Commission-Free Booking & Payment System

01 — Challenge

Booking marketplaces take a cut of every appointment and own the client relationship, but running on WhatsApp and a paper diary means no-shows, double bookings and an evening of invoice admin every quarter. The studio also doesn't work a fixed week — availability changes per week around other commitments, so a standard opening-hours model was never going to fit.

02 — Approach

Built as an owned product on Next.js and Postgres. Availability is opt-in per day rather than a recurring week: the studio opens blocks from a phone, and the booking page only ever offers what's actually been opened. Deposits run through Mollie over iDEAL, with a slot held for twenty minutes and released automatically if payment doesn't land. Every booking generates its confirmation email, an .ics calendar file and a PDF deposit invoice; cancelling inside the notice period refunds through the same payment provider without anyone touching it. The admin side covers treatments and add-ons, the day's agenda, a reminder run the day before, and an invoice overview with quarterly totals for the VAT return. Data is hosted in the EU under GDPR.

03 — Result

Bookings and deposits run without commission and without manual confirmation. The quarterly VAT figure comes straight out of the invoice overview, and the studio's own domain — not a marketplace profile — is what clients book through.