If you’re thinking about trying out a salon booth rental software, it’s probably because you know that renting out booths in your salon is a great way to increase your salon’s clientele and boost your salon profits without having to market your business or worry about managing a full-time staff. But you might be new to salon software in general, especially if you’re a new business owner.
If you’re thinking about salon booth rental software, it’s worth a shot — booth rental software can automate rental processes, help you with appointment booking, team management, inventory control, and even salon marketing.
But booth rental software, like any software, is constantly changing and adapting to customer needs and beauty industry challenges. That’s why, in this post, we’ll get into:
Salon booth rental software offers booth rental salons a tech-based solution for renting out their booths or chairs to individual stylists and technicians, and it also allows them to manage their online bookings and appointments in the same software.
Salon booth rental software is specifically designed for booth rental salons — salons that rent out chairs or booths to independently contracted hair stylists and beauty technicians rather than hiring full-time staff or renting out a full studio space. Booth rental software is a great option for salon owners who want to keep their salon busy and increase their profits but aren’t ready to bring on permanent staff.
If you’re operating a booth rental salon, software can help you schedule and manage a team of independent stylists and avoid the chaos of scheduling conflicts and inventory issues. But booth rental software can, and should, do a lot more for your salon business. Let’s take a look at the top booth rental software and the features that set them apart.
DaySmart Salon is a salon software with dedicated features for day-to-day salon business management, team management, client communication, booking, and scheduling.
Homebase is a team management software specifically designed for small businesses that employ hourly workers, and its many features include easy-to-use tools for time tracking, payroll, team communication, and scheduling. Even better, you can access them all from your desktop, iPhone, or Android.
Rosy’s suite of tools lets you book and schedule client appointments, communicate with clients via text and email, offer point-of-sale (POS) services, track business reports, manage your salon inventory, and create marketing campaigns for your salon.
With Zolmi, salon owners and staff can schedule salon staff, book client appointments, streamline client messaging to reduce no-shows, automate client review requests, track reports, and manage POS transactions from any device.
Salonist is a salon software for salons and spas — including booth rental salons — with tools for online booking and appointments, customer management, inventory management, employee management, location management, and POS services.
Zenoti offers cloud-based salon software for salons and spas to manage their online booking, appointment scheduling, customer management, and billing and payments.
SalonTarget salon software offers salon owners and managers solutions for online booking, email marketing, automated client communication, and business reporting.
Renting your booths out to individual contractors has benefits for your bottom line, but it also comes with additional headaches like rental agreements, contracts, scheduling, booking, and invoicing. Booth rental software takes the stress out of renting by automating this process and keeping everything you need on one platform. Here’s how.
Working with booth renters means you don’t have the same administrative responsibilities as an owner with a full-time staff. You don’t, for example, have to worry about tax liability with contractors the way you might with traditional W2 employees.
But you still have to worry about compliance with local labor laws, rental contracts, rental agreements, and keeping your booth renter’s insurance and emergency contact details stored safely.
Fortunately, Homebase’s tools for hiring and onboarding let your independent contractors read, e-sign, and securely store all of their important documents, paperwork, and employee handbooks within the platform even before their first day of work at your salon. And with Homebase HR, you can schedule a chat with a live HR expert to make sure you’re doing everything right.
One of the great things about being a booth renter at a salon is the flexibility you have over your own schedule, but it can get complicated for salon owners and their customers when they don’t know who’s working at their salon on any given day.
Homebase’s scheduling tool lets you build and share your perfect schedule easily with your salon team. Our app will even send automatic reminders to employees to remind them of upcoming shifts, and you can add personalized shift notes and reminders when you need to.
While salon owners don’t pay independent booth owners the way they pay regular staff, they still have expenses to consider. Salon owners often let booth renters pay for the use of their salon’s products and items, and booth renters are usually responsible for reporting these costs to the salon owner.
Inventory is valuable, and you don’t want any of it falling through the cracks, so you need to make sure your salon booth rental software offers specific features for inventory management and expense reporting.
Salon booth rental software can streamline so many behind-the-scenes processes for your salon, but how can it help you with retaining new clients?
After all, clients may not know that your salon operates on a booth rental model, and they may see your renters as your salon ambassadors, even though they are independent contractors.
A salon booth rental software should make the end-to-end client experience so easy the client barely notices it. The client should be able to book online with their preferred stylist, get an appointment confirmation and reminder, pay at checkout, be able to book a future appointment easily, leave a review, and have notes about their personal preferences and services stored in a single place.
And the easier you make the booking, scheduling, and re-booking process for your booth renters, the more they can focus on providing outstanding client experiences that keep them coming back.
Salon managers and owners who feel ready to move your booth rental process off of a spreadsheet and onto software may be excited about all the time you’ll save. But there can be a learning curve to new software, so there are some things to consider before investing your time and resources.
Salon booth rental software can make it easier for you to bring more renters into your hair salon and increase your revenue, but you want to make sure the benefits outweigh the cost. How many booth renters will you need to make your investment worth it?
If, for example, you only have two renters and you’re new and still growing, you can test out salon software that offers a free or very low-cost plan. See if your renters like using it and find it easy to use first, and you can always scale from there.
You may have a big vision for your salon and long-term goals, but you need to get specific and strategic about how booth rental software is going to help you get there.
Think about your short-term goals for the next three months, six months, and year. You could, for example, outline your business goals like this:
Renting out your salon booths to independent contractors can bring a lot of financial stability to your growing salon, but it’s also important to consider the effect it will have on your client base. While booth renters essentially work for themselves, clients may not be aware of that arrangement and may see your renters as the face of your business. They may feel that your salon has an in-house divide where there actually isn’t any!
The right salon booth rental software can help to create a unified front for your clients by letting them book appointments online with any of your booth renters the way they would with your salon staff.
And if the booth rental software you choose offers a team communication tool to help you promote a sense of teamwork among your salon of independent stylists, that’s even better.
One of the first questions you should ask when trying out new booth rental software is, “Does it offer a free trial?” There can be a lot to learn with new software, and you and your staff will need time to experiment with it and see if it makes your day-to-day work at the salon more efficient and better for customers.
(And, by the way, with Homebase, you’ll be able to use our scheduling, time tracking, and team communication tools for free, forever. )
Bringing booth renters into your salon can help you maximize your profits without having to do the heavy lifting of marketing and building a client base on your own. And booth rental software is there to make that even more manageable and help you grow.
But as a small business owner, profit isn’t your only vision — you probably want to assemble a great team behind you, even if that team isn’t necessarily on your payroll.
Homebase is here for small business owners who not only want to grow, but want to grow alongside their people. Our tools for team hiring and onboarding, payroll, team communication, and employee happiness were all designed to make your business life easier and to attract and keep satisfied employees.
Give your team the tools they deserve.Homebase helps you create a great place to work.
