These days, many customers go online to find information about any business. A fully-operating website gives you more chances to attract and choose your services. If your business is related to online booking, you need a reliable tool. WordPress offers a lot of booking solutions for different purposes. This article covers top booking plugins for WordPress that help you build the online presence of your business.
We’ve divided them into 3 main categories: plugins for property booking, appointment booking, and event booking. Each category has its specific features you should consider before purchasing the plugin.
How to Choose WordPress Plugins for Booking?
You should come through a quick checklist and answer the following questions to find the required online booking plugins for WordPress:
What business do you run?
Taking into account the industry you operate in, you might need a plugin for booking:
- Accommodations
- Appointments
What items do you provide?
The plugin you choose must be optimized to the bookable item you suggest:
- Rental property (hotels, villas, B&Bs) websites need availability calendars dedicated to bookings per night;
- Websites that deal with events (concerts, tours) display calendars of events;
- Service websites (lessons, massage, yoga classes) that handle hourly bookings need space to select a time slot and book an available one.
Which features are you looking for?
It’s difficult to compile an ultimate list of essential features for all booking plugins for WordPress. However, we’d like to share of points you should look for in any good WP booking solution:
- Any number of bookable items (properties, services, or events);
- Different payment gateways (both online and offline);
- Third-party service integration (MailChimp, Google Calendar, etc.);
- Support for different locations (several villas, studios, etc.);
- User area;
- Flexible customization options;
- Translation-ready.
It should be mentioned that this roundup includes only premium solutions to explore their maximum functionality. Free versions usually provide a limited package you can upgrade to the paid ones.
Top Property Booking Plugins for WordPress
We’re listing the WordPress plugins for room booking that come in handy for different types of short-term rental accommodation. So, they will perfectly suit your hotel, apartment, villa, B&B, hostel, etc.
WordPress Hotel Booking Plugin
Let’s begin with one of the best booking plugins for WordPress we vouch for – the MotoPress Hotel Booking plugin. It lets you manage a single accommodation or multiple properties. Synchronization with OTAs like Airbnb, Booking, TripAdvisor, or HomeAway prevents your site from overbooking.
You can add detailed property descriptions, discount coupons, taxes & fees and view bookings in a centralized calendar. This plugin features dynamic rates that depend on different factors. Provide free or paid extra services. It’s possible to accept payments via built-in PayPal, 2Checkout, Braintree, Stripe, or Beanstream/Bambora gateways.
View the Hotel Booking demo to test drive its functionality for free.
More Features:
- Responsive property search form;
- Customizable min/max stay;
- Personal accounts for users;
- Hotel Booking REST API;
- A collection of Hotel Booking addons;
- A Hotel Booking mobile application.
There is a collection of WordPress hotel themes that help you get started with your hotel booking website faster. For example, Booklium is a multipurpose WordPress theme that makes a perfect match with any rental property website. It comes with 5+ demos
VikBooking
VikBooking enables you to set up a reservation system on your WordPress website. You get built-in options to manage room types and bookings. Eight types of shortcodes allow you to apply different views for the front-end. Custom rate options include refundable, flexible, non-refundable, and seasonal rates.
Being one of the top booking plugins WordPress provides, VikBooking comes packed with a real-time availability calendar, occupancy overview, and the ability to define user roles. You can set booking restrictions (min stay, arrival time, etc.).
More Features:
- 60+ payment gateways;
- SMS notifications;
- Custom booking process;
- Multilingual-ready.
Top WordPress Plugins for Appointment Booking
Use plugins from this category to arrange an online appointment booking system on your website (they deal with bookings per hour).
WordPress Appointment Booking
The Appointment Booking plugin by MotoPress is a well-known solution for all service-based businesses. It’s a popular suggestion among the best plugins for booking time slots on WordPress since it provides a mobile-friendly booking wizard, a centralized admin calendar, and appointment-dedicated tools. Flexible schedules may include breaks, days off, vacations, etc.
The plugin supports online and offline payment methods (PayPal, Stripe, a direct bank transfer, or on-site payments). Additionally, there is a WooCommerce addon to integrate more gateways (not included in the plugin price).
Make it possible for your clients to book several services at one go and submit a reservation for a group. Bookings can be synchronized with an employee’s Google Calendar.
View the Appointment Booking demo to check the plugin features at no cost.
More Features:
- Any number of custom services and employees;
- Discounts via coupon codes;
- Different user roles;
- The ability to edit existing bookings;
- Works with Gutenberg, Elementor, and Divi;
- Automated email notifications.
You can also find WordPress appointment themes that are equipped with a ready-to-go design for your service booking website. For instance, Edme suits any education-related WordPress website. The appointment software bundled enhances your website with an online booking system.
Salon Booking System
The list of WordPress plugins for appointment booking includes the Salon Booking System plugin. This plugin delivers flexible scheduling rules that you can create for the whole establishment, for each assistant, for each service, etc.
It’s used to view appointments in a calendar, set up different payment and check-out options, and control availability settings. A flexible booking form lets you choose a size and a color. Customers archive involves a list of customers, pages with details, and stats. You can receive reports on reservations and revenues.
More Features:
- Google Calendar synchronization;
- A system of discounts;
- Front-end pages;
- Restful API;
- Email and SMS notifications.
Top Event Booking Calendar Plugins for WordPress
If you’re going to offer events on your website, you may go with one of these plugins. They will help you handle different types of events and display booking calendars.
Events Manager
The Events Manager plugin works mainly as a calendar but has booking features as well. You can easily add a single- or multi-day event with start/end times and assign different locations for events. You take control over customizable booking forms and custom event emails.
This plugin lets you add event attributes, accept submissions for events from users, and set up permission options. There are widgets for events, locations, and calendars.
More Features:
- Multiple tickets;
- BuddyPress Support;
- Payment options;
- Coupon codes;
- Import from iCal or Google Calendar.
Modern Events Calendar
Modern Events Calendar is another well-known name among the best booking plugins for WordPress that make short work of managing events. It ships with many demos for you to find the perfect layout. Booking options allow you to sell tickets via multiple payment methods.
With Modern Events Calendar, it’s easy to create multiple tickets, designate individual settings for events, and add booking limitations. This plugin also features integration with other calendar plugins. It has extended shortcode options.
More Features:
- Flexible event scheduling;
- Location maps;
- Multiple calendar & event view;
- Google Calendar integration;
- Different payment gateways;
- An advanced notifications system.
Wrapping Up
So, this was our quick roundup of the online booking plugins for WordPress. As was mentioned, the choice depends on the kind of business you own and your requirements. As a rule, plugins for property and appointment booking are equipped with a full toolset while event calendar plugins require addons to integrate online event booking and ticket selling.
Hopefully, this article will help narrow down your search and find the right solution for your website. Share please your experience and suggestions in the comments section below!