Booker Reviews

Perfect for businesses

Pros:

It is user friendly, very detailed and easy to use, accessibility 24 hours, and very much inexpensive. I would recommend that you give it a try today.

Cons:

Creating packages and reports could be alot less hassling.. work needed as it relates to credit card processes.

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

Comments: 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

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

Comments: 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.

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.

User Friendly and Reliable

Comments: Booker and team were great with helping me get this set up for our specific needs and marketing requirements. The whole process with Booker and the team helps us keep everything in one place. It's definitely a more seamless integration of the things we use the most. Their customer service and training were really terrific, too. We keep learning of more tools to help our practice grow every day!

Pros:

This software makes booking appointments easy for customers and staff and helps us keep our practice organized.

Cons:

It took a bit of time to get used to the new system, and it's a little bit more detailed to use than our other software. Once we got it tho, it's great!

Know the Limitations of Booker

Comments: 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.

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

Very efficient for our salon

Comments: Great and we will continue to use it for our salon

Pros:

Everything is easily accessible, can have multiple accounts for managers and staff

Cons:

Sometimes the system glitches or CC/cash amounts aren’t matching up with the POS system at the end of the work day.

Too many maintenance days per month

Comments: I would give it a 5/10 or less for the reasons above, but also it is constantly shutting down for maintenance. The amount of times I would go and book in a Patient, to have the site shut down, made it very difficult to reply only on booker.

Pros:

I like that Booker has a very clean look, and it is quite easy to block time and schedule in Patients/clients. You can leave check-in or check-out alerts for an individual. I also like that when you go to book an appointment, if the client has been in previously, their name will pop up.

Cons:

If I did wish to book multiple recurrent appointments with a Patient, I couldn't do that with a click of a button, I would have to go to each date and book it separately. If an employee has two rooms they are using for the day, you have to have it on seperate columns... i.e. bill 1 and bill 2, which can get complicated for reporting. There is no charting option with the software.

Booker was better years ago. Not now.

Comments: 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.

Frustrated user of six years

Comments: 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.

There are better systems out there for cheaper too

Comments: 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.

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

Comments: 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!

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

Comments: 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.

Booker? ARE YOU KIDDING?

Comments: 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

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

Comments: 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.

Could not do without it

Comments: The pro's definitely outweigh whatever problems or frustrations I have with Booker, so I'm overall a happy customer and will continue working with them. I honestly could not do without this software and look forward to them making more improvements to make it an even better products.

Pros:

I appreciate that my clients can book online and purchase gift certificates when I'm too busy to answer the phone. It's also super easy checking out clients, but best of all is that I'm able to manage our calendar for both therapists and clients, and reschedule with ease. I love that I am also able to track client history and their progress. As we get busier and our client base grows, it can become more challenging to manage paper files and this has helped us cut down on paperwork, thank goodness!

Cons:

There is definitely a learning curve with Booker and there have been times when I've been unsure of how to do something, and have had to contact their support team. One of the glitches that annoys me, is that when I add a new staff member, it adds or populates their name in the calendar even before their official start date! It can be confusing. The same happens when I terminate a staff member or switch them to 'inactive' - then their name and client appointmentss that day, all disappear from view. This is probably one of the more frustrating things for me. I also wish I could do a bit of my own customization like removing things from a drop down table that do not able to me.

False marketing

Comments: Frustrating

Pros:

I needed A cloud based software. I was on a desktop

Cons:

Demo is great but the live version is full of glitches resulting in inaccurate reports, incorrect pay stubs for employees, incorrect year end financials for the business. Wrong service and product history for clients that can never be corrected. Financial transactions that regularly crash.

drives me to tears on the regular

Comments: 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.

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

Comments: 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.

sub par. Booker is always breaking on the busiest days, unreliable.

Pros:

Booker does help us with booking appointments. Our clients really enjoy online booking, however i saw there is going to be an update in the next week. I will be curious to see how quickly they ruin what already works...

Cons:

something is always wrong with the software. dropping credit cards, dropping appointments. they took away simple features and moved them to its new Frederick site. as a long time customer, we felt this move was unprofessional. you have to pay so much extra for something as simple as text or appointment reminders. (a feature that used to be FREE). the busiest Fridays, they will do site maintenance and you will be very embarrassed in front of your clients. happens way too much.

Terrible customer service

Comments: I purchased this product under the guidance of one representative who basically went MIA the moment my card was charged. He set up a training appt at the wrong time from a previously agreed upon time. He also told me my "sign up fee" was a "set up fee" which made me think I was going to at least be assisted in setting up my acct. I tried several times (email and calls to his direct line) to reach him the moment I received the confirmation email for my training time, never received a response back. At that point I attempted the main number but couldn't get through for days. Your wait time is 2 minutes is what I heard for several calls totaling in over 30 min +. I finally reached someone (6 days after initial purchase) and I had decided to cancel my acct. due to my experience with poor customer service. I was told then that my investment, in what I thought was a set up fee, cannot be refunded as sign up fees are nonrefundable. On top of it all they charged my acct a prorated amount for 8 days of service (assuming 8 bc they were slow in canceling). So now after not receiving any training or set up assistance with many hours sitting on hold they are still keeping my money.
I do not recommend this product to anyone at all! Stay away!

