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:
- What booth rental software is
- Our short list of the top salon booth rental software, including standout features
- The benefits of using a booth rental software
- What to consider before investing in a booth rental software
What is salon booth rental software?
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.
Top 7 software for salon & spa booth renters
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.
1. DaySmart Salon
Source: https://www.daysmartsalon.com/booth-renters/
Caption: With DaySmart Salon, you can access client appointments on any device
DaySmart Salon is a salon software with dedicated features for day-to-day salon business management, team management, client communication, booking, and scheduling.
- Provides features specifically for booth renters: DaySmart’s salon software for booth renters is tailored to help booth renters grow their client base, avoid client no-shows, and customize the client experience, and you can access it from your mobile device or computer.
- Lets you track client history and client notes: You can keep detailed client notes from every client visit, including the services you provided, customer preferences, and even products they purchased.
- Pricing: DaySmart Salon doesn’t offer a free trial, but their software plans include:
- A Basic plan for $29/month, which includes all the tools booth renters need
- A Deluxe plan for $69/month
- A Premier plan for $129/month
- A Platinum plan for $249/month
2. Homebase
Source: https://joinhomebase.com/health-beauty/
Caption: Homebase lets you create and distribute your schedules for your salon staff, all with our mobile app
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.
- Designed for hourly workers: It’s ideal for managers of hourly employees who often communicate, make appointments, and track their hours using their phones and don’t work a typical 9-5 schedule. And in a booth rental salon, where stylists are coming and going on their own schedule, you need one source for communication and schedule tracking to avoid double-booking booths or stylists or scheduling appointments when stylists aren’t available.
- The free plan includes a broad range of features: Time clocks, scheduling, employee profiles, employee messaging, and job posting and applicant tracking are all available for free. That means you can have your salon software with dedicated inventory management and client booking without having to pay for an extra tool.
- Pricing: Homebase offers a variety of services at different price points, including:
- A Free plan
- An Essentials plan for $16/month,
- A Plus plan for $40/month
- An All-in-One plan for $80/month
3. Rosy
Source: https://www.rosysalonsoftware.com/
Caption: Rosy helps you avoid no-shows by sending clients text reminders
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.
- Flexible options for booth renters and booth owners: Booth renters don’t have to provide their business details to get access to front-desk booking services, and both renters and owners can adjust their software permissions and maintain privacy.
- Created by former salon and spa owners: The company’s founders understand the challenges salon managers face every day, and they designed their platform to solve those problems.
- Pricing: Rosy’s booth rental software plans include:
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- A Standard plan for renters at $19/month
- A Standard plan for owners at $29/month
- A Premium package for renters at $27/month
- A Premium package for owners at $37/month
4. Zolmi
Source: https://zolmi.com/
Caption: Zolmi gives booth renters control over their schedules.
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.
- Booth renters maintain control over their schedules: Booth renters can have autonomy over their own appointments, but the app still allows them to report necessary insights to owners like backbar costs — fees stylists pay for using salon supplies — and inventory updates.
- Clients can book appointments online at any time: According to Zolmi customers, 60% of their customers book appointments when the salon is closed, so Zolmi lets customers book appointments even when the salon is closed and takes booking off of the stylist’s plate.
- Pricing: Zolmi gives its users access to:
- A free Manage plan that lets you book appointments and send email reminders to customers
- A Grow plan for $9/member/month lets you handle contactless payments, send SMS reminders (for $0.05 a message), and unlimited business reporting
5. Salonist
Source: https://salonist.io/features/analytics
Caption: Salonist helps you track your sales and expenses
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.
- Automatically tracks transactions and tax liabilities and generates reports on spending: Salonist booth rental software takes the manual legwork out of managing your own expenses.
- Lets customers purchase service packages: You can use Salonist to create packages based on specific customer preferences and increase your revenue by batching services to create higher-ticketed items.
- Pricing: After a 2-month free trial, Salonist service packages include:
- A Basic plan for $29/month
- A Starter plan for $59/month
- A Business plan for $99/month
- An Enterprise plan for $149/month
6. Zenoti
Source: https://university.zenoti.com/app
Caption: Zenoti customers get free access to courses from Zenoti University
Zenoti offers cloud-based salon software for salons and spas to manage their online booking, appointment scheduling, customer management, and billing and payments.
- Customers get free access to online courses: Zenoti customers can learn and upskill with over 100 courses offered through Zenoti University.
- Support for switching from other platforms: Zenoti’s services team works with you to migrate all of your data from your old platform to Zenoti
- Pricing: Zenoti doesn’t offer upfront pricing options on their website, but interested customers can contact Zenoti for a custom quote.
7. SalonTarget
Source: https://www.salontarget.com/simulator/salontarget-simulator.html
Caption: Test out SalonTarget’s services with their software simulator
SalonTarget salon software offers salon owners and managers solutions for online booking, email marketing, automated client communication, and business reporting.
- Test out their services without signing up: Their software simulator gives you a quick look at their product interface and how it functions.
- Install customer tablets at your salon booths with their Premiere Plan: Tablets let customers easily re-book appointments and add on to their service with extra offerings and promotions.
- Pricing: SalonTarget doesn’t display pricing options directly on their website, but you can reach out to SalonTarget’s sales team for a custom quote.
Benefits of salon booth rental software
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.
Less paperwork
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.
Easier scheduling
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.
Expense tracking
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.
Improved client retention
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.
Things to consider when choosing booth rental software
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.
Think about your budget
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.
Set business goals
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:
- In the next three months, I want to bring on two new booth renters.
- In the next six months, I want to test out a salon booth rental software to see how it can help me grow.
- In the next year, I want to have almost all of my booths rented out to stylists.
Positive customer experience
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.
Does it offer a free trial?
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. )
Build a great salon team with Homebase
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.
Salon booth rental software FAQs
What should I look for in salon software?
When researching salon software, it’s best to look for features for:
- Appointment booking
- Employee scheduling
- Inventory management
- Mobile access
- Time tracking and employee payroll
You’ll also want to make sure the software you choose will help you improve the customer experience, is budget-friendly for you, is upfront about all of their costs, and helps you meet your salon business goals. And, most importantly, they should offer a free trial, so you can try it out before you invest your time and resources!
How do I get more salon booth renters?
You can get more salon booth renters by using the same strategies you might use to get more full-time staff, and it’ll be especially easy if your salon has a great local reputation for bringing in clients and taking care of your people. Promote your salon booth rental opportunities by:
- Posting on social media
- Uploading your job description to popular job search sites (which you can do with Homebase hiring and onboarding)
- Creating classified ads in your local paper or on Craigslist
- Attending local hair shows
- Reach out to local cosmetology schools
- Starting an apprenticeship or mentorship program at your salon
What is salon management software?
Salon management software helps hair, nail, and beauty salons and spas manage their client and employee tasks, including booking and scheduling appointments, communicating with clients, processing point-of-sale transactions for credit card payments, and even marketing their businesses.
Does Homebase offer salon management software?
Homebase doesn’t offer software specifically for salon management, but Homebase does offer tools to help small business owners — including salon owners — manage every aspect of their day-to-day, behind-the-scenes team operations so they can focus on thriving. Think of Homebase as your one-stop shop for:
- Hiring and onboarding
- Employee scheduling
- Payroll
- Time clocks and time sheets
- Team communication via text message
- Employee happiness
- HR and compliance
Remember: This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.
