You can set whether your customers need to register when booking online or whether they can also book with you without a previous login. Here we explain both variants with their advantages and disadvantages.
Booking without registration
You can set in the online booking that you allow booking without login:
This means that customers do not need to log in or register when booking and must enter all their data again with each booking. Customers may create a new customer record with the status "New customer" with each booking if they provide different spellings or email addresses in subsequent bookings. Duplicates can be merged.
Booking without login is only recommended if you have few repeat regular customers. This includes, for example, hotel spas or escape games.
Booking with registration (recommended)
We always recommend booking with login. Belbo offers several advantages that are only possible if customers register when booking and thereby identify themselves clearly.
- Setting your own booking processes and bookable services for certain customer groups (example: "New customers may only book consultation services" etc.)
- Blocking individual employees from booking by new customers (learn more)
- Setting different prices for customers with a specific status (learn more)
- The ability to set time exceptions for your customers (learn more)
- The ability to allow certain customer groups to book only by advance (payment) deposit
If you deactivate the "Allow booking of appointments without login" option in the online booking settings, customers must register or log in before they can complete their booking and then do not need to enter all their data again with each booking (first name, last name, email address, phone number and other required fields).
Customers who register after deactivating the option will create a duplicate, which can be merged with the original record. After that, the customer will always be recognized when booking since they have to log in.
Existing customers who have an email address in their records can also be invited to register via the link in the record:
This prevents future duplicates when the customer only needs to set a password after clicking the email and the login is linked to the existing customer record.