A client is booked in for a gel refill. At the desk it turns out two nails are broken, she wants a different colour and stones on the ring fingers. The refill that should have taken an hour and a quarter takes nearly two, and the next client is already in the waiting room.
A nail studio has this in common with a hair salon: clients come back regularly, and to a particular nail tech. Where it differs is how much visits vary in length and how close together they come. The booking system has to be set up for both.
Every treatment as its own service
A new set, a refill, a removal with a manicure, gel polish, a pedicure. Each takes a different amount of time and belongs in the system separately, with its own length. If everything is "nails, 90 minutes", a client blocks an hour and a half for a removal and a new set runs out of time.
Nail art and repairs are the hardest to estimate. There are two ways to handle them. Either offer them as a separate service the client books on top, or always leave a quarter of an hour spare after every refill. The second is simpler, because nobody booking three weeks ahead knows how many stones she will want.
A break after each client
The desk needs clearing, the tools disinfecting and the filing dust hoovering up. Ten minutes that are not in the calendar get taken from the next client. Set them as a break after the service so the system does not offer them to anyone.
The next appointment is made at the desk
Gel or acrylic is refilled roughly every three to four weeks. The best moment to book the next one is the end of the current visit, while the client has her phone in her hand. Anyone who leaves without a date often calls only when a nail cracks, and by then you are booked up a week ahead.
The system helps here mostly by showing the free slots three weeks out at once, without leafing through a diary. After that, a list of clients who are due and have not booked is useful. Someone who has fallen out of the rhythm comes back most easily when you write within a week, not two months later.
Is a free plan enough?
A nail tech working alone full-time sees dozens of clients a month. Free plans of booking systems tend to cap bookings. Rezervos caps them at 30 a month, and if your regulars book through the system too, that is used up in about two weeks. Free makes sense when online booking is mainly for new clients and you agree dates with regulars at the desk and enter them yourself.
Photos of your work are the shop window
Clients choose a nail tech by the photos on Instagram. The booking link belongs in the profile and next to the photos of your work on your website. Anyone who has to ask in a DM whether you are free on Thursday is waiting for an answer, and often books somewhere else in the meantime.
When a client does not turn up
For a refill that is an hour and a half without income. What helps most is a reminder the day before with a cancel link: someone who cannot make it will tell you, as long as it does not cost a phone call. You do not need deposits from regulars, but for a new client booking a new set, the longest appointment from someone you do not know, one is worth considering.
How Rezervos handles it
This part is about Rezervos, which I build, so read it as an advert. It is a website for the studio, with photos of your work and a price list, and a booking calendar inside it. Every service has its own length and its own break before and after. Email reminders the day before come with the Grow plan, SMS reminders and deposits with Pro. Each service can say after how many months the client is due back, and that builds an "invite back" list. That list is only on the top plan, Max, it counts in whole months, and you send each invitation yourself with one click; nothing goes out automatically. You pay a flat monthly fee; we take nothing from bookings.
To see how it would look for your studio, open a demo without signing up.