching to Booker

It seemed more modern and sleek at the time. Seemed to offer better options and functionality. The customer service team was great and seemed like they would be on point. There was a time when I was referring our clients to them but had to stop because the feedback from them was so awful Choosing the Booker software was one of the worst business decisions I have ever made.
Verified Reviewer
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 16/9/2018

HORRIBLE FOR CLIENT PRIVACY WITH OTHERS USING THE SYSTEM with restricted STAFF PRIVLAGES

Very Unhappy -Open access for everyone to see all history, private information on a client. If they see a screen with appointments they can see anything for the client with a few clicks.
Other than no privacy Booker works pretty well considering. Im over the customer service answer is - if its a staff they cant see anything- really hire people that know your system and figure out how to add privacy.

Pros

Easy to navigate and use. Easy to teach new employees how to book appointments - keeps inventory accurate, and payroll is easy access.

Cons

The worst part about Booker is usually you get an experienced person to help although when you really need it you have someone helping doing what you can do , read off their online support. So frustrating!
The worst part about this software is that person- such as STAFF should not be able to look at persons full history or personal information . The quick check in box at the top of appointments that is available to everyone allows all access. Just simply type in a name and here you have it . History, address, pros and cons about client likes and dislikes for everyone to see. NO privacy with this app . Therapist can look up past appointments - and its not their clients . There is no privacy with Booker -anyone can see everything no matter what settings you restrict. Cant wait to change this system to something more owner/ (HIPPA complaint- would be nice) friendly, so employees do not have access to private information. Anyone looking to prevent client information access , watch out for this app. Also continues to use other cc on various accounts, blaming it on whatever internet service you use, funny everyone says the same we all use something different- how can it be us- the business. We continuously have to call customers and apologize . Read other reviews same complaints.

Katie
Katie
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 16/2/2018

Booker initially worked okay, but we are seeing progressively worsened issues with Version 2.

Pros

I do think the UI on the backend is easy and simple to use. I also like the ability to manage payroll, inventory, store CC securely to appointments/client profiles.

Cons

I am in the process of franchising my concept, Mylkbar, and am absolutely livid with the level of customer support and consistent lack of transparency.

Coming from an enterprise software sales background, the companies I have worked for always were transparent with product roadmaps, glitches/bugs, and capabilities. Initially, Booker worked okay and we could live with the occasional kinks and glitches. Now, the issues are so bad that I spend 50% of my time dealing with Booker and am vetting other software that I may need to select to replace Booker.

The primary concerns are as follows:
1) Poor integration with Clover. Do NOT GO ON BOOKER VERSION 2. It is not fully developed and has too many kinks. If you look at all of their enterprise, multi-location accounts (Drybar, Olive and June, Ten Over Ten, Blushington, etc) they are all on Version 1. Version 2 is riddled with glitches. We constantly have to hit the refresh button and clear the cache to ensure things run smoothly. That is NOT how cloud software is supposed to work.
2) Constant payment glitches. In the past month, we have over 10 instances with payment glitches. We have to then close out the transaction on the Clover and reconcile our books within Booker. This takes up an inordinate amount of time, frustrates my employees, and also costs me time and money if I have to get my bookkeeper involved.
3) Terrible UI for clients booking online. Clients can't select multiple services. They have to add a service to their cart, then go back to main page to select second service. This is also a MAJOR issue with group bookings, which account for a big chunk of our business. The group booking functionality in Version 2 is NONEXISTENT, therefore are phone rings ALL day with people asking how to book more than one person.
4) Version 2 is not supported in the Apple App Store. How did this even happen?! You introduce an app, which should be well vetted and readily available on your "newer" Version and then the app store declines it? Unreal. On top of this, Booker had a lot of Version 2 customers who had paid to develop/access the client facing app (like me) and just waited months with no response.
5) Terrible customer support. Booker's main clientele is the salon industry, yet customer support is not available on weekends?! What a joke. I was told support was available daily when I signed up. Expect 20 minute hold times for chat support. Then, Booker will create an incident ticket and act like you are the only client experiencing that issue and then never follow up. I have unresolved tickets still open from last July, 2017.
6) Total lack of transparency. I may decide to stick with Booker and pay for access to their APIor revert to Version 1 (which is so beyond ridiculous considering Version 2 *should* be better)... I have asked for details on the API and functionality, yet I have to upgrade my account FIRST and sign another contract?! At least the contracts are a 30 day back out... At least I am assuming that is the case.

