When I had to make a website for a dentist, the most important part was the booking page. It needed to be easy for people to make appointments. That’s when I found the WP Booking Calendar. It was amazing!
It was easy to put on the dentist’s website and made booking appointments simple for everyone. The dentist and their team loved how it made their work easier too.
I’m excited to share my experience with the WP Booking Calendar in this review.
Whether you’re building a website for a healthcare professional or any other business that needs a streamlined booking system, you’ll want to read this.
I’ll take you through how this plugin made our booking process systematic, efficient, and user-friendly. Let’s find out why I’m so satisfied with the WP Booking Calendar!
What is a WP Booking Calendar?
Booking Calendar is a WordPress plugin for your website that makes it super easy for people to see when something is available and book it for certain days or times. Your visitors can look for available rooms or services and even pay for their bookings online in advance.
When someone makes a reservation, you’ll get an email about it. You can keep track of all the bookings on the website using a simple and powerful tool.
The best part? Booking Calendar works well right away, but you can also customize its settings to match how you run your business.
Plus, you can make the booking form and calendar look like they belong on your website, so everything feels smooth and natural for your customers.
Want to take WP Booking Calendar for a spin? Check out their live demo here and see its features in action!
Key Features of WP Booking Calendar
Responsive Front-End Design
Your booking system will look great and function smoothly on any device, providing a seamless experience for your customers. Thus, a potential guest can easily make a reservation using their smartphone while on the go, ensuring they can book your accommodation or service conveniently.
Intuitive and Powerful Admin Panel
Admins can effortlessly view and manage all bookings through a user-friendly interface, making it easier to keep track of reservations and make necessary adjustments.
For example, a hotel manager can quickly check room availability, process bookings, and make changes to reservations in a visually appealing and efficient admin panel.
Independent Booking Calendars
You can manage an unlimited number of booking resources (properties or services) separately, streamlining the booking process for each resource.
For instance, if you run a vacation rental business with multiple properties, you can maintain individual booking calendars for each property, ensuring accurate availability and bookings.
Customizable Form and Calendar
You get to choose from a variety of calendar designs to match your website’s aesthetics and customize the booking form.
It is possible for a car rental company, for example, to customize its booking form to gather specific information like driver’s license information and select a calendar skin that matches their branding.
Email Templates
Using automated email notifications, you can enhance communication with customers and inform them of common booking actions. Like, after a successful booking, you can send an email confirmation to the customer with appointment details and a thank-you message.
Online Payment
The ability to accept payments online with popular payment gateways makes reservation payments more convenient for customers. Thus, an online course provider can integrate payment processing, so students can easily enroll and pay for courses through the booking system.
Specific Time Bookings
Customers can book specific time slots for selected dates, ensuring precise scheduling. For instance, a tennis court reservation system allows players to reserve a court for a specific time and date, avoiding conflicts and overcrowding.
Multiple Bookings
The plugin allows multiple bookings of the same entire day(s) by different users, up to the capacity of the resource. Like, a conference center can accommodate bookings for multiple events on the same day, ensuring that each event does not exceed the venue’s capacity.
Advanced Day Selection
The booking rules can be set to accommodate single or multi-day selections, minimum and maximum number of days, and even half-day bookings. For example, a resort can offer guests the option to book stays ranging from a single night to a week, with different pricing structures for each duration.
Advanced Costs and Rates
You can offer dynamic pricing to your customers based on seasons, specific days, options, coupons, or deposit payments. For example, a holiday villa rental service can increase rates during peak vacation seasons and offer discounts for early bookings, encouraging customers to plan.
Availability
Schedule availability according to seasonality, ensuring that your resources are available when they are needed. Like, a ski resort can limit bookings to the winter season when the slopes are open, preventing reservations during the off-season.
Edit Existing Bookings
It is easy for administrators or customers who booked to modify existing reservations to accommodate changes to their plans.
Thus, a guest who initially booked a room for two people can later update the reservation to include an additional guest without needing to create a new booking.
Search Availability
The booking process is simplified with the ability to search for available resources based on specific dates and number of visitors. For example, a camping site visitor can quickly find available campsites for a specific weekend and select the one that suits their needs.
Multi-Language Support
It is possible to create multilingual websites with the support of plugins such as WPML and qTranslate. Thus, an international tour company can provide booking options in multiple languages to cater to travelers from different regions.
Multi-User Functionality
It is ideal for businesses with multiple branches or managers overseeing different resources due to its support for multiple booking admin panels. Thus, fitness centers can have separate admin panels for each location, allowing local managers to handle bookings and resources independently.
WP Booking Calendar is best suited for whom?
Booking Calendar is a versatile plugin that can be used by a wide range of individuals and businesses across various industries. It is particularly well-suited for the following purposes:
Resource Scheduling: Whether you manage a large hotel with hundreds of rooms, a cozy bed & breakfast, cottages, houses, apartments, or any type of accommodation, Booking Calendar can help you efficiently manage bookings for your properties.
Equipment Rentals: Businesses involved in renting out equipment such as cars, bikes, computers, technical equipment, or even recreational items like pools can benefit from Booking Calendar to streamline their reservation process.
Client Scheduling: Service providers such as photographers, lawyers, beauty salons, spas, and massage therapists can use Booking Calendar to schedule appointments with their clients, ensuring a smooth booking experience.
Meeting Scheduling: Coaches, consultants, and professionals offering phone advice or in-person meetings can use Booking Calendar to manage their appointment bookings, making it easier for clients to schedule time with them.
Event Scheduling: Whether you run a conference, course, fitness center, yoga class, or gym, Booking Calendar can handle event reservations and ensure that spaces are properly allocated.
