Spa booking software — tilkbook
tilkbook gives day spas and wellness spas a professional booking page where clients pick their treatment, therapist, and preferred time — day or night. Deposits, automated reminders, and multi-therapist scheduling included.
Why does online booking for spas need to be different?
A no-show on a 90-minute treatment leaves a room and therapist idle
A deep tissue massage or hot stone treatment that runs 75-90 minutes cannot be replaced on the same day if a client does not show. The room sits empty, the therapist has dead time, and the revenue is gone. Deposits and automated reminders close that gap.
Sequential services in a spa day need correct total scheduling
When a client books a facial followed by a Swedish massage followed by a body wrap, each service needs to run in sequence with the right therapist and room. Scheduling that manually leaves room for errors — treatments overlap or the client waits.
Gift card walk-in redemptions happen without warning
A client receives a gift card at reception and walks in expecting to redeem it same-day. Without a booking system, reception cannot easily see which therapists are free and which rooms are available at that moment.
Therapists have different treatment menus and certifications
One esthetician is certified for deep tissue; another offers aromatherapy massage and exfoliation but not hot stone. Booking the wrong therapist for a treatment wastes both the client's time and the therapist's.
Phone calls for appointment booking tie up reception during peak hours
A spa's phone rings most on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings — exactly when reception is busiest. A 24/7 online booking page handles those calls without staff involvement.
What features matter for spas?
Per-therapist calendars and treatment menus
Each therapist sets their own treatment menu, session durations, and availability. One therapist offers Swedish massage and hot stone; another covers deep tissue, aromatherapy, and body wraps. Clients pick the therapist first and see only that person's available treatments and real open slots.
Email reminders (free) and SMS reminders (paid upgrade)
Every booking sends an immediate confirmation email. Automated email reminders go out before each appointment on every plan, free. SMS text reminders — with open rates around 98% — are a paid upgrade for spas that want maximum show rates on high-value treatments.
Deposits and no-show fees
Require a deposit to hold the room for any treatment. If the client no-shows or cancels inside the window, the fee charges automatically via the optional Stripe payments add-on. The spa owner can excuse a no-show for a loyal client with one click.
Waitlist for in-demand therapists and treatments
When a therapist is fully booked, clients can join the waitlist. When a cancellation opens a gap, tilkbook auto-notifies the next matching person with a claim link — the room fills without manual outreach.
Digital business cards for every therapist
Every therapist gets a personal digital business card with a short link and NFC-tap support. Clients who prefer a specific therapist can save the card and book directly on their next visit — bypassing the main spa page.
Google Calendar sync
Two-way sync with Google Calendar blocks off each therapist's personal commitments and writes new bookings back automatically. Therapists can also connect any iCal feed — Outlook, Apple Calendar — to keep their schedule in one place.
Bulk-reschedule for closures
When the spa closes for a holiday or a therapist goes on leave, bulk-reschedule moves all affected appointments at once — with substitute-therapist suggestions and a preview before committing.
tilkbook is free booking software for day spas and wellness spas. Clients open the spa’s booking page at any hour, pick their preferred therapist or esthetician, choose a treatment — Swedish massage, deep tissue, hot stone, facial, body wrap, aromatherapy, exfoliation, hydrotherapy, couples treatment — and reserve a time without calling or waiting on hold. Each therapist’s schedule, treatment menu, and availability live independently. The availability engine accounts for treatment duration correctly: a 90-minute deep tissue session blocks the therapist and the room for the full 90 minutes; a 60-minute facial runs in its own slot without interfering. Booking confirmations land in the client’s inbox immediately. Automated email reminders go out on every plan, free. SMS reminders are a paid upgrade for spas that want stronger recall on high-value treatments. Deposits and no-show fees require the optional Stripe payments add-on. Setup takes most spas under 30 minutes. No credit card required to go live. Unlike Vagaro, Booksy, Fresha, or Acuity Scheduling — which all charge monthly fees — tilkbook’s core scheduling is free.
How does tilkbook handle scheduling across multiple therapists and rooms?
Each therapist on tilkbook has their own profile, treatment menu, and availability calendar. The spa owner builds the master treatment list — Swedish massage, deep tissue, hot stone, aromatherapy, facial, exfoliation, body wrap, hydrotherapy, peeling, couples treatment — and assigns relevant treatments to each therapist or esthetician.
One therapist certified for deep tissue and hot stone lists those. An esthetician who specialises in facials and exfoliation treatments lists theirs. When a client opens the booking page, they pick their preferred therapist first and only see the treatments that person actually offers, with accurate durations and pricing.
This matters because not all therapists offer every service. Booking a client who wants a deep tissue massage with an esthetician who does not perform massage wastes everyone’s time. The per-therapist model makes mismatches impossible.
For multi-therapist spas, this also means the booking page shows accurate availability across the whole team. When one therapist is fully booked on a Saturday, the booking page does not show a false “no availability” — it shows other therapists who have open slots for the same treatment.
Staff digital business cards extend the booking flow. Each therapist gets a personal card with a short link and NFC-tap support. Clients who prefer a specific therapist can save the card to their contacts and book directly on their next visit without navigating the main spa page.
Can I require a deposit to hold the room for spa appointments?
Yes. Deposits are available on any service through the optional Stripe-powered payments add-on. For a day spa, the most common use case is any treatment over 60 minutes — deep tissue massage, hot stone, body wrap, hydrotherapy — where a no-show leaves a therapist idle and a room empty for the better part of a morning.
Deposits are configured per service. A spa might require a deposit on treatments over 60 minutes and skip it for shorter express facials or add-on services. The deposit amount is flexible. Clients enter a card at checkout when they book; the deposit captures immediately and the remaining balance settles in the spa.