In short, I would not recommend Booker to anyone UNLESS they miraculously address these issues in the short term. My guess is that Booker is understaffed and underfunded. I think Booker bit off more than they could chew with Version 2. Just go and talk to any business using Booker (even those enterprise accounts) and they will happily share their experiences with you.

Oh, and I have complained about all of the above to a Director of Product Development and their Director of Customer Support. After I got extremely angry and basically demanded a dedicated support rep, my voice is finally being *somewhat* heard, but I am still not satisfied. We just experienced another major payment glitch today. I am making my review public, so feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn if you have questions.

Stephanie
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
3

4
Reviewed on 17/1/2018

New and Improved

Overall, it is a great booking website and it is a very easy system to learn. We recently added a brand login through this company as we are adding additional sites and it has been a very easy process.

Pros

I love that they have created many updates for this software over the last few months. It has been really nice not experiencing any lag or issues with the booking features like we were having just a few months ago. I love that you can choose how far in advance the confirmation emails are sent out and I really love that the clients can confirm the appointment through the email. Another AMAZING tool is that you can now see when a client is booking an appointment online that way you are not trying to compete with anyone online trying to book. I hated in the past where I would be booking a client at the desk and right when I went to book, it said that I was not able to. Come to find out when I refreshed the page it was because someone else had booked it online. It truly makes a huge difference with these little improvements that they made.

Cons

One thing at the moment that I am not liking about the software is that sometimes the confirmation emails do not send even when the emails box is checked, this also happens when I book re-occurring appointments for an entire year where these clients of all clients should receive all the emails. Another thing that gets frustrating from time to time is that the clients future appointments is not showing up on their account under the appropriate tab therefore some clients have not showed up for their appointment and we can't charge if they can prove they didn't see it online. I try to see if they have duplicate accounts as well but they do not. And lastly, every now and again Booker will give us booking issues while trying to book for any of our services, it will state that the appointment cannot book because no equipment is available however, I know that is not the case. That is frustrating because we have to then just create a block out on the schedule with the client's service along with their information but they don't receive any emails through the system when it is booked that way.

Allison
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 22/4/2017

WISH I COULD GIVE 0 STARS

I have had Booker since May, 2015. At first, minor glitches were sparse. An interruption in our day, but we were able to keep going. Recently, the interruptions have been more of an occurrence and lasting longer. I run a company and this is absolutely absurd. I can not do business if my main computer booking program is down. We constantly have pop ups on "We are working on it", "We are currently seeing slowness". On two separate occasions, their entire website was DOWN. Like, they forgot to pay and it was taken down. Ummmm... that is your business. How can that happen? And being a faithful client for two years, you think that you would give us a heads up if you are taking it down DURING PEEK HOURS. Today, on a Saturday of all days (Saturdays are BUSY for salons) we have the good ol' standby of "An Internal Server Error Has Occurred". This has lasted about two hours now. So, I can not ring people out, I can't check them in, I can't see our schedules.... I CAN'T RUN MY BUSINESS. Anytime you call customer service, it'll ring twice and go to a busy tone, OR they prompt you to leave a message after one minute for NO ONE to call you back. THEY ARE NEVER AVAILABLE. Customer service???? Give me a BREAK! They have the worst customer service ever. Oh, and my sales rep, the nicest guy ever. Who told me I could call him anytime... well.... he won't return my calls, or my emails. OR ANYTHING. I'll get a generic email from The CEO of the company that all of their clients have been BCC'd on about their recent issues and what they are doing to fix it. Meanwhile putting the blame on anyone or anything else other than themselves. I'm so beyond frustrated with this company, their lack of accountability, their "customer service", their whole being. They have lost me SO MUCH MONEY. The great customer service I am able to give my clients, leaves me looking stupid when I don't know they have an appointment, or when I'm struggling to ring them out on a 1980s credit card machine. We look pathetic. People don't want to come back to us and also, I'm left giving free services or discounts for the inconvenience to try and keep my clients happy. I will be taking my business elsewhere. As far as I'm concerned, Booker owes me $ for the past 5 months of terrible service (we will give them a break on the other 19 months). They also owe me probably $ in LOST WAGES.

Pros

Right now, nothing. I'm so beyond frustrated. NOBODY IS N EVER AVAILABLE FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!!

Cons

IT NEVER WORKS AT ALL!!! CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NEVER THERE TO HELP! DO NOT USE!!

