I wish there was something better out there.

Book It!

Pros

Booker is a godsend for so many salons. It is very user-friendly and they have implemented the use of embedded training videos for all the features; this is a wonderful tool and works very well for people who are visual learners, which most stylists happen to be. For salon managers and owners, Booker offers a variety of tools: time-clock, sales tracking, inventory, tip allocation, expenditures/budgets, etc. Being a web-based software, it's very easy to add a widget or embed a link on your website and/or Facebook page to allow customers to easily schedule themselves for services. In addition, there is a built-in point of sale system that makes it easy to check out clients without needing to switch over to another program and/or system.

Cons

The downside to being a web-based software: if the server is down or there is an issue with the website, you cannot access your calendar or your point of sale system. Booker has been awesome enough to provide a separate website where they allow you to report issues of the system being down and also announcing known issues. Their customer service makes up for this issue.

Using it for our Med Spa

Booker does what we need, support has always been responsive and it is easy to use.

Pros

Ease of use so, easy to train. In the Day Spa industry front desk turnover is frequent so it is nice to be able to quickly show a new gal how to use the system.

Cons

We were previously Salon Iris customers and I am a programmer. With access to the database on that system I could run queries on anything in the database. Booker does not provide access to the SQL database so that is not possible. I do however have all of the reports that I need. Also, it would be nice to have the ability to set access a little more granular. For example, if I give a gal access to look at gift card balances, I will also have given her access to modify gift card balances.

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.

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.