BookestoQuestions
Answered plainly.
If your question is not here, write to us and the person who runs Bookesto replies. If the answer is that something is not ready, that is the answer you will get.
No card needed. We set up each new venue with you, and pricing is agreed before anything is charged.
Sixteen answers
Including the awkward ones
Do you take a commission on my bookings?
No. There is no commission on bookings that come through your own page, and we do not run a marketplace or sell you clients.
Pricing is agreed with you before anything is charged. We do not publish a price list yet. If a fee ever applies to an online deposit, it will be shown as its own line, and the card processing fee will be labelled as the payment provider’s.
Who owns my client list?
You do. Your clients, their contact details, their notes and their history are yours, and our contract will name you as the controller of that data. We are not building a consumer app that could show your client somebody else. We decided that in July 2026.
What happens to my data if I leave?
You take it with you. Reports, payments and receipts export as spreadsheets whenever you want them, and you can request a full export of your business’s data from your settings. We prepare it by hand and send it to you.
A one-click version is planned. We will run the export for you after you cancel as well as before.
Can I move my clients over from Fresha?
Clients, yes. Fresha lets you export your client list from Clients, Options, Export, and Bookesto imports it from a CSV. You match the columns and see a preview before anything is saved. Booksy exports its customer list too, though its appointments need a request to their support.
Your future appointments, your service list and your prepaid balances do not come across in a file from any system. We go through them with you when we set up your venue.
Imported contacts start as service messages only. Marketing consent has to be given again. That is the rule in the UAE and the EU, and it protects you more than it protects us.
Do you charge my customers anything?
No. Your customer pays you, for your service, at your price. We add no booking fee and there is no consumer subscription. When online deposits arrive, a deposit will be yours and will come off the bill.
Is my customers' card data safe with you?
Your customers pay at the venue today, so Bookesto takes no card details online. When online deposits arrive, card details will go from your customer’s browser directly to the payment provider, and there will be no card number in our database.
Each business’s data is kept apart from every other business, and the database itself enforces that. We do not hold a SOC 2 report and there is no badge for one on this site. The security page has the detail.
Do you take a cut of a deposit?
What happens when the internet goes down?
Your bookings are kept on our servers, not on the tablet at the desk, so nothing is lost. While you are offline you cannot see or change them. There is no offline mode. If the salon Wi-Fi is unreliable, the phone in your pocket on mobile data is your backup.
If our server is the one that is down, there is no public status page and no uptime commitment yet, because we want enough operating history to promise something we can keep. That item is on the roadmap with what it is waiting on.
Who answers when something breaks?
The person who runs Bookesto, through our contact page. There is no ticket queue and no support tier.
When you write in, we can see what happened to your booking. Actions through our support console are logged, and that console is not live yet.
What if a customer disputes a deposit?
Online deposits are not live yet, so this cannot happen today. Your customers pay at the venue.
When deposits go live, Bookesto is designed to keep the policy your customer agreed to, the moment they agreed and the reminders they received, so you have something to show the bank. That is not a guarantee. Banks decide disputes, not us. A clear policy and a fair notice period put you in a stronger position.
What happens if I stop paying?
Your account goes read-only, not dark. You can still see your diary, export your data and take your list. We will not hold your client list hostage to an invoice, and we will not switch off your public booking page without telling your customers something sensible first. The exact schedule will be written down with your pricing.
Does it work in Arabic?
Yes. Your booking page runs in English and Arabic, laid out right to left in Arabic. Names stay readable inside Arabic text, and money and times stay clear.
This website is in English for now. Its Arabic version will go live after a native reader has checked it. Finding a client under both spellings, Mohammed on the booking form and محمد at the desk, is not built yet.
Can my staff have their own logins?
Yes. Invite your team and give each person a role. Each role sees what it needs and can only do what it is allowed to do.
Can I keep my listing on Playtomic or Fresha while I use this?
Yes, and we would not ask you to switch off a channel that brings you customers. Bookesto does not sync with those calendars yet, so a slot sold there will not close itself here. Calendar sync is coming. If this matters to you, say so, because it moves up the order.
How do I start, and what does it cost?
Access starts with a request. We set up each new venue with you, one at a time. Pricing is agreed with you before anything is charged. We do not publish a price list yet. When we do, it will go on this site with the date.
I am in the EU. Can I sign up?
Not yet. We will not take business data from the EU, EEA or UK until three things are in place: an Article 27 representative, a signed processing agreement with standard contractual clauses, and hosting in the EU for EU businesses. Join the EU waitlist and you get a message the day it opens.
Several answers above point at a roadmap row. Every row there carries one of four states, and a row that is waiting names what it is waiting on, rather than a date.
Get early access
We open accounts a few venues at a time, and we talk to each one. Tell us about your venue and we will write to you about access.
No card needed. We set up each new venue with you, and pricing is agreed before anything is charged.