The transformation of businesses in all their fields to the online work system has become imperative in order to keep pace with development, remain competitive, and increase profits. This of course also applies to all areas of business whose clients need to book appointments before dealing with them.
In the past, customers needed to either call or go to a doctor, lawyer, or whoever, in order to book an appointment for a later visit. Currently, all the customer has to do is open his phone from anywhere and make the reservation directly online.
If you already own a WooCommerce store and want to add a reservations system to it in order to facilitate the process of booking appointments of various types for your customers, in this guide we will show you how to do that by learning about the most important WordPress plugins that provide the WooCommerce reservations service professionally.
Choose the booking creation plugin that best suits your business
Plugins also differ from each other in the features they have, and your business also differs from any other business in the form of reservations system it needs. So you should choose the add-on with the features that best suit your business goals.
But in general, there are some basic features that any WooCommerce booking system should have in order for it to be successful and suitable for customers. These features that you must ensure are present in the add-on that you will rely on to create a WooCommerce reservations system are:
- Mobile phone support so customers can book appointments directly from their phones.
- Support electronic payment if there is a need to do so while booking appointments.
- It provides a calendar for booking through, and integration with other calendar applications such as Google Calendar .
- Only vacant appointments available during working hours are permitted.
- The ability to choose the service provider when booking, such as booking an appointment with one of the different trainers in the sports club.
- Send email alerts to confirm reservations and remind them of their appointments to both clients and business leaders.
Of course, this is a small portion of the many features provided by WooCommerce booking add-ons, but as we mentioned previously, you must choose what suits your business from them.
Best plugins for creating a reservations system
We will now review some of the most popular plugins that can help you support your WooCommerce store with a professional booking system. Note that some of these plugins can support all WordPress sites without the need to install the WooCommerce plugin on them. Here are the most popular plugins for building reservations systems:
1. WooCommerce Bookings
The first addition to the world of WooCommerce bookings, it is official from the WooCommerce team itself and fully integrated with it. Because of this, the WooCommerce Bookings plugin has fewer issues due to its perfect compatibility. Since it supports WooCommerce, it of course supports all business areas that WooCommerce supports, such as restaurants, hotels, gyms, etc.
Through it, you can provide customers with the times available for booking, and specify the times you are able to receive appointments. In addition to booking appointments, this addition allows you to pre-book the store’s products.
Add to this the possibility of canceling the reservation at a specific time when it is filled with a certain number of reservations to prevent crowding or crowding of customers. The reservation can be made immediately or after the administrator accepts it, who can also manually enter the times of reservations made, for example, by phone or email, into the add-on.
In addition to notifications and reminders, the WooCommerce Booking plugin offers specialized options for some supported business areas, such as hotels. Many features can also be added to it by downloading it and adding it to the add-on.
Unfortunately, all of these features do not come for free, not even for a small amount. The cost of obtaining this add-on is $249, paid only once, with the possibility of recovering the amount within 30 days. But despite its high price, its many advantages, of which we mentioned only a small part, are worth purchasing.
2 . PluginHive – WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments
The second addition is the PluginHive add-on , a WooCommerce booking add-on, which is distinguished from its predecessor by its lower price, which starts at $99, with support for 25 sites when paying the same amount as purchasing the WooCommerce Booking add-on. This makes it the most economical option for businesses. It can also be used for free, but with limited features.
Aside from the price, the add-on supports the calendar view in order to book appointments on available dates and times. With the possibility of booking multiple appointments for the same client. The possibility of canceling the reservation before a specific time as well.
The addition provides the ability to set reservation prices, while providing discounts when booking in advance, for example, or booking for several individuals. Supporting advance reservations for related products, such as reserving a parking space in the case of hotels.
PluginHive allows customers to book precise appointments not just by days and hours; But also by minutes. In addition, it is fully integrated with Google Calendar.
3 . Bookly
Bookly is probably the most modernly designed of the WooCommerce booking plugins. It offers many customization options for designing booking forms, without any programming experience required, making it a suitable choice for beginners.
This add-on supports the ability to add an unlimited number of workers, whom any client can choose one of to book an appointment with. Each worker has his own options in terms of cost, working times, etc.
