Online calendar for hairdressers: how to plan the salon week
· 5 min read
A salon appointment calendar has to show the whole week: who works when, who is at lunch, how long a colour keeps a chair busy and why Tuesday is half empty while Friday was full two weeks ago. When the calendar does not show this, the week gets planned in someone's head and corrected over the phone.
Setting up services and online booking for a salon is covered in our post on online booking for hair salons. This one is about the calendar behind it: planning the week so that it holds together.
Working hours for each stylist
Start with the hours each person actually works, rather than the salon's opening hours. A salon open from 9:00 to 19:00 might have one stylist on 9:00 to 17:00, another on 11:00 to 19:00 and a part-timer who only works Thursdays and Saturdays. If all three are entered as 9:00 to 19:00, clients will book times when nobody is there to see them.
Set the hours for each stylist and each day of the week, and set them for the coming weeks as well as the current one. Colour clients often book three or four weeks ahead, and a rota that changes at the last minute means phoning people who have already booked.
Breaks that stay breaks
A lunch break that exists only in your head is the first thing online booking fills. Put it into the stylist's hours as a gap, for example 9:00 to 13:00 and 13:30 to 17:30. A fixed half hour is easier to protect than "a break when there is a gap", because on a good day there is no gap.
Stagger the breaks. If every stylist goes to lunch at 13:00, the salon cannot take anyone for half an hour, and that is exactly when many clients try to come in during their own lunch break.
Colour and processing time
Colour needs the most planning. A full colour or a balayage can take two to three hours, and much of that is processing time, when the stylist's hands are free but the client is still in the chair. Two rules keep the week manageable:
- Book long colour work early in the day. A colour that starts at 9:00 is finished by noon even if it runs over. One that starts at 16:30 and runs over keeps the stylist past closing time.
- Spread colour starts across stylists. If three colours start at 10:00, all three clients need the basin at about the same time. Starting them 20 or 30 minutes apart avoids a queue at the sink.
A quiet start to the week, a full Friday
Most salons see the same pattern. The start of the week is quiet, and Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday fill first. Many salons close on Mondays for that reason. The calendar can work with the pattern:
- Put working hours where the demand is. A stylist on Tuesday to Saturday, with later finishes on Thursday and Friday, fills more of their hours than one on a flat Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:00.
- Steer long work to the early week. Colour corrections and extensions take a whole morning. Regulars who can come on a Tuesday get a wider choice of times, and Friday stays open for the shorter appointments people want before the weekend.
- Look back before you plan. After a month, check which days fill first and which hours stay empty, and move hours from the empty afternoons to the busy evenings.
Time off
Holidays and training days belong in the booking calendar as soon as they are agreed, and so does a dentist appointment in the middle of a Wednesday. A holiday written only on the staff room wall will be booked online, and someone will spend the week before it moving clients.
Ask for holidays at least as far ahead as clients can book. If your booking window is eight weeks, a holiday requested ten weeks ahead never clashes with a booked client.
Every stylist in one view
With four stylists and four separate diaries, every phone call means checking four places. Reception needs to see everyone at once, for example who is free at 15:00 and whose colour runs until 13:00. One shared calendar with every stylist in it answers a client's question while they are still on the line.
Syncing with Google Calendar
Stylists mostly care about their own day, and many already keep the rest of their life in Google Calendar. When the salon calendar syncs with it, salon bookings appear there next to their own plans, on the phone they carry anyway. That prevents a common mistake: a stylist agreeing to a Saturday afternoon with friends without noticing that a client booked it last week.
Time off still belongs in the salon calendar itself, because that is what decides which times clients can book.
How it works in Termeva
In Termeva the calendar shows bookings for each staff member, and clients book online by choosing the service, the stylist and the time. Free times are worked out from each service's length and its buffers, so the calendar only offers times that fit. From the Studio plan at €19 a month, for up to five people, each stylist can connect their own Google Calendar and see their salon bookings there. Clients get a confirmation email and a reminder the day before, and new bookings reach you in Telegram. More on the hair salon page.
Questions
What should a salon appointment calendar show?
Each stylist's bookings, working hours, breaks and time off for the whole day or week in one view. Anyone at reception should be able to see who is free at a given time within seconds.
Can stylists see salon bookings in their own Google Calendar?
Yes, if your booking system syncs with Google Calendar. Each stylist connects their own calendar and their salon appointments appear next to their private plans. In Termeva this comes with the Studio plan at €19 a month.
How far ahead should a hair salon plan its rota?
Set working hours for at least as long as your booking window, which in many salons is six to eight weeks. Colour clients book weeks in advance, so hours that change late mean moving appointments that are already booked.
How can a salon fill quiet days early in the week?
Offer the early week to clients with flexible schedules, such as regulars booking long colour work, and plan fewer working hours on those days. The hours you save can move to Thursday evening and Saturday, when clients struggle to find a time.
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