How to use the Facebook 'Book Now' button to increase bookings

If you’re looking to increase bookings at your community centre or space, a great way to do this is to add a Book Now button to your Facebook page. This makes it really easy for your existing followers or new people to understand that you have space to hire, and then make it easy and seamless for them to book with you.

There are lots of benefits to adding this button:

• Regular Facebook users are now looking for this when they are reviewing potential spaces to book with
• It’s free to add to your page
• It saves you time answering questions, by just directing customers straight to somewhere they can request to book.

If you’re not sure what this looks like, then take a look at this screen shot below. When you add a Book Now button to your Facebook page, it appears really prominently on your page just under the main banner.

It’s really easy to add this button to your page.

The button can do three different things:

• It can enable you to use a facebook hosted calendar to take bookings
• It can sync to other bookings tools (more for beauty salons etc)
• It can take the user to your existing website or bookable space(s) on SpacetoCo.

We are a little biased, but we recommend option 3 because:

1. If you already have a good set up on your website for bookings enquiries or you are using SpacetoCo to take bookings, then you’re streamlining these requests through the same process
2. The Facebook calendar only works on Facebook, so if you have your own site, you have to send users through this to maintain accurate availability
3. If you list with SpacetoCo, we don’t just manage availability, but we also automate payments - so this is another time saver for you - and means the customer can fully complete their transaction as well.
4. Taking your potential customers to your spaces on a site like SpacetoCo means you can give them all the information they need to make a decision, like lots of different images, rich and informative descriptions, additional extras and pricing info.

If you're thinking about whether you should take bookings online - check out our guide to the benefits of online bookings for community spaces.

Here’s how you can get your facebook page to have a Book Now button that links to your website, or SpacetoCo page in a matter of minutes.

1. Head to your facebook page and click the pen icon next to whatever ‘call to action’ big blue button that you have on your main page banner.

2. Select the ‘Make a booking with you’ drop down and select the ‘Book now’ radio button. Click Next.

3. Select ‘Link to your Website.’ You can then enter:

• Your website page
• Your SpacetoCo Profile page (if you have multiple spaces)
• Your SpacetoCo Space page

4. It will then show you a preview and ask you to confirm. And that’s it - your Book Now button will appear on your Facebook page, making it much easier for people to find and book with you.

Elle Bell is our New Zealand Managing Director. She helps Community Centres & Spaces increase bookings, reduce admin and engage & grow their communities.