A salon sells with pictures and an open slot.

A beauty salon website has a simple job: show your work, show your prices, and let a client book the moment she decides, often late in the evening on her phone. Every extra step, a call during opening hours or a direct message that waits until morning, loses some of them to the salon down the road that takes bookings online.

We work from Ghent, Belgium, in English. Below: what a booking platform costs against a calendar on your own site, which treatments you may not advertise, how to sell gift cards properly, and where to start.

Platform fees against your own calendar

Booking platforms with a marketplace bring new clients, and charge for it: a subscription per team member, a fee per online payment, and often a one-off fee for each new client who finds you through the marketplace. Regulars would rather book with you directly. Most salons end up using both: the platform for people who do not know them yet, their own site and Instagram for everyone who comes back.

Question	Your own site with a calendar	A booking platform
What it costs	a one-off build, then hosting	subscription per team member, often a fee per new client
New clients	through Google, your profile and Instagram	also through the platform's search
Look	your own brand throughout	the platform's style, next to your competitors
Client data	stays with you	is held by the platform too

Use the same button everywhere: on your site, in your Instagram bio and on your Google Business Profile, all pointing to your own calendar. How a booking module works: booking system for your website.

Which channel brings what for a salon?

Your own site with a booking calendar
- New clients: some
- Regulars: strong
- No fee per booking: strong
- Your own look: strong
Instagram and TikTokyour work on camera
- New clients: strong
- Regulars: some
- No fee per booking: some
- Your own look: strong
Google Business Profilemap and reviews
- New clients: strong
- Regulars: some
- No fee per booking: strong
- Your own look: little
A booking platformwith its own network
- New clients: strong
- Regulars: some
- No fee per booking: little
- Your own look: little

Our own assessment. A platform brings new clients; your regulars would rather book with you, at no cost per appointment.

What you may not advertise

Some of the most searched treatments are medicine, not beauty. In the UK the advertising code is blunt: prescription-only medicines and prescription-only medical treatments may not be advertised to the public, which covers botulinum toxin. Claims that a product can modify a person's appearance must be true, and unqualified words like 'cure' or 'rejuvenation' are not generally acceptable. Other countries go further; in Belgium, for example, advertising for non-surgical aesthetic medicine is banned outright, and the EU Court of Justice found that ban compatible with EU law.

Gift cards that sell after closing time

For many salons gift cards are among the biggest online sales, with peaks around Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and the holidays. Rules on how long a card must stay valid differ per country. Whatever applies where you are, make the validity impossible to miss:

Where	What it shows	Why
Sales page	amount or treatment, validity, how to redeem	the buyer knows what they give
The card itself	code, amount, expiry or period from purchase	the recipient knows without the receipt
Confirmation email	the card as a PDF, the terms, the purchase date	the receipt fixes start and end
Your calendar	a field for the card code when booking	the card turns into an appointment

A card bought online and delivered as a PDF straight away sells at ten at night too. Selling products as well? Then it becomes a small online shop; see ecommerce website cost and webshop development.

Your treatments as one list, or as pages

A salon with five treatments does fine with a good list. A salon that wants to be found for a treatment plus its town gives each main treatment its own page.

What it holds: One treatment listName, time, price and a button to the calendar; A page per treatmentWhat it does, for whom, before and after, price and a button
Found in search: One treatment listOn your name and your town; A page per treatmentAlso on the treatment plus your town
Work: One treatment listA day; A page per treatmentA text and photos per treatment
Fits: One treatment listA small salon with regulars; A page per treatmentA salon looking for new clients

Start with a list and give your three most booked treatments a page each.

What a client checks before she books

Her question	Where the answer goes
Do they do what I want?	a treatment list with names clients use, not trade names
How long, and how much?	time and price next to every treatment
Is there a slot this week?	a calendar that only shows free slots
What does the salon look like?	your own photos of the room and your work
Can I cancel?	the cancellation rule next to the book button

A site that answers those five on one phone screen takes the booking; one that hides any of them behind a call loses it. What a site like that costs in its first year and after is in website cost.

Where to start

Choose a one-pager with a booking button ifyou work alone and your diary is full. Treatments, prices, photos and one button are enough; see web design for freelancers.
Choose your own calendar ifmany regulars book through a platform that charges you per booking or per team member.
Choose online gift cards ifyou sell many at the counter around the holidays.
Choose a page per treatment ifyou want new clients in your area.

Four mistakes on salon sites

Being found nearby

People type the treatment and their town: gel nails, brows, facial, hairdresser plus the area. A complete Google Business Profile with recent photos and reviews puts you on the map. Ask for a review when the client is happy, with a link or a QR code at the till, made with the Google review link generator; more in get more Google reviews. How we approach it: local SEO. A short video of a treatment reaches people who are not searching yet, especially when it runs as a Facebook and Instagram ad in your area.

Before Saturday's appointments

Take ten photos of results and of your salon in daylight, and put them on your site and profile.
Put your price list on the site as text, with the time per treatment.
Count how many regulars booked through a platform this month: they could have booked direct.
Remove every treatment from your site that only a doctor may provide.

Can I keep my booking platform?

Yes. Keep it for new clients and link your site to it, or have your own calendar built with no fee per booking.

Do you build salon sites outside Belgium?

Yes. We work in English and remotely, and write the treatment pages for your own market and rules.

Can you photograph my salon?

Yes. We come to photograph and film in your salon, so your site and your Instagram tell the same story.

Website design

How VBS builds a salon site

We build your site with treatments and prices, a calendar where clients choose their own slot, gift cards with clear validity, and photos of your own salon. Booking forms with half-hour slots we already build for client sites; for a salon that becomes a treatment, a stylist and a time. We come with a camera for the photos and short videos, see corporate video. A one-pager starts at 1,500 euros; with your own calendar, gift cards or a small shop it is 5,000 euros or more, at a fixed price per part. A first budget: website cost calculator; the approach: website design. Book a call.

Book a call

Beauty salon website that books clients while you work