Response from Mindbody

Dear Allison,
The downtime issues in April '17 were upsetting for all of us. We know that Booker is the backbone of your business and we take this very seriously. We've invested significantly in improving our servers so this won't happen again in the future. This investment of engineering resources and updated equipment has resulted in greater stability and faster speed, and we intend to continue the improvements.

Sorry to hear you've had a difficult experience. We'd love to discuss this further with you if you have time. We thank you for using Booker and for your feedback.

Thank you,
The Booker Team

Replied 4/5/2017
Jasmine
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 6/12/2022

Booker is great for a beauty service provider who is starting out

I was happy with system. It helped keep my business organized

Pros

I was happy using Booker for my business for the first few years. It had online booking, kept track of clients individual notes and offered package services that clients could buy

Cons

It wasn’t as advanced as other booking systems but was worth the monthly price

Brad
  • Industry: Publishing
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 30/10/2017

I used to love Booker, but fixes and updates come slowly and customer service is terrible!

Booker is a robust solution for online scheduling and taking payments too. In theory, Booker will save you loads of time since customers schedule and manage their own appointments. In reality, we spend too much time on the phone with Booker trying to work out quirks.

Pros

Admin backend is solid and reliable.
Lots of options to customize. Too many at times since finding just the right setting can take 15-20 minutes or require a phone call to customer service.

Cons

Customer front end is weak and confusing. Booker does not allow certain booking options (CF2) to be used in iFrames. This forces you to send customers to a 3rd party website (not yours) to make appointments. Fixes and feature requests come slowly if at all.
If you are interested in using Booker be sure you know what you are getting into before you commit. It is very difficult to get 100, 500, or thousands of customers to move to a new appointment system if you later decide Booker is not what you expected. Get used to what Booker looks like now and be okay with that for the long haul. Don't plan on being able to add a feature of even getting Booker to fix bugs. Booker will show you a long list of "fixes" and revision numbers of updated software. I have never known any of these updates to address a bug of concern we had with the SaaS. Customer requests are ignored and bugs are described as features. Yes, they really are! For example, in some places staff names are sorted by first name and in other places they are sorted by last name. This does make it feel like you are using different software products and will infuriate you at times.
Different interfaces all work differently. In other words, they all feel like different products. We use the admin interface, the Booker iOS app, the Booker customer app, CF1, and Facebook app. That seems like lots of great options until you realize how disjointed and different they all are. You are not merely learning one software package, you really have to learn them all.

Kristen
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

3
Reviewed on 24/1/2017

Decent but not great

I like using Booker for its ease of use. It can get confusing since there are multiple ways to do the same task, though. However, with different learning styles, it is a pretty easy system to teach to people. It is very beneficial as well to allow all therapists to be able to check schedules from home. Our clients like the email and text appointment reminders. We also like the hire Frederick program. It is an easy way to market and bring back old customers or get new ones to rebook. The email they receive after their services is also beneficial for us to understand customer satisfaction and we can immediately respond to negative feedback, grow, learn and maintain customer relations. Their customer service is very good. They are always very prompt with responding to an issue.
My problems with Booker are they have a tendency to glitch often or significantly slow down the system so we have had to resort to either trying a mobile device or handwriting credit slips on occasion. We have also had issues with the online booking and how one picks a therapist which makes things confusing and doesn't always work in our favor so a lot of client education comes into play. By this, I mean that even if a client picks no therapist preference at the beginning they still must choose at the end. Or sometimes they pick a therapist and it doesn't show as a request. I am currently finding out that the credit card processing linked to their service does not have the best rates but it would be more expensive to use another processing system and have to pay Booker's fees. Finally, we have learned the hard way that if a client pays in advance and you do not block out the time slot then another client can book in that same slot.

Pros

Ease of use can be accessed remotely by all therapists, no additional cost per therapist for use, HireFrederick program

Cons

Online booking inconsistency with picking a therapist and it not being a request vs no preference and still having to choose a therapist. Glitchiness! Slowness! Taking payment in advance opens time slot for others to book in. Feeling stuck with their credit card processing or high fees to use another one with better rates

Response from Mindbody

Thank you for using Booker Kristin. We'd love to work with you to help with any issues you're having with using the system - reach out to [email protected] if we can help!

Thank you so much for using Booker!
- The Booker Team

Replied 31/1/2017
Ella
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 31/12/2019

Frustrated user of six years

I’ve been using this software for six years the features seem promising but the reality of them are not easy to use and implement or take too long for customer service. It is not customizable for a large scale salon and that is not what bothers me the most, it’s when you call Support and they have no solutions except we don’t do that. And I mean repeatedly that is what I get from their Support team.

