Booking forms have become a must-have tool for appointment-based businesses. According to a survey by Software Advice, over 68% of booking-related service providers offer online scheduling.
As per their research, online booking can help small businesses save up to 4 hours per employee daily that would otherwise be spent on manual bookings over phone or email.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll provide actionable tips to build, customize and manage booking forms in WordPress using the latest tools and techniques.
Why You Need an Online Booking Form
Here are some of the key reasons why your WordPress site needs a booking form:
1. Allows 24/7 Self-Service Bookings
An online booking form enables visitors to schedule appointments on your website anytime. This eliminates reliance on staff availability to handle bookings.
- 82% of customers prefer booking online at their convenience over calling. [Source: SoftwareAdvice]
2. Reduces No-Shows via Reminders
Automated booking confirmation and reminder emails can reduce appointment no-show rates by over 30%. [Source: BenchPrep]
Allowing clients to self-book also results in 68% higher show rates according to ClinicMetrics.
3. Boosts Conversion Rates
Presenting a booking form directly on high-traffic landing pages and offer pages boosts conversion rate by up to 22% according to Unbounce. This leads to more bookings vs only offering phone/email contact options.
| Benefit | Metrics |
|---|---|
| 24/7 self-service | 82% customers prefer self-service |
| Reduces no-shows | 30%+ lower no-show rates with automated reminders |
| Boosts conversions | 22% higher conversions with online booking forms |
Next, let‘s compare some of the leading WordPress booking plugins available.
Choosing a WordPress Booking Plugin
When choosing a WordPress booking plugin, start by reviewing these key factors:
- Ease of use
- Booking flexibility
- Advanced features
- Payment options
- Support and updates
We’ll compare how WPForms and Formidable Forms stack up on these criteria for creating WordPress booking functionality.
WPForms Review
WPForms is the most beginner-friendly WordPress booking plugin that also packs some powerful features. It‘s used on over 4 million websites which speaks to its versatility.
Ease of Use
WPForms gets top marks for ease of use. Its drag-and-drop builder is intuitive with over 100 pre-made templates including booking and appointment forms. Customizing fields and options is easy via the responsive interface.
Booking Flexibility
It has the basics covered for collecting RSVPs and scheduling calls or appointments. Some advanced booking scenarios may require custom code.
Advanced Features
Key features include multi-page forms, graphs and analytics, entry management, payments and hundreds of integrations. However, it does not have the depth offered by Formidable Forms.
Support and Updates
As the most widely used form builder plugin, WPForms offers excellent documentation and support channels. The plugin is also updated every 2 weeks on average which is impressive.
WPForms Pros
✅ Extremely easy to use
✅ Great templates and customization
✅ Very budget-friendly
✅ Robust entry management
✅ Highly rated support
WPForms Cons
❌ Limited advanced booking options
❌ Hosted form analytics costs extra
❌ Code required for complex forms
Price: Free – WPForms Lite | $39+ – Paid upgrades
Formidable Forms Review
Formidable Forms is a hugely flexible WordPress booking forms plugin built for intermediates to advanced WordPress users.
It packs enterprise-grade form building capabilities backed by stellar support.
Ease of Use
Formidable Forms is more complex than WPForms. It can require a bit of a learning curve, especially for inexperienced site owners.
However, their documentation and YouTube channel have many resources to learn it.
Booking Flexibility
This is one area where Formidable Forms outshines almost any other booking form builder.
It can handle super complex booking needs out-of-the-box for hotels, tour operators, event venues, client appointments and more. Both one-time and repeating bookings.
Advanced Features
Packed with advanced features including multi-page forms, partial entries, conditional logic, Calculations, front-end editing, detailed insights graphs and so on. Lots of room to scale.
Support and Updates
The support team offers both free and paid dedicated setup assistance. Updates rollout regularly with fixes and new features.
Formidable Forms Pros
✅ Very flexible and customizable
✅ Robust conditional logic
✅ Partial entries supported
✅ Great for advanced bookings
✅ Excellent dev team and support
Formidable Forms Cons
❌ Steep learning curve
❌ Much more expensive
❌ Overkill for basic bookings
Price: Free – Formidable Lite | $99+ Yearly Plans
As you can see, each plugin has strengths in certain areas.
WPForms simplifies booking forms creation using an easy drag-and-drop editor. It works nicely for basic reservations.
Formidable Forms supports more complex booking scenarios out-of-the-box. It packs enterprise-level form power plus dedicated support.
Next, we‘ll walk through actually building and embedding a booking form using WPForms.
Step-by-Step Guide: How to Make a Booking Form
Here is an updated visual guide for creating a working booking form using WPForms in WordPress:
1. Install and Activate WPForms
Search for "WPForms" in Plugins > Add New and install the plugin. Click "Activate" after installation completes.
If you have WPForms paid licenses, enter your license key on the next screen for premium access.
2. Create a New Booking Form
From the left WPForms menu, click Add New to start creating a new WordPress booking form.
Give your form a name then scroll down to the templates section. Look under Event Planning and select the "Event Registration" template.
It contains preset name, email, number of guests and event date fields.
3. Customize the Form Fields
Click any field to open custom settings on the right sidebar. Here you can:
- Change labels
- Add/remove fields
- Make fields required
Drag new elements like a Date Picker from the left Form Elements sidebar. Rearrange or duplicate existing fields via drag-and-drop.
Customize fields, choices, labels and settings until the booking form meets your requirements.
4. Booking Confirmations
Go to Settings > Confirmations to set up customer-facing messages.
Checkmark both "Screen" confirmations and "Email" confirmations then tweak the default messages shown to customers after they successfully submit a booking.
You can make parts of the confirmation message conditional based on selected bookings.
5. Email Notifications and Payments
Next, configure email notifications so you get alerts when bookings come in.
Go back to Settings > Notifications to set To, From and admin notification options. Verify test emails are delivered, check spam.
From here, you can also connect Stripe or PayPal to collect payments or deposits with bookings right on your site.
6. Embed and Test Live
Click Save button to finish constructing the live booking form.
Go to Embed > Copy Shortcode then paste onto any WordPress landing page, post or widget.
On the frontend, thoroughly test filling out and sending test bookings. Verify confirmation messages and emails.
And that‘s really all there is to it to create a fully working booking form in WordPress using WPForms drag and drop builder!
Recap and Next Steps
Let‘s recap what are some potential next steps to scale up your new WordPress booking functionality:
- Sync bookings to a Google Calendar or iCal automatically
- Add conditional logic to show specific fields
- Give customers frontend dashboard to reschedule
- Build multiple location-specific booking forms
- Connect Integromat or Zapier to auto-assign bookings
Some key takeaways:
✔ WPForms + Formidable Forms enable WordPress booking
✔ Choose plugin based on your business needs
✔ Customize templates or build from scratch
✔ Set up confirmation messages and emails notifications
✔ Embed via shortcodes
✔ Accept payments to collect deposits
We hope this up-to-date and expanded guide helped you learn precisely how to create a fully-working booking form with WordPress. Let us know if you have any other questions!
