Online bookings for your business: platforms, tools or your site

Before choosing: what kind of booking you need

Not all bookings are alike, and a tool that suits one kind won't suit another. Before comparing prices, define how your diary works:

• Tables or places: a restaurant books capacity per time slot, not a specific person. It needs to handle tables, sittings and party size.
• Appointments with a professional: hairdresser, physio, beauty, dentist. Each service has a duration and each professional their own diary.
• Places in a session: a yoga class, a pottery workshop, a guided tour. There's a capacity and a fixed date.
• Service appointments: a car workshop or a home technician. The real duration depends on the job and often needs a quote first.

If your diary depends on something the customer can't see from outside — the state of a car, the real length of a treatment — an “appointment request” that you confirm may suit you better than automatic booking.

Option 1: platforms with their own marketplace

These are apps where customers search for a business and book. Their value is visibility: millions of users looking for somewhere to eat or get a haircut. Almost all also include management software for the business (diary, client records, payments). Their cost usually combines a monthly subscription with a fee tied to the customers they bring you.

The prices below are those published on their websites for Spain in October 2026. They change often and depend on the plan: always check their site before deciding.

What you pay a platform isn't just the subscription: it's the fee on every new client, the payment fees and, above all, the fact that customers learn to book on the platform, where they also see your competitors.

Option 2: booking tools without a marketplace

These give you a diary and a booking page that you link from your website, Google profile or Instagram. They bring no new customers, but they don't charge you for them either. They are the cheapest way to start.

Option 3: bookings built into your own website

The booking system is part of your website: the customer picks a service, day and time without leaving it, you get an email notification and the data is stored where you decide. It can be a plugin inside a content management system or custom development.

Advantages: no fee per booking, your brand from start to finish, the customer data is yours and you can fit it to how your business really works. Drawbacks: it costs more up front, someone has to maintain it, and there's no marketplace: customers have to reach your site through Google, social media or word of mouth.

For reference, AMG Design's “Website with bookings” package — a site with online bookings or appointments and email notification — costs €1,200 + VAT, with maintenance at €25 a month. The guides on what a website costs and on maintenance explain what each covers.

Comparing the three options

None wins on everything. The table sums up how they differ for a typical local business.

Many businesses combine them: the platform to win new customers and their own site or tool so regulars book without fees. If you do, keep a single diary, or you'll end up with two bookings at the same time.

Bookings from your Google profile

Many people find the business on Google Maps and want to book right there. Google Business Profile offers two routes.

If several providers are connected, check which one shows on your profile: an old link to a tool you no longer use is a source of lost bookings.

No-shows: reminders, deposits and cancellation policy

A customer who doesn't turn up leaves a slot nobody pays for. There are three tools, from least to most demanding for the customer.

The rules on withdrawal and unfair terms come from Spanish consumer law (TRLGDCU). If you plan to charge penalties, the guide on the legal minimum for a business website covers this in more depth, and it's worth having a professional review your wording.

Data protection in bookings

Every booking collects personal data: name, phone, email and sometimes more. The GDPR and Spain's LOPDGDD apply, just as with a contact form, with a few particular points.

• Ask only for what you need to manage the booking: name, phone or email, day, time and service. No ID number or date of birth.
• Show the first layer of information next to the booking button: who the controller is, what the data is for, the rights and a link to the privacy policy.
• The legal basis for processing is the booking itself. If you want to use the data for marketing, add a separate box, unticked and not required to book.
• The booking tool or platform is a data processor: accept its data processing agreement and name it in your privacy policy, with the country where it stores the data.
• Watch the “notes” or “reason for visit” fields in clinics, physio or beauty: what customers write there may be health data. If you don't need it before the appointment, don't ask.
• Set how long you keep the booking history and delete it when you no longer need it.

How to set it up, step by step

Order matters: if you start with the tool and decide how your diary works afterwards, the tool ends up deciding for you.

• Define your services with their real duration and final price including VAT, and which staff member does each.
• Set the rules: how far ahead people can book, until when they can cancel, buffer time between appointments and maximum bookings per slot.
• Decide your no-show policy: reminders only, deposit or card guarantee, and write it in two or three clear sentences.
• Choose the option (platform, tool or your site) using the table above, and test the free trial with your real diary for a week.
• Prepare the confirmation email and the reminder with the address, directions, cancellation terms and a link to change the appointment.
• Add the first layer of privacy information, update your policy and accept the tool's processing agreement.
• Put the booking button where people see it: the site header on mobile, your Google profile, your Instagram bio and your email signature.
• Make a complete booking yourself on your phone with test details, then cancel it, to see what your customer sees.

Mistakes to avoid

Most problems with online bookings aren't technical but organisational.

• Running two separate diaries (the paper one and the online one, or two unsynced platforms) and ending up with two customers at the same time.
• Optimistic durations: if a colour takes two hours, booking 90 minutes delays the whole afternoon.
• Asking for too much data, or requiring an account with a password before booking. Every extra field loses people.
• Charging a deposit without explaining the terms first, or explaining them only in a terms page nobody opens.
• Not answering appointment requests you have to confirm. A request left unanswered for 24 hours is a customer who calls someone else.
• Choosing a platform without checking how to export your customers if you ever want to leave.