Pros

All the features they supposedly offer.

Cons

No customer support, terrible training, and my staff does not feel like it’s easy to use. It takes forever to track and check people out. The reports are confusing and make no sense and their payroll is not customizable so I still have to outsource and pay more. They seem to be prompt when they’re selling you something to add cost to your service but not when you need help. And their support has no solutions or work around options.

Alternatives Considered

Vagaro, Meevo, Phorest and SalonBiz

Reasons for Choosing Booker

Because I wanted something that offered better online booking and worked in LiveTime and had an app it was six or seven years ago so at the time Salon Iris did not have this

Switched From

DaySmart Salon

Reasons for Switching to Booker

I’m considering other products now. At the time Booker was $65 a month and now I pay $350 a month and instead of adding complementary features at that price they’re consistently trying to sell me new features and up my monthly cost.
Paul
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Functionality
1
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 9/1/2018

Horrendous. Terrible Experience. Bad Platform. Bad Support.

zero. only pain and anguish and wasted money. I can't even get the reps to respond to my emails about a refund. I would strongly recommend against using Booker.

Pros

I liked the notion of what they "sell" to you. not what they actually deliver. I guess I like that it's a cloud based system, which you can't say for Millennium.

Cons

Booker is going more towards a multi-industry platform & removed many of its spa related functionality. No longer can you create spa packages, for example.

Much of the customization they sell you on doesn't exist at all. It used to on their old platform, but new customers don't get to use that anymore, so your gift card site & the online booking site will look like a Kindergartner designed it in an extracurricular activity.

You don't have the ability to customize categories for your services/products. For example, if you do hydrotherapy, there isn't a category for things like vichy showers. You do have auto repair available though... so congrats.

If you're looking to have a smooth experience with onboarding, you'll be disappointed. The data "expert" we worked with missed his deadline by 4 weeks and then just disappeared. We had to start completely over and then the new "expert" imported the wrong data and we had to start over again. We worked with onboarding for almost 5 months and never got live.

There's no ecommerce capabilities, even though their web site promotes it and their sales people promote it. At this point, it's a flat out lie. Doesn't exist.

You have to work with a 3rd party for your POS system (Clover). We signed up for a special and were supposed to get 2 set ups for free, but they came back to us after we signed up and said "nope, sorry, we were wrong, you can only have one." And, then they sent us 2, except one was incompatible with Booker.

Response from Mindbody

Paul,

We're sad to hear about the experience you had during your short time with Booker. This is not the experience we work to deliver, and we are sorry that we couldn¿t deliver something of value to you and your Spa.

If you're still having issues getting a response, please contact [email protected] and we'll make sure we get back to you ASAP.

Thank you,
- The Booker Team

Replied 12/1/2018
Lindsey
  • Industry: Consumer Services
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 24/1/2017

Complete Program

I love using Booker because it truly does everything I need it to. Not only is all your customer tracking in one place, I can easily override a schedule, track inventory, check my estheticians clock-in and out times, but all the merchant services and marketing with Frederick is also build in to make it a complete system. If I ever have a question, there are so many way to easily get it answered. Usually if I'm wondering, someone else has been too- so I can find it in the community boards, but if its truly technical, the chat is a quick and convenient way that I can still answer the phone as it rings, because the help line isn't tying up the phones or my hands. Frederick tracks emails, so if a client says they never got a reminder, I can double check that the system did indeed send one and with texts working better, more clients are loving the frequent reminders. Having the app option allows me to track the schedule from home also. Truly, I've looked at other software programs, but they just can't stand up to what Booker is able to do. Booker is just faster, easier, sleeker, and more intelligent.

Pros

Integration of scheduling, merchant services, marketing, reporting. Everything I need in one place to run the business. I don't have to import or export information to run reports or go through multiple programs to send out reminder texts, ring up a client to check out, and check hours worked by employees.

Cons

There are a few things that the system just doesn't do intelligently where I have to override certain scheduling rules (Example: if an appointment was scheduled in room 2 with one girl, and i want to change it to another girl, it will not automatically switch it to room one. It will just say it isn't available.) So I have to go through round-about ways to override it to get it done, but those are just nit-picking.

Response from Mindbody

Thank you for your detailed feedback Lindsey. We appreciate it and are so happy that Booker is working well for you and your business.

You rock! Thank you for using Booker!
- The Booker Team

Replied 1/2/2017
981 reviews

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