04Case study
Chairtime
Online booking that takes a deposit and settles no shows on its own.
Chairtime is our booking system for barbershops and salons, shown here running a sample four chair barbershop in Tampa. A client picks a service, a barber and a time, puts down a small card deposit, and gets a calendar invite. The front desk sees every chair for the day, checks people in, takes the rest of the bill and marks no shows, and the deposit policy decides what happens to the money.
01Why we built it
Barbers lose real money to no shows, and most booking apps take a monthly fee or a cut of every booking for the shop's own clients.
We wanted a booking page a shop can own outright, with a deposit that protects the chair and a policy that applies itself instead of an awkward phone call.
02The hard parts
Every barber has their own week
Each barber has their own days, hours and lunch. A service is only offered where it fits whole, with a ten minute cleanup after every appointment, and color is only offered with the barber who does it.
Any barber
Picking Any barber shows every open time across the shop and gives the booking to the barber with the lightest day.
No double bookings
A picked time is held for five minutes while the client pays, and other people cannot see it. Before the card is charged, the book is checked again, so if another tab or phone got there first, nothing is charged and the client sees what is still open.
Deposits and the 24 hour rule
The deposit comes off the bill at the chair. Moving or cancelling more than 24 hours out refunds it. Inside 24 hours a booking can be moved once, and cancelling or not showing keeps the deposit.
Shop time, wherever you are
Times are in the shop's own time zone. If someone books from another time zone, the page shows them both times.
03How it is built
One page, two views
The booking page and the front desk are the same app. A booking made in one browser tab appears on the front desk in another right away.
Payments
The card step runs in test mode in the demo, with test cards for a decline and for insufficient funds. For a shop it connects to their own payment account.
★The result
A full book, deposits held, and no awkward calls.
The demo is live with a sample shop, four barbers and three weeks of bookings. Book a chair, then switch to Front desk and find it on the calendar.
For a real shop the services, staff, hours, deposits and policy are theirs, on their own domain.
Tired of no shows?
We can set up booking with deposits for your shop, on your own site, with no per booking fees. The first call is 15 minutes and costs nothing.