Patient Scheduling: Healthcare providers like doctors, dentists, clinics, and medical facilities can efficiently manage patient appointments and optimize their schedules using Booking Calendar. Like I did for my DENTIST…
Any Other Service: The booking Calendar is flexible and adaptable, making it suitable for virtually any service that requires reservations on specific days or times. If you need to manage bookings for any kind of service or resource, the Booking Calendar can be customized to meet your needs.
Different Plans and which one is suited to whom?
Free Plan:
A good choice for a single individual or small team just getting started. You get a simple way to book things and a calendar. What are the other features you get with the free plan-
- Unlimited booking resources.
- Configurable booking forms and email templates.
- Management of bookings, including editing, duplicating, changing resources, adding notes, printing, and exporting.
- Import/export bookings via .ics feed from various calendars like Google Calendar, Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.
Business Small or Higher:
This is for small and medium businesses. You can book times (like haircuts or meetings) and get paid online. It’s more detailed than the free one. This plan also includes the following features:
- Advanced hourly bookings for specific times or time durations.
- A range of payment methods and gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, and more.
- Ability to send payment requests via email for specific bookings.
Business Medium or Higher:
This is perfect for places like hotels or vacation rentals. You can change prices and booking times based on seasons, like summer or winter. This plan also includes the following features:
- Advanced season availability, setting unavailable days for specific seasons.
- Setting available days intervals from the current date.
- Additional unavailable time before or after bookings for preparation like cleaning.
- Different daily rates for different seasons.
Business Large or Higher:
It is best suited for big businesses or events. You can handle lots of bookings, give discounts with coupons, and let customers search for available times. This plan also includes the following features:
- Manage multiple bookings per full dates or timeslots.
- Search availability feature for visitors to find available booking resources.
- Coupons for discounts with customizable conditions and expiration dates.
Multi User Plan:
This is ideal if you have a lot of teachers or tour guides that need their booking systems. Everyone gets their customized controls and settings. This plan also includes the following features:
Separate booking admin panels for each registered WordPress user on the website.
Users can manage their bookings and resources and configure booking forms, email templates, and payment gateways.
Two types of users: super booking admins and regular users, with super admins having access to all bookings and resources.
Now that you know the features of all the plans, it’s time for me to give you a pricing comparison for each so that it is easy for you to make the decision.
Price Comparison – Choose What’s Best For You
Here’s a comparison table for the WP Booking Calendar plans, including Single Site, Developer, and Multi-Site editions:
| Plan | Regular Price (Single Site) | Discounted Price (Single Site) | Regular Price (Developer Edition – 2 Sites) | Discounted Total (Developer Edition – 2 Sites) | Regular Price (Multi Site Edition – 5 Sites) | Discounted Total (Multi Site Edition – 5 Sites) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $79 | $31.60 | $119 ($23.80/site) | $47.60 | $149 ($11.92/site) | $59.60 |
| Business Small | $149 | $59.60 | $199 ($39.80/site) | $79.60 | $299 ($23.92/site) | $119.60 |
| Business Medium | $249 | $99.60 | $399 ($79.80/site) | $159.60 | $499 ($39.92/site) | $199.60 |
| Business Large | $349 | $139.60 | $499 ($99.80/site) | $199.60 | $599 ($47.92/site) | $239.60 |
| Multi User | $649 | $259.60 | $799 ($159.80/site) | $319.60 | $899 ($71.92/site) | $359.60 |
What do I like the most in the Booking Calendar?
The best part about WP Booking Calendar’s pricing is that it’s a one-time cost. You buy it once, and you can use it forever on your website. Plus, you get free updates for 6 months after you buy it.
If you want more updates after that, you can get them according to their update policy. And there’s no risk because they offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Customer Support of Booking Calendar
WP Booking Calendar offers customer support that’s pretty easy to understand and use:
Tech Support: If you have technical questions, issues with the plugin, or need help with settings, they ask you to provide details like your WordPress version, PHP, and what other plugins you’re using. This helps them give you the right advice.
Pre-Sales Questions: As explained above, they have a one-time cost for their plugin, which means you pay once and use it forever on your site. You also get free updates for the first 6 months after buying. If you want updates and support after that, you can pay half the original cost for another 6 months. There’s also an option to subscribe for updates with a discount.
General Support Guidelines: Before asking a question, they suggest you check their video guides, FAQs, and forum for answers. If you still have questions, you can email them or use the forum. They usually reply within 24 hours and ask for specific details about your issue to help better.
They don’t do things like fully setting up the plugin on your site or customizing the code, but they’ll guide you through configuration and troubleshooting.
Remember, they expect polite and respectful communication, and they don’t respond to repeated (“bumping”) emails quickly, JUST INFORMING you from my experience!
Pros and Cons
Keys Pros of Booking Calendar:
- Easy to install and use, even for beginners.
- Customizable for various businesses and needs.
- Supports online payments and multiple payment gateways.
- Offers multiple booking and availability options.
- Responsive design for all devices.
- Powerful admin panel for easy management.
- One-time cost with free updates for 6 months.
- 14-day money-back guarantee.
Cons of Booking Calendar:
- Advanced features are only available in higher-priced plans.
- Customization can be complex for non-tech users.
- Limited free version capabilities.
- Additional cost for extended updates and support after 6 months.
Conclusion
Booking Calendar made a difference in my clients’ websites. It’s super easy to use and has a bunch of options to fit different needs. Whether you’re running a small business or a big one, it’s got you covered. Plus, paying once and using it forever is a sweet deal!
And hey, if you get stuck, their support team is really helpful. So, if you’re looking to make booking a breeze on your website, I’d recommend giving Booking Calendar a try. It’s truly a game-changer!
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