This post is part of a series, adapted from emails sent to owners of outdoor centres across the UK who kindly provided advice and input as Swellbase was developed.
My goal before Christmas was to get the first version of the customer-facing booking flow and widget live. I'm really happy with what has been achieved:
- 👩💻 Customers stay on your website (this was more technically challenging than expected but we have a great implementation now)
- 🔗 Supports deep linking so you can link to specific items from anywhere on your website and they open in the widget
- 📸 Dynamically generated sharing images for social media, tailored to your company's brand (here's Swellbase vs FareHarbor for the same item ↓)
- 💳 6 clicks from browsing to booked. Optimised for conversions and the best customer experience
- ⚙️ Custom embeds. Add a floating book button to your website with custom styling, text, icons, and positioning, with mobile and desktop previews.
Styling wise, I modelled some of what I think has been done really well in other booking systems, as well as drawing from Viator and GetYourGuide for inspiration.
🎯 What it means for you: a high-converting, modern and professional booking experience for your customers, which is easy to set up while still giving you the control you need.
What's next
The next sprint will be focused on tidying up some of the odd jobs and todos that stack up as you build out major features.
Then I'll be tackling payments via Stripe in the second half of January. Swellbase will be free to use and follow the industry standard booking fee model, but will be much more competitive than the current industry giants, while being more specific for outdoor centres.
Many of you expressed unhappiness with the way FareHarbor handles booking fees (whether you ended up using them or not), and I aim to do things differently.
Swellbase will give control over booking fees back to you - i.e you can pass on to the customer, absorb, or split as you like. No more compulsory extortionate fees at checkout for your customers!