Best Booking Systems For Your WordPress Website
For some businesses, an online booking system is an absolute necessity if you want to survive in this digital age. The type of booking system you require, and which options you need on the booking system, will all depend on your business and industry.
In this blog, we will be taking a look at the best booking system possible depending on your specific requirements. We take a look at which booking system would best suit a Hotel, Restaurant, Consultant and Flight Ticketmaster.
All the booking systems listed below are compatible, and in some cases built specifically for, WordPress websites – which we believe to be the best system for business websites. Some booking systems are free, some are paid – we have strictly gone with the best possible option for your business. If you need help with building a new business website or just adding new functionality to your existing website, the Blue Whale Media team are just a phone call away!
Best Booking System For Hotels
InnRoad offers an all-in-one software for managing your hotel bookings and reservations. InnRoad can be used as a standalone software on a desktop or mobile device, with booking systems easily embedded onto your own website.
One of the best features of InnRoad’s booking system is the painless onboarding. For every new customer, InnRoad can provide a full data migration to ensure you do not lose current/previous bookings, unlimited live training and 24/7 support if you ever need help, a full system setup for you, as well as design optimisation to help you get even more online bookings!
InnRoad pricing is usually based on your own requirements, so you will need to schedule an initial call on their website. You can also receive a free demo to make sure the system is right for you. When you do receive your price, most customers will be looking at a monthly recurring fee, with an option to pay annually.
Best Booking System For Restaurants
The Five Star Restaurant Reservations WordPress plugin is a really great light-weight, feature-rich booking system for restaurants. Developed by the same people behind the Five Star Restaurant Reviews and Five Star Restaurant Menu, you can be assured that the developers of this plugin are dedicated to your restaurant business. This isn’t a standard booking system for every type of website, this plugin is specialised for restaurants.
Five Star Restaurant Reservations is a paid plugin, with a cheaper Premium version or the Ultimate version if you want the best features. While both are great options for taking online bookings at your restaurant, the Ultimate Version packs an extra punch with some advanced features, like:
- SMS and Email reminders for upcoming reservations or late arrivals.
- Accept online deposits.
- Select and assign tables.
- Mobile app for easy on-the-go access and management.
The premium version will cost around £55 for one site license, whereas the ultimate version will set you back around £240 for one site license. In the end, it comes down to which features your business and staff require, the cheaper premium version is all you need but the ultimate version allows for a much smoother and enhanced experience for everyone involved.
Best Booking System For Consultations/Meetings
WP Amelia is a fantastic calendar-based booking system which can be used for businesses/professionals to set up meetings. The great thing about WP Amelia is the calendar integration, which clearly dictates to the client when you are available and how long for. Any event or meeting booked through Amelia can then be automatically added to a recipient’s calendar system for easy organisation.
WP Amelia is actually the same system Blue Whale Media uses for our own consultations page, so just click the link if you want to see a real-live version of WP Amelia!
WP Amelia is a paid plugin and offers three different versions depending on the features you want: Basic, Pro and Developer. You can pay for annual subscriptions or pay a lifetime fee if you already know you’ll be using it for longer than a year.
You can find all the different features and pricing options for WP Amelia here, but the cheapest option is £66 per year.
Best Booking System For Holidays/Flights
Air Ticket Booking is a simple-to-use WordPress plugin which allows visitors to book flight tickets online with your website! This plugin comes from Adivaha, a dedicated company for travel website solutions. Travel-specialist booking systems for flight tickets are very rare to find, so this is a great piece of kit if you find yourself running a website where your users may want to book flights, such as a travel blog.
Conclusion
So there we have it, the best booking systems for each type of business/industry you may find yourself in. Ultimately, we have supplied what we believe to be the best option for the given circumstances, business and industry. We always recommend having a thorough look through the WordPress plugins here, especially if you’re looking for cheaper or free options.
