BookingBug – Take Bookings, Payments, and Mange Time Online
There are no shortage of time management apps and event booking platforms on the Internet. In between those, however, is the services booking gap wherein service-based businesses like hair salons and dog walkers can book services and keep a calendar of clients on their website.
BookingBug.com is filling that gap. Based in the UK, the application offers a free version for smaller enterprises, like dog walkers or yard care professionals, and scaling up in price to about £20 per month for larger groups like sports clubs, bed and breakfast innkeepers, and so forth.
BookingBug is a simple system that can be plugged into any website as a hosted app. Clients can check your calendar to see when you’re available, book services in available time slots, and receive confirmation of those bookings. From the service provider’s end, you’ll see which clients booked what services (if you have more than one) in what available slots, have calendar management tools, and more. Client contact information and other things are there for you as well and clients aren’t able to see each other from their end, seeing only calendar fillers “Booked” in time slots.
The real bonus to BookingBug comes when you see that it plugs into other popular websites in the UK such as BrownBook and review site Trusted Places. In addition, BookingBug users can have new bookings send to them via SMS or email so your personal calendar is easily kept. For many, this may put it above Setster, which we reviewed in October.
BookingBug is a United Kingdom startup founded by Glenn Shoosmith and Gregory Bockenstette (in the U.S.), both developers. BookingBug went live out of beta in late November and boasts not only a large number of partnerships with other business services sites, but also an affiliate program, which is unique to the space.
