Our hosted booking products

Every product below is a hosted service. We register the domain, host on our infrastructure, configure the booking app for your business, and give you a link to point customers at. You install nothing. All monthly prices plus VAT.

Understanding the two-tier model

Most standard booking products come in two tiers. The app is identical; the wrapping is different.

Tier 1 — the bare app. We register a domain in your business name. We install WordPress and WooCommerce on our hosting. We configure the booking app. You get two functional pages: customer booking and admin. No fancy branding beyond what the app itself provides. You link customers from your existing website. Right tier if you already have a site you are happy with and just need bookings on the side.

Tier 2 — full branded website. Everything in Tier 1, plus we design and build a complete branded website around the booking app. Homepage, about, contact, gallery, footer. Right tier if you don't have a website yet, if yours is dated, or if the booking system is the heart of your customer experience.

Why hosted, not installed

Our booking apps are not sold as standalone plugins for you to install on your own WordPress site. They are hosted services. Five reasons why.

We control the environment. We know exactly which PHP, MariaDB, WooCommerce version and theme the app runs against. No conflicts, no surprises.

Updates happen instantly. When we release a feature or fix a bug, every client gets it immediately. No waiting for clients to update.

Hosting is in the monthly. You don't pay separately for hosting, SSL, backups, security monitoring. It's all included.

Your existing site is unaffected. Whatever you've got, we don't touch. We just give you a link to send customers to.

If anything goes wrong, it's our problem. Server down, software broken — our problem. We respond without you having to file a support ticket.

The maths against commission platforms

If you currently take bookings through a commission-based platform — Pitchup, Airbnb, OpenTable, Just Eat, Booking.com — the maths typically works in your favour.

Commission platforms take a percentage of every booking, every time. With our hosted service, there is a fixed monthly fee and no commission per booking. You take direct bookings and keep the entire value minus only standard payment-processing.

For most operators, the breakeven point against commission platforms is reached within months, sometimes weeks. Every direct booking after that is fully retained margin.

That's the maths argument. The control argument matters too: with direct bookings you own the customer data, the booking flow, the promotions, and the relationship with the customer. Commission platforms own all of those and can change the rules unilaterally.

Working alongside your existing platforms

Most clients don't drop their existing platform listings overnight. Pitchup, Airbnb, Booking.com, Just Eat — they still bring you customers, and you may want to keep them while you build up direct booking volume.

Our booking systems support iCal sync bidirectionally. When a customer books direct through your hosted system, the iCal export immediately shows that unit or slot as unavailable. Platforms reading the iCal block the same unit automatically — no double-bookings.

Conversely, we can read iCal feeds from the platforms back into our system, so a booking taken on Pitchup or Airbnb blocks the same unit in your direct system. Bidirectional sync works with any platform supporting the iCal standard.

This means you run our system alongside your existing channel listings, then gradually shift volume to direct bookings as those become a bigger proportion of revenue. No all-or-nothing decision.

Setup process

Most hosted booking setups take 1-3 weeks from discovery call to live system.

Tier 1 setups are typically 1 week — register the domain, set up hosting, install and configure the app, load your content (rates, photos, descriptions), set up payment processor, train you on the admin, parallel-run for a few days before going live.

Tier 2 setups are typically 2-3 weeks — same as Tier 1 plus design and build the branded website pages, content migration if you're moving from an existing site, additional testing of the full visitor flow.

The Village Hall package and Outdoor Pursuit Booking package are typically 2-3 weeks given their additional complexity (multiple rooms, gift vouchers, weather integration etc).

For very urgent cases we can sometimes compress timelines, but we'd rather build it right than build it fast. Discovery call is where we agree your timeline.

Bespoke booking systems

Most businesses fit one of our productised booking tiers. Some don't.

If your booking workflow is genuinely different — multi-step approvals, complex compliance requirements, niche industry rules, integration with bespoke software — we build bespoke booking systems too. Our flagship custom build is the Learner Management System for South Cumbria Skills Exchange (£3,500 setup, £200 per month).

Bespoke booking systems are quoted at £75 + VAT per hour with a fixed-price total after a discovery call. Typically that means £8,000-£25,000 for a full custom system depending on scope.

If you're not sure whether you need a productised tier or bespoke, start with a discovery call. We will tell you honestly which fits and quote both options where it makes sense.

Technophobia

n8n automation for small teams. UK-based. Fast turnarounds. Clear handovers.

Address
South Cumbria Skills Exchange
Millom
LA18 4JS
United Kingdom

Phone +44 01229 774591
Email hello@technophobia.uk

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