Take Booking Requests From Your Own Website
Most bands take booking requests through a form tool bolted onto the website — Tally, a Google Form, whatever was quickest. It collects the enquiry and emails it to someone. Then the work starts: copy the date into the calendar, dig out the promoter’s address, write back, hope nobody else in the band already replied.
The form is doing half a job. The request arrives, but nothing is booked and nobody has answered. Here is how to close that gap by taking booking requests straight into the tool the band already runs on.
Why a Generic Form Tool Falls Short
Section titled “Why a Generic Form Tool Falls Short”A standalone form tool ends at the notification. It has no idea the band has a calendar, an inbox, or four people who might each answer a promoter separately.
So the same three things happen every time a request comes in:
- Nothing is on the calendar. The date lives in an email until someone types it into the band’s calendar by hand — and until they do, another gig can get booked on top of it.
- The reply is manual and slow. The promoter hears nothing back until a band member happens to see the email and write one. A day of silence loses gigs that a same-day acknowledgment keeps.
- The band answers over each other. Two members see the enquiry, two members reply, and the promoter gets a muddled picture of who runs the band.
None of that is the promoter’s problem to solve. It is the cost of a form that talks to an inbox instead of to the band’s own tools.
What a Booking Form Does Instead
Section titled “What a Booking Form Does Instead”A booking form built into the band tool treats a request as the start of a gig, not the end of a form. One submission does two things at once.
It books a tentative date. The request becomes a gig on the band calendar, marked as an option so it reads as “asked, not confirmed” — visible to the whole band the moment it lands, so nobody double-books the night.
It starts a conversation. The requester gets an acknowledgment straight away, and — with a shared mailbox connected — a thread opens in the band inbox, linked to that gig. The band replies from there, and the promoter’s replies come back to the same thread. One place, one conversation, the whole band reading it.
The request stops being a notification to act on later and becomes a gig already sitting where the band works.
Setting It Up in a Few Steps
Section titled “Setting It Up in a Few Steps”The booking form lives in Settings > Booking Form, next to the shared mailbox and rider pack settings. Setting it up takes calendar-edit rights, so owners, managers, and members can do it.
1. Choose the fields. Toggle what to collect — name, email, phone, event date, event type, location, and a message — and add custom fields for anything specific to the work you take. Keep it short: the fewer boxes a promoter faces, the more of them finish the form.
2. Set the language. Pick the form’s language and both the public page and the acknowledgment email follow it, so a promoter who writes in French reads the form and the reply in French.
3. Share it. Copy the hosted link for a Book Us button, or the one-line embed snippet to render the form inside a page on your site. Turn the form on and it is live.
Link or Embed
Section titled “Link or Embed”Both are copyable from the settings panel; use whichever fits the site.
The hosted link opens the form as its own page and needs no website at all — it works from a link-in-bio, a social profile, or a message. Point a Book Us button at it and you are done.
The embed snippet is a single line of HTML that renders the form in-page, inside your own layout. Use it for a dedicated booking page on a site you control.
If a link ever needs pulling — it went to the wrong place, or you want a clean URL — rotate it from the settings panel. The old link stops working, any embed pointing at it goes dark, and you drop the new one onto your site.
How It Fits the Calendar and the Inbox
Section titled “How It Fits the Calendar and the Inbox”The point of taking requests into the band tool is that nothing has to move by hand afterwards.
A booking-request gig lands on the calendar as an option. Confirm it, decline it, or firm up the date as the conversation goes — the same controls as any other gig. When it firms up, run a Gig Advance on it to collect load-in times, PA responsibility, parking, and contacts back from the organiser.
With a shared mailbox, the whole exchange sits in the inbox, linked to the gig, so anyone in the band can pick it up and nobody replies twice. Without one, the acknowledgment still goes out and the band’s notification recipients get an email they can answer directly — the promoter always hears back either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Section titled “Frequently Asked Questions”Why use a booking form instead of a generic form tool? A generic form drops an email in an inbox and stops there — someone still has to copy the details into a calendar and write back. A booking form built into the band tool turns each request into a tentative gig and starts the reply automatically, so the booking is already where the band works it.
Do I need my own website to use a booking form? No. The form has a hosted link that works on its own, so you can share it from a link-in-bio, a social profile, or a message. If you do have a site, an embed snippet renders the form in-page inside your own layout.
What happens to a booking request after it comes in? It creates a booking-request gig on the calendar, marked as an option so it reads as tentative, and it sends the requester an acknowledgment. With a shared mailbox connected, a thread appears in the inbox linked to that gig and the band replies from there; without one, the band’s notification recipients get an email they can reply to directly.
Can I revoke a booking form link? Yes. Rotate the link from the booking form settings and the old one stops working, along with any embed pointing at it. Update the button or snippet on your site with the new link afterwards.