01Family leisure
Soft Play Centre Website & Booking Platform
A booking-led website for a busy soft play business.
Booking systems built around how your business works.
Obital. designs and builds custom booking systems for small businesses: the booking page your customers use, and the system your team runs the day from. Built around your sessions, capacity and rules, so you’re not bending the business to fit an app.
The problem
When the booking app doesn’t quite fit.
Most booking software is built for the average business. When yours has its own rules, people fill the gaps: by phone, by spreadsheet, by memory.
- 01
It counts the wrong thing
Your room holds forty children, not forty bookings. Most apps count slots, so capacity ends up checked by hand.
- 02
The edges become admin
Deposits chased by email, changes taken over the phone, parties kept in a spreadsheet beside the system.
- 03
The website and the booking don’t match
A carefully designed site hands customers to a booking widget that looks and works like someone else’s.
- 04
Workarounds become the process
Staff learn what the software can’t do and work around it. New starters inherit the workarounds.
“Here’s some booking software. Change your business to fit it.”
“Tell us how bookings work in your business. We’ll build around that.”
What we build
One booking, seen from both sides.
Customers and staff work from the same bookings, so nothing is copied from one place to another. The website out front, the system behind it.
Front of house · your website
For your customers
A booking page that feels like part of your website, and only offers what you can actually deliver.
- Real availability, counted the way your business counts it
- Booking for a group, a family or a party in one go
- Deposits or full payment at the point you choose
- Confirmations and reminders in your voice
- An account to rebook, change or cancel within your rules
Behind the scenes · your system
For your team
The same bookings from the other side: one screen for the day, and the detail behind every customer.
- Today’s arrivals, with check-in at the desk
- Capacity for every session, live
- Customer records with history, notes and consent
- Changes, refunds and exceptions handled in the system
- The numbers you actually look at, not a generic report
These are examples of what a booking system can include, not a fixed package. Each one is built from how your business takes bookings, so it includes what you need and leaves out what you don’t. When customer records need to do more than sit beside the bookings, see bespoke CRM.
Your rules, modelled
Every business books differently.
Choose a kind of business to see the rules a bespoke system would follow. Capacity, pricing, deposits and exceptions are built in, rather than handled around the edges.
Rules we’d build in
Capacity counted in children, not bookings — with adults, siblings and parties handled properly.
- Sessions close when the room reaches its child limit
- Adults and children priced separately
- Babies go free but still count towards capacity
- Party packages that block out the room
Rules we’d build in
Tables that combine for bigger groups, with sittings that match how service really runs.
- Tables for 2, 4 and 6 that join for larger groups
- 90-minute sittings at weekends, open-ended on weekdays
- A few tables always held back for walk-ins
- Deposits for groups of eight or more
Rules we’d build in
Stays across date ranges, with the paperwork and peak-season rules built in.
- Bookings by night across date ranges
- Cats from one household can share a suite
- Vaccination records required before arrival
- Minimum stays over peak holidays
Rules we’d build in
Every treatment knows how long it takes, who can do it and what has to happen first.
- Treatment lengths and which staff can do each one
- Processing time where a stylist can start another client
- Patch tests at least 48 hours before colour
- Deposits for new clients only
Rules we’d build in
Spaces, packs and memberships, with a waiting list that fills itself.
- A set number of spaces per class
- Waiting list that offers spaces automatically
- Class packs that expire after three months
- Cancel up to 24 hours before for a credit
Rules we’d build in
Enquiry to confirmed booking, with deposits, balances and extras handled for you.
- Packages with optional add-ons
- Deposit to secure, balance due 14 days before
- Blackout dates and minimum notice
- Different capacities for each room
If you can explain the rule, it can be built in.
- Sessions
- Classes
- Tables
- Appointments
- Rooms
- Capacity
- Staff
- Resources
- Packages
- Deposits
- Add-ons
- Waiting lists
- Blackout dates
- Minimum notice
- Cancellation rules
In the work
Booking, in two very different businesses.
Two of our example projects are built around booking. They’re representative builds rather than client case studies, showing how the same idea fits very different rules.
04Fitness & sport
Martial Arts Studio Booking & Member System
A class-led website and booking system for a martial arts studio.
Table reservations with guest notes also feature in the neighbourhood cafe example.
Bespoke or off-the-shelf?
You might not need a custom system.
If your bookings are simple, a ready-made app is quicker and cheaper, and we’ll tell you so. Bespoke earns its cost when the software has to fit the business, not the other way round.
An off-the-shelf app is probably right if…
- Simple appointments with one person, one service, one length
- You’re happy to run things the way the software works
- You need to start taking bookings this week
Bespoke starts to make sense when…
- Your rules don’t fit the settings an app gives you
- Bookings need to connect to customers, staff or payments in your own way
- The booking experience matters to your brand
- Admin around the bookings lives in spreadsheets and inboxes
How we work
How a booking project runs.
The same six stages as everything we build. We map how bookings really work today, exceptions included, and test with your busiest day in mind before anything goes live. You’ll get a clear quote before any work starts.
Stage 1
Talk
We start with your business, not technology. What do you do, how do customers find you, and what’s frustrating right now?
Stage 2
Map
Together we map how customers, bookings, staff and admin flow today — including the workarounds nobody likes to admit to.
Stage 3
Design
We design the website and the system behind it around that map, so you can see exactly how it will work before we build it.
Stage 4
Build
We build in clear stages. You’ll see real progress along the way, not just a big reveal at the end.
Stage 5
Test
We test with real-world scenarios — the busy Saturday, the last-minute change, the customer who books on their phone in a queue.
Stage 6
Launch
We launch, make sure you and your team are comfortable, and stay around for support and improvements.
Questions
Booking systems: what people ask.
Can customers pay a deposit, or pay in full, when they book?
Yes. When and how people pay is part of the design: a deposit to secure a party, full payment for a session, or nothing until they arrive. We’ll recommend an established payment provider that suits how you take money.
Can it work with my existing website?
Often, yes. Booking can be added to a site you already have, or designed together with a new one so the whole journey feels like one thing. We’ll tell you which makes more sense.
What happens to the bookings and customers we already have?
We plan the move with you, so existing bookings and customer records come across and nothing is lost on the day you switch.
Can staff use it on a tablet or phone?
Yes. The team side is designed for the devices you actually use: the tablet behind the counter, a phone on the floor, a laptop in the office.
How much does a custom booking system cost?
It depends on what’s involved, and you’ll get a clear quote before any work starts. Often the best first step is the part that causes the most admin today, with more added as you grow.
Tell us how bookings work in your business.
The sessions, the exceptions, the bits you do by hand. We’ll come back with honest thoughts on what would help and what it would cost, even if the answer is an app you could sign up for today.