How to set up your service and price list for bookings

A good service list for online booking is one a client understands without having to message you: clear names, real durations, visible prices and everything grouped by type. Behind each service there has to be the time it really takes up in your schedule, including prep and cleanup. Work that needs an assessment first is offered as a consultation, not as a service clients book directly.

Names clients understand

The name is the first thing someone booking from their phone reads. It has to say what the service is, without in-house terms or abbreviations.

If a creative name is part of your brand, use it, but add what it is: “Relax ritual: full-body massage”.

The short description covers what the name can’t: what’s included and what isn’t. “Includes removal of old polish. Nail art not included.” A line like that saves you plenty of questions on WhatsApp and arguments at checkout.

Real durations, not your best-day times

Enter how long the service takes on average, not how long it takes on the day everything goes perfectly. If a gel manicure takes you between 50 and 70 minutes, put 60 or 70. An optimistic duration catches up with you in the late afternoon, when the delays have piled up.

Ask your team: the person who does the service knows how long it really takes. If the difference between one professional and another is large, it’s worth splitting the service in two, each with its own duration and its own people.

The time between one client and the next

Between clients there’s work nobody sees: disinfecting the table, changing the sheet on the treatment bed, sweeping, writing down the color formula. If the schedule doesn’t allow for it, that time comes out of the next service and the person who arrived on time ends up waiting.

That’s what prep and cleanup times are for. Clients don’t see them: they book a one-hour massage and their confirmation says one hour. But your schedule holds the whole block and doesn’t offer that gap to anyone else.

A good starting point is adding 10 minutes of cleanup to services that get messy or need something prepared, then adjusting as you go.

Several services in one booking

Many people want to get everything done in one visit: hands and feet, cut and color. Online booking has to allow that without you creating every possible combination.

When a client picks several services, the durations add up and the system looks for a time when they all fit together. That has two effects: fewer free times show up, and only the people who do all the chosen services are offered.

Create a combo as a separate service only when it makes sense on its own, for example a special price or a duration shorter than the sum, because one part is done while another one waits.

Prices: show them, even when they vary

A visible price builds trust and filters out people who aren’t willing to pay it before they take up a slot. Hiding it almost always ends in a “how much is it?” message and someone who doesn’t book.

When the price depends on hair length, nail art or the condition of the skin, show the base price and make it clear with “from”:

1. Enter the real minimum as the price, the one someone with short hair or a simple design pays.
2. In the short description, write “Price from, varies with hair length” or whatever fits your case.
3. If the difference is very large, split the service: “Keratin smoothing, short hair” and “Keratin smoothing, long hair”.

What doesn’t work is leaving the price at zero or putting in a made-up number. A price of 0 on the list confuses more than it helps.

Services that need a consultation first

Some work can’t be booked blind: a color correction, a smoothing treatment on heavily processed hair, a treatment for skin with active acne, removing work done somewhere else. If someone books it without an assessment, the time may not be enough or the work may not be possible that day.

For those cases:

1. Create a short “Consultation” or “Assessment” service that can be booked online.
2. Keep the full service set up, but out of online booking. Your team books it after the assessment.
3. In the consultation’s description, explain what happens next: “We’ll look at your hair and give you a price and a date”.

Categories: few and clear

Group services the way clients look for them: Hands, Feet, Lashes, Facials, Massages. Four to eight categories are usually enough. If a category has only one service, it probably fits in another one.

How to set it up in Citauno

In Citauno each service has a name, a short and a long description, a duration, a price, prep and cleanup times, a category, and the locations and professionals that offer it.

1. Create the categories first, under Services → Categories. Then you pick one when you add each service, and your public profile shows the list grouped.
2. Add the service with New service: name, short description (shown on your profile and when booking), long description (on your profile, behind “More info”), duration and price.
3. Add Time before and Time after if the service needs prep or cleanup. They take up time in your schedule, but clients don’t see them. The next time offered depends on your business’s slot interval.
4. Choose who does it and where, if it isn’t the whole team at every location.
5. Decide whether it can be booked online. With Online booking turned off, the service doesn’t appear on your page and only your team books it from the calendar. With Active turned off, it stops appearing everywhere, without losing the history of past bookings.
6. Test your page in a private window: pick two services together and see which times appear.

Clients can pick several services in the same booking without you turning anything on. Citauno shows the price you entered and has no special “from” field, so that note goes in the short description. If you change a price, existing bookings keep the price they had when they were made.

Every field is explained in the service form reference, and the full walkthrough is in create your first service.

Two tools we switch on by request

Some services need more than a duration plus prep and cleanup time. For those cases there are two tools we switch on by request, at no cost, from More features → Ask to turn on:

• Pauses within a service. For waiting time in the middle of a service, like letting a color develop. During the pause, the professional is free to see another client.
• Fixed start times per service. For services that only start at certain times, like a spa circuit that begins at 9 am and 2 pm.

An example

Picture a nail and lash studio with two nail technicians and a lash artist. Their price list was a photo on Instagram with names like “Glam combo” and “Full set”, and every week they answered the same questions: how long it takes, whether removal is included, whether nail art costs extra.

When they moved to online booking, they rebuilt the list. Each service got the name of what it is, one line about what’s included and the duration they actually use, plus ten minutes of cleanup after hands. Removing work done elsewhere became a consultation, because they never know what they’ll find.

Now a client who comes in from the Instagram bio sees what she’ll pay and how long she’ll be in the chair. The WhatsApp questions didn’t disappear, but they’re no longer the same ones over and over. If you don’t have your link on Instagram yet, the guide to the Instagram booking link shows you how.

Frequently asked questions

How many services should I add?

The ones clients actually choose. If two services differ in something clients don’t care about, merge them. A short, clear list is easier to book from than a long one full of variations.

What do I do with a service I don’t want booked online?

Keep it set up, with its duration and price, but with online booking turned off. Your team books it from the calendar and it still shows up in the client’s history.

Do clients see the prep and cleanup time?

No. They see the service’s duration. The schedule holds the whole block so the next client doesn’t have to wait.

If you want to see how your list looks on a real booking page, try Citauno free for 15 days, no card required. See how online booking for nail studios works or check the pricing.