The Gaplessly blog

Good reads for a better booking day.

Practical advice on bookings, running your team, and choosing software that works for your business.

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Booking essentials

Build a website with a booking system

How long launch takes, the setup steps in order, and what a booking system needs beyond a homepage.

6 min readRead the article

More from the blog

A restaurant host stand before evening service, with a reservation book beside a tablet showing the Gaplessly floor plan for dinner.

Booking essentials

Security

What PHP2Shell is, what to check on your own website, and why Gaplessly bookings are not affected.

5 min readRead the article
Lessly, Gaplessly’s illustrated AI assistant, at a laptop beside suggested questions: what does my day look like, who is waiting for a table, which tables are free right now.

Booking essentials

Start your day with Lessly

A few useful questions for getting your bearings before appointments or service begin.

3 min readRead the article
A customer taps a bank card on a payment terminal at a wooden café counter.

Booking essentials

Deposit or no-show fee?

When a deposit is worth the extra step at booking, when a saved card is enough, and what card fees take from a small deposit.

6 min readRead the article
A lash artist lifting a lash extension from a strip with tweezers above a client lying with her eyes closed

Teams & appointments

Free salon price list template

Hair, nails, lashes and beauty, as an editable Word file, plus how to work out what each service should cost.

7 min readRead the article
A receptionist pointing to a date in a desk calendar while a client leans on the counter

Booking essentials

Free cancellation policy template

An editable Word file, with a version for salons and one for restaurants, plus what the law allows for cancellation fees.

8 min readRead the article
A restaurant floor plan in 3D: window tables, booths along the wall, round and square tables in the middle, a horseshoe bar and a kitchen pass with stools

Restaurants & hospitality

Restaurant and café floor plans, in 3D

Where the booths, bar and loose tables go, how wide to make the aisles, and how many seats a room holds.

9 min readRead the article
A cream envelope tied with a ribbon beside a string of pearls on a wooden table

Booking essentials

Free gift voucher template

Three vouchers to an A4 page, in Word to type into or as a PDF to print, plus Australia's rules on expiry dates and fees.

5 min readRead the article
A café counter under hanging menu boards, with a sign reading "Open Easter Saturday"

Booking essentials

Public holiday surcharges: the rules

The menu wording the law requires, who can use it, and why the new card surcharge ban doesn't apply.

7 min readRead the article
A staff member placing a Reserved card on a restaurant table set with a white cloth

Restaurants & hospitality

Hospitality and restaurant award rates

Which award covers your venue, and what each level earns from 1 July 2026, casuals included.

10 min readRead the article
A hairdresser and client looking at a phone together, reflected in a salon mirror

Booking essentials

Hair and Beauty Award rates 2026

What the award pays each level from 1 July 2026, including apprentices, casuals and Sundays.

7 min readRead the article
Two phones lying on a table showing Gaplessly booking pages: a dental clinic’s appointment times and a café’s table times for two

Booking essentials

Reserve with Google in Australia

The partner button, the booking link any business can add, and which one fits yours.

5 min readRead the article
Gaplessly’s booking funnel and visit-time heatmap for a real business’s booking page: how many visitors reached each step, and the days and hours they visit

Booking essentials

Booking funnel: see where people stop booking

Why the step where visitors give up matters more than your traffic, and how to see it without setting anything up.

6 min readRead the article
The Gaplessly booking widget for a Hong Kong restaurant shown on three phones: lunch times for two, a ticketed New Year’s Eve dinner, and the menu with its phone number, address and photos

Restaurants & hospitality

Your restaurant booking widget is the first impression

Guests decide what they think of you before they've seen the room or tasted the food. If the booking screen fights them on a phone, that's the impression they keep.

5 min readRead the article
A café’s Gaplessly table booking page on three phones: party size and date in both looks, and its menu with photos and opening hours

Restaurants & hospitality

Quandoo and GloriaFood are closing down

Quandoo takes table bookings and GloriaFood takes food orders. What each closure means, from each company's own notice.

6 min readRead the article
Gaplessly table booking pages on a laptop, an iPad and a phone: a restaurant’s lunch times, a café’s row of dates and a ticketed New Year’s Eve dinner

Restaurants & hospitality

Set up a restaurant reservation system

The setup order that gets a venue live: floor plan, table logic, sittings, deposits, then the waitlist.

6 min readRead the article
A salon’s Gaplessly booking page on three phones: its services with prices, the date and time step for a blow dry, and its menu with photos and opening hours

Teams & appointments

Hair salon and barbershop booking software

What a salon or barbershop needs from a booking system, where the two differ, and how the named vendors compare.

8 min readRead the article
Gaplessly’s by-team report for an example salon: each team member’s takings, visits and no-shows over 30 days

Teams & appointments

Track revenue per staff member

The formula, why one week of numbers misleads, and what a low number usually points to.

8 min readRead the article
The Team page in Gaplessly: three team members with their photos, the services each one does and the days they work, above the approval window for schedule requests

Teams & appointments

Staff rostering for salons and clinics

Hours, split shifts, repeating rosters, time off and approvals in Gaplessly, and where Deputy and Xero fit.

8 min readRead the article
A restaurant’s Gaplessly booking page in a web browser, on its Experiences tab: a New Year’s Eve dinner and a weekend yum cha brunch

Restaurants & hospitality

Restaurant reservation apps and platforms, compared

What a reservation platform has to do, how to evaluate one, and where OpenTable, SevenRooms, ResDiary and Now Book It differ.

5 min readRead the article
The Gaplessly dashboard home screen for an example salon: today’s bookings and revenue, the last 30 days of bookings, and today’s schedule

Booking essentials

Online booking system: how to choose one

What an online booking system does, why appointments and table bookings need different software, and how to judge a vendor.

8 min readRead the article
Free to start. What changes as you grow? Check booking limits, team pricing and paid extras.

Booking essentials

Free booking systems compared

Ten free plans for appointments and tables: what each covers, what ends it, and what a busy month costs.

12 min readRead the article

The fastest way to see it is the product itself

Five example businesses, the full owner dashboard, and a booking page you can actually complete. No account needed.

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