The Bookly add-on integrates with WooCommerce and Google Calendar to take advantage of all the features of both services. It also supports the feature of sending reminders via SMS.
The Bookly add-on is available in a free version, but it has limited features, while the paid version is not considered expensive at all, as it costs $89.
4 . Booking Calendar
The Booking Calendar plugin offers complete automation of emails related to reservations and reminders. It also has an easy-to-use and simple user interface, with support for several different languages. The models used are also responsive to mobile phone screens efficiently.
It is one of the most famous and oldest plugins in this field, and it still proves itself among the best WooCommerce booking plugins available. It is also the most suitable addition for small business owners because its free version contains all the features they need at the beginning of their business.
In addition to its integration with Google Calendar, it also integrates with many external applications for easy synchronization of appointments with your favorite application such as (Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Booking.com).
As we mentioned previously, there is a free version of it, and the cost of the paid version starts from $79.
5 . Amelia
The Amelia plugin has a modern design that can automatically change its color to match the general appearance of your site. It also supports sending text messages to customers for reservation confirmation and reminders.
This addition is directed to owners of projects that are managed by one person or a small number of people, such as a doctor, lawyer, physical therapist, etc. This is because the process of preparing the booking form is automated and requires only a few minutes to prepare it.
In addition to its integration with Google Calendar, the Amelia add-on provides a control panel that displays the most important practical performance measurements (KPIs) related to the work, and displays them in an interface with a clear design, so that the employer can easily track WooCommerce reservations and appointments.
The add-on can be used for free, but companies that have a number of employees can upgrade to the paid version, which costs $59 USD per month, while offering greater options for multiple employees.
Use the Amelia plugin to create a reservations system
Amelia offers the essential features for creating a WooCommerce booking system, so we will explain how to use it and leverage it to create a WooCommerce booking system for store owners on a budget.
To begin with, you must install and activate the Amelia add-on on your WooCommerce store . You can install it through several methods mentioned in our article: Ways to install a WordPress add-on and activate it on your site correctly .
After successfully activating the plugin, a new section will appear in the WordPress control panel called the plugin, and all the options and features of the plugin fall under this section. Let us start from the ( Settings ) option to explain the addition.
The settings contain many options to adjust several important aspects of the add-on, including reservation settings, times, and duration, company information, setting notifications and alerts, electronic payment, appointments, adding service providers, and specifying permissions for employees to manage reservations.
We will then move to the ( Services ) section, in order to determine the services that the business provides, and for which customers can book appointments. Fortunately, the free version allows you to add an unlimited number of services.
The first step is to add a classification under which the service we want to add falls under by clicking on the ( Add Classification ) button.
Then you can press the + button to add a service and enter its detailed information.
After creating new services, you can create a reservations page on your site by going to the (Pages) section, then (Add New), to open the Gutenburg component editor page , where you can design the reservations page however you want, and of course add the reservations form to the page.
You can include an appointment booking form by clicking on the Add Component button, then choosing the component (Amelia – Booking Interface), and adding it where you want on the page.
When you publish the booking page you created, the booking form will appear in it as shown in the image below.
Returning to adding Amelia to the WordPress control panel, we will find other wonderful and useful options such as (the dashboard) in which you will find general and brief information about the volume of reservations and the amount of financial revenues that came from them if you activated the payment system upon booking from the ( Finance ) option.
You can also view the dates of upcoming reservations via the ( calendar ) or ( appointments ) option. The difference between them is that the first displays appointments in a calendar format and the second displays them in a list format. You can modify or delete reservation data, or add appointments manually through both options.
Through the ( Customers ) option, you can display the details of all the customers who have booked appointments with you, in order to target them, if you wish, with loyalty programs, offers, and important discounts to increase the average order value on your site.
Finally, you can set alerts via the ( notifications ) option, whether via email or even SMS.
Thus, we have reached the conclusion of our article in which we talked about how to create a reservations system in WooCommerce stores and WordPress sites, in addition to mentioning the most important WooCommerce reservations add-ons, and explaining how to use the Amelia add-on specifically, or how to use any other add-on that provides the features you need.
