How I use Treatwell to upsell treatments and increase my average booking value
Keira Stewart
🏪 VIP Seller
🥇 Gold Seller
Freelancer · Sunderland · 7mo ago
I tested four different booking systems back to back last year because I couldn't decide and I thought I might as well be thorough about it. Here's my genuinely unbiased breakdown for a small UK lash studio.
Fresha: Really strong on the client-facing side. The booking page looks polished and professional. The free plan is genuinely usable if you're just starting out. Downsides: the reporting is basic and customer support takes forever to respond.
SimplyBook.me: Best calendar interface of the lot. Really intuitive if you have multiple staff. A bit pricier but the features justify it. Not great if you're a solo operator — feels like it's designed for bigger businesses.
Fresha: Still hard to beat on price (free for everything). The client marketplace gives you extra visibility. The catch is the 1.29% transaction fee on payments, which adds up if your treatments are high-value.
The one I landed on: Fresha. For a solo lash studio in a mid-size UK city, it hit the right balance of price, features, and ease of use. The SMS reminders work reliably, the deposit system is clean, and clients have said the booking experience feels professional.
Happy to answer questions if anyone wants to go deeper on any of these.
Fresha: Really strong on the client-facing side. The booking page looks polished and professional. The free plan is genuinely usable if you're just starting out. Downsides: the reporting is basic and customer support takes forever to respond.
SimplyBook.me: Best calendar interface of the lot. Really intuitive if you have multiple staff. A bit pricier but the features justify it. Not great if you're a solo operator — feels like it's designed for bigger businesses.
Fresha: Still hard to beat on price (free for everything). The client marketplace gives you extra visibility. The catch is the 1.29% transaction fee on payments, which adds up if your treatments are high-value.
The one I landed on: Fresha. For a solo lash studio in a mid-size UK city, it hit the right balance of price, features, and ease of use. The SMS reminders work reliably, the deposit system is clean, and clients have said the booking experience feels professional.
Happy to answer questions if anyone wants to go deeper on any of these.
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The point about filtering your client base with deposits is something I wish someone had told me when I started. It sounds harsh but your business actually runs better with fewer, more committed clients than with a packed diary full of flaky ones.
#1
The point about analytics is underrated. I had no idea which of my services was actually the most profitable until Trafft showed me the data. It completely changed how I structured my pricing and my service menu.
#2
Totally agree about Fresha's transaction fee adding up. I did the maths for my price point and the 'free' plan was actually costing me more than a paid subscription to Trafft by the time I factored in the percentage on every booking. Read the small print before assuming free is cheaper.
#3