Cancellation windows are configurable. Cancel outside the window and the deposit refunds. Cancel inside the window or no-show and the deposit is retained; an additional no-show fee can also charge off-session. The spa owner can excuse a no-show for a loyal client with one click — reverses the charge, logs the excuse, and keeps the relationship intact.
For spas not yet connected to Stripe, the booking flow defaults to pay-on-site. The booking still completes; money just does not move online until the payments add-on is enabled.
How do no-show fees work for spa bookings?
No-show fees in tilkbook work off the card saved during the deposit step. When a therapist or owner marks an appointment as a no-show in the admin calendar, the system automatically attempts to charge the no-show fee configured for that treatment. If Stripe requires additional authentication (3DS), the client receives a step-up email with a link to complete the payment.
The no-show fee is set separately from the deposit amount. A spa might charge a deposit to hold the appointment and a larger no-show fee if the client does not cancel at all. Both are configurable per service.
No-show fees appear in the Transactions view with a full audit trail: who marked the no-show, when the charge was attempted, and whether it succeeded. The audit log is read-only and filterable by date, treatment type, or therapist.
A day spa’s revenue is particularly exposed to no-shows because treatments are long, rooms have limited capacity, and rebooking on the same day is rare. A no-show on a 90-minute hot stone session during a peak Saturday afternoon is meaningful lost revenue. Deposits and fees do not replace the revenue entirely, but they reduce the financial impact and discourage repeat no-showers. Learn more about the payments add-on and how Stripe Connect works for spa payouts.
Does tilkbook send appointment reminders to spa clients?
Every booking generates a confirmation email immediately. Automated email reminders go out before each appointment on every plan — free, no configuration required.
For spas that want stronger recall on high-value treatments, SMS text reminders are a paid upgrade. Text messages are harder to miss than email — open rates run around 98% — and a reminder the day before a 90-minute massage makes a meaningful difference in show rates. TCPA opt-out compliance is handled automatically; clients who reply STOP are removed from SMS reminders.
Reminder timing is configurable globally or per service. A spa might send an email 48 hours before and an SMS the morning of a treatment. Staff also receive notifications for new bookings, cancellations, and reschedules.
When a client cancels, tilkbook checks the waitlist. If another client is waiting for that therapist and treatment at a matching time, they receive a claim link to take the slot. Popular therapists with full schedules benefit most — gaps fill without manual outreach from reception.
Notification settings are in the admin dashboard under Settings → Notifications.
How does the waitlist work for a day spa?
When a therapist’s schedule fills up for a treatment on a given day, clients can join the waitlist. tilkbook monitors the calendar. When a cancellation opens a slot matching the waitlisted service, the system auto-offers it to the next person in line with a time-limited claim link.
The claim is atomic — two waitlisted clients cannot claim the same slot simultaneously. If the first person does not respond before the link expires, the offer goes to the next person automatically.
For spas with popular therapists or high-demand treatments (hot stone, deep tissue, couples massage), the waitlist means reception does not need to maintain a manual call-back list. It runs itself.
The spa owner can see the full waitlist for any service in the admin calendar view. It is also possible to manually offer a slot to a specific person rather than following the FIFO queue — useful for loyal clients or guests with specific scheduling constraints.
What booking features are free for spas on tilkbook?
The complete booking foundation is free — no per-booking fees and no monthly subscription:
- Unlimited bookings received
- Per-therapist treatment menus, calendars, and availability
- Booking confirmations and email reminders
- Waitlist with automatic slot offers on cancellations
- Customer management and booking history
- Digital business cards — one for the spa and one for each therapist, with NFC and Apple/Google Wallet
- Google Calendar sync (two-way) and iCal feed import
- Bulk-reschedule for closures and therapist changes
Paid upgrades:
- SMS reminders (paid add-on)
- Deposits, no-show fees, tips, refunds, and discount codes (optional payments add-on via Stripe — Stripe integration details)
For most day spas and wellness spas, the free tier covers the complete booking workflow. SMS and payments are there when the spa is ready to add them. See how tilkbook compares on pricing versus Vagaro, Fresha, Booksy, and Acuity Scheduling.
Questions spas ask first.
Is tilkbook free for spas?
Yes. The core booking product — unlimited bookings, per-therapist calendars, email reminders, waitlist, and digital business cards — is free with no per-booking fees and no monthly subscription. SMS reminders are a paid upgrade. Deposits, no-show fees, and online payments require the optional Stripe-powered payments add-on.
Can clients book multiple treatments in sequence for a spa day?
The simplest approach is to create bundled services — for example, "Spa Day: Facial + Massage" as a single service with the combined duration assigned to a specific therapist or room. For multi-therapist sequences, clients book each service separately, each assigned to the right therapist. tilkbook does not yet have an automated sequential multi-service bundling wizard, but individual service setup handles the most common patterns.
How do deposits work for spa treatments?
When the optional Stripe payments add-on is enabled, clients enter a card at booking and the deposit captures immediately. The cancellation window is configurable — cancel outside it and the deposit refunds; cancel inside or no-show and the deposit is retained. An additional no-show fee can charge off-session. The owner can excuse a no-show for a loyal client with one click.
Does tilkbook support gift card redemptions?
tilkbook does not currently have a native gift card module. Gift cards sold at reception are redeemed manually — the client calls or walks in and reception books the appointment. The online booking flow handles card payments and deposits at the time of booking but does not yet accept gift card codes at checkout.
How long does setup take for a day spa?
Most day spas are live in under 30 minutes: add treatments to the service catalogue, invite therapists by email, set business hours, and share the booking link. Use the spa vertical template to pre-populate a starter list — Swedish massage, deep tissue, facial, body wrap, hot stone — then edit to match the spa's actual treatment menu.
Try it in your chair.
Set up a real booking page for spas in under 18 minutes. Free to start — no card.