Cons:

I purchased this product under the guidance of one representative who basically went MIA the moment my card was charged. He set up a training appt at the wrong time from a previously agreed upon time. He also told me my "sign up fee" was a "set up fee" which made me think I was going to at least be assisted in setting up my acct. I tried several times (email and calls to his direct line) to reach him the moment I received the confirmation email for my training time, never received a response back. At that point I attempted the main number but couldn't get through for days. Your wait time is 2 minutes is what I heard for several calls totaling in over 30 min +. I finally reached someone (6 days after initial purchase) and I had decided to cancel my acct. due to my experience with poor customer service. I was told then that my investment, in what I thought was a set up fee, cannot be refunded as sign up fees are nonrefundable. On top of it all they charged my acct a prorated amount for 8 days of service (assuming 8 bc they were slow in canceling). So now after not receiving any training or set up assistance with many hours sitting on hold they are still keeping my money. I do not recommend this product to anyone at all! Stay away!

Scheduling, moving, canceling, and changing appointments is easy.

Comments: We are able to schedule, complete orders, keep up with client profiles, and take inventory with ease. It gets the job done for our spa and we rely on it completely! It was a great software choice for us. We would not use anything else.

Pros:

I love the client profile. You can look back and see everything he/she has bought, what services they got, and you can also make notes about the client if they are allergic to anything or have any preferences during their appointment! With this feature, we can see everything we need to know about the client's appointment when we print out the itinerary for the day. This way, we have all of the up-to-date info for the client and mistakes are less likely to be made. I love that.

Cons:

I would love to see the "document storage" feature to become compatible with tablets and phones. I would like to see our service providers be able to look at their phone or tablet and see their clients profile before they perform their service. I love that we have gone paperless and have stored all of our Client Intake Forms on Booker, but I would like to see easier access to them.

Best available Cloud based solution for POS & Online Booking

Comments: So there is no perfect product BUT... We've run our beauty business for 8 years now using a variety of non-integrated systems including AppointmentQues and Intuit POS. About 2 years ago, we became very frustrated with the total lack of customer support from our current solutions'they literally did not have a phone number to reach a real person in any circumstance. The role Booker would play for us was mission critical so I did some serious due diligence before selecting Booker. I created a massive feature spreadsheet that compared the 4 top contenders. Booker and one other option appeared to be the best on paper. So I called Booker and grilled that sales person for literally 3 hours about all the nuances of Booker. She was cheerful and knowledgable (I think her name was Erica) and answered pretty much all of my questions. We have over 60 employees, so training and switching our software backbone is a huge hassle'you really want to choose the right long term partner so you don't have to deal with all that work again. I'd say Booker gets 98 out of 100 issues and features. It is very elegant and thoughtfully designed and a pleasure to work with on a day to day basis. So much more robust and clean that our previous patched together solutions. Yes, on the rare occasions when the Booker servers go down for an hour at 3pm, you will curse their name, but you will also quickly forgive, because no cloud based solutions has perfect uptime, and this cloud based solution is soooooooo much better than our previous desktop apps. Yes, we push the limits of the features. Yes, we wish they would fix some of the "glitches" more quickly'it seems that adding new customers might be getting more CEO focus than improving the user/customer experience. But so far, Booker appears to still be the best available option. Side note: Robert Schmidt in support is a rockstar and really gave us a lot of good advice and strategic insights related to Booker. PROS:
Smart, friendly people in customer support that live in NYC or SoCal. They really know their stuff and try hard to help you. And they don't speak English as a 3rd language or live in Bangladesh! Well thought out, elegant interface. CONS:
Booker needs to hire more/task more programmers to fix glitches in the system'fixes trickle in, but far more slowly than other SaaS providers in other industries.
Feels like they are resting on their laurels with features'slow to fix or add features

Booker for a Massage practice

Comments: So overall I enjoy Booker and customer support however everything needs its tweaks. I do not like that you have to use their merchant provider and can't negotiate fees much, also lately people are able to book online with a credit card that we later on find out is declined..usually when they're a no show and our hands are tied. Customer service used to be great, now it's good and I don't always end with a resolution. Sometimes setting up codes for discounts is confusing and certain reports. On the positive side it works great for scheduling especially once you know the little tweaks in the system and it's great that it sends out emails for confirmation and reminders to the staff and guests. However, lately my staff isn't getting all notifications. This can be very problematic, I'm rebooking clients for free and not receiving payments on no shows due to the system only lately. If this were fixed I'd go back to loving the product.

Pros:

Reminders and organization of multiple therapists

Cons:

Issues with notifications, payments and codes