Alera | Appointment scheduling for service businesses

Getting set up

About three minutes. Pick what you do, pick a few starter services, choose a name for your booking page like alerabooking.com/yourname, and you're live.
No. They tap your link and book in any browser. No sign-up, no app, no friction.
Yes. Import a CSV, pull from Square, or let new clients add themselves as they book. Your existing list keeps working day one.
We help you bring services and clients across. Your old link can stay live while you transition. Most pros switch in under fifteen minutes.

Email reminders fire 24 hours and 2 hours before each booking, plus a thank-you the morning after. They go out from your name, in your tone. You can turn any of them off in settings.
Set a deposit policy and a cancel window per service. Within the window, the deposit refunds automatically. Outside it, the deposit holds. You decide the rules.
Yes. Blackouts let you mark a day, week, or recurring window unbookable — vacations, training days, surgery week. Existing bookings stay.
Yes. The confirmation email has a one-tap reschedule link that respects your cancel window and your availability. They never see a phone number, just open slots.
Yes. Your public page has a 'Send a photo first' option — they upload 1–3 reference images plus a quick note, the message lands in your inbox. You reply on your time, then they book.
On the appointment view page (linked from every confirmation email), clients near their appointment time get two quick buttons. The ping lands in your messages inbox + emails you instantly. Saves the awkward back-and-forth.

Per service, you set up to five questions — short text, long text, yes-no, single- or multi-select. Clients answer on the booking page; their responses save to the appointment. Returning clients see their last answers pre-filled.
Yes — that's the point. The /services editor has a 'Smart fill' button that gives you the right starter questions for the service name (balayage, gel manicure, bridal trial, fade, etc.). Tweak from there.
Yes. A few hours after the appointment ends, your client gets a per-service aftercare email — in your name, with whatever you wrote (or the persona-aware starter we suggest). Each service can have its own.

No. Alera's platform fee is $0. Deposits go to your Stripe account, not ours. Stripe pays you out on the same schedule as anywhere else you'd take a card.
You pay Stripe's standard processing fee (currently 2.9% + $0.30 per charge in the US) on each deposit or payment. That's it — no monthly fee, no setup fee, no per-booking fee from us.
Connect Stripe once. Set a deposit amount per service — flat or percent. When a client books that service, they pay the deposit at checkout. The rest is paid in chair.
Open the appointment, tap Refund deposit. The money goes back to the original card instantly. We don't sit in the middle.
Yes — all three. Packages (prepaid sessions, single client), gift cards (any code, anyone can buy + redeem), and retail (shampoo, tools, anything you sell at the chair with stock counts). Each lives in its own admin tab.
Yes. Post-visit, the client gets a tip prompt by email with a one-tap percentage. The charge runs as its own transaction — separate from the deposit, separate refund path.

Yes. Pick the URL, the accent color, the photos, and the bio. Your page reads like your shop, not a marketplace tile.
No. Your name is what they see. Your reminders come from your name. The booking confirmation reads like you sent it.
Change it any time in settings. Old links keep working with a redirect for thirty days so no one lands on a broken page.

Any time. CSV or vCard, one tap, no paywall. Your bookings export the same way.
Two taps from your account. Your full book downloads on the way out — clients, services, history, everything.
On AWS, in the United States. We never sell it, never share it with marketing partners, never train models on it.

Email team@alerabooking.com. A real person reads it, usually within a day. Founders included.
Send them the receipt from the in-app refund row. Stripe's email confirmation is also in their inbox from when the refund went through.
We're rolling SMS out gradually as carrier registration completes. Email reminders work today; SMS lights up automatically when your account is approved.