LocalRecHow to move from phone bookings to online booking
By Mahamed BashirPublished Updated
Put every booking you already have into one calendar, set up your spaces, rates and rules, then publish a booking page and send the link to your regulars. Keep answering the phone, but book calls into the same calendar, so a phone booking and an online booking can never take the same hour.
Why move facility bookings online?
Phone and email work until the desk gets busy. A renter who calls after hours waits until morning, a booking written in one place and not the other becomes a double booking, and every question about an open time is a call someone has to answer.
How do you move bookings from the phone to online, step by step?
Give it two or three weeks, outside your busiest season if you can.
List what you rent
Each space, how it divides, and its opening hours.
Set your rules
The rate for each space, how renters pay, and the cancellation deadline.
Enter what you already promised
Every confirmed booking and every regular's season, before the page goes live.
Test with a few regulars
Ask two or three renters to book and tell you what confused them.
Publish and share the link
On your website, email signature, social media and voicemail greeting.
What happens to your regular weekly renters?
Move them first, yourself. Confirm each team's night for the season, enter every date, and tell them the time is theirs before the page goes public. The page then only offers what's left.
What should your booking page show?
Everything a caller used to ask: each space and what it includes, the hourly rate, the times that are really free, how to pay, and the cancellation deadline, all before the renter confirms.
How do you tell customers about online booking?
Send one short message to everyone who booked in the last year: they can now see open times and book any time of day, they can still call, their regular time is still theirs, and here's the link.
What goes wrong when you move bookings online?
Two calendars. If the desk keeps a paper book next to the online one, they drift apart and the first double booking costs you trust. Retire the paper book the day the page goes live.
Where LocalRec helps
LocalRec Facility OS sets up in three steps: your facility, its location and its spaces. Your booking page shows each rental with its photo and rate, how customers pay and your cancellation policy, and goes live after a quick verification. Email our support team at support@localrec.ca if you'd like help setting up your facility.
Customers book on the web or in the LocalRec app. Staff book phone and walk-in customers on the same calendar, which checks for conflicts, so nothing is ever double-booked. Regulars ask for their weekly time in the app, and you book every free date in one go. On Grow, import your customers from a CSV file or a Mindbody export.