Booking form templates, field by field

The question that decides the booking

The twenty six forms here share a shape and differ in the answer that changes everything. The salon form asks about colour history and a patch test, because that decides whether the chair is held for two hours or four. The barber form times a cut and a beard separately. The massage form asks where the table goes and what the parking is like, because the therapist travels. The nail form asks whether a previous set has to come off first. The tattoo form asks for placement, size in centimetres and whether the design covers existing work. The campsite form asks for rig length in metres and power draw in amps. The boat hire form asks for a marine licence number and how many people on board cannot swim. The dog boarding form asks for feeding times and medication, and the airport transfer form asks for the flight number and how much luggage. Take a form from another trade and you get the shape without that question.

Conversational for a short booking, classic for a long one

Nine are conversational, one question to a screen, among them the salon, barber, massage, restaurant, vet and tutoring bookings. That suits a booking of four to eight answers and reads well on a phone. The other seventeen are classic forms on one page, which is easier to check at a glance once a booking carries a table of hire items, a list of drivers with licence numbers and expiry dates, or a bond acceptance. Both kinds can take a drawn signature; the six bookings that ask for one, including holiday rental, venue hire, boat hire and dog boarding, are classic because the terms being signed sit on the same page as the signature. Every page names its layout and lists each field in order with its kind and whether it is required.

What a booking form settles, and what it does not

None of these takes a payment or holds stock. A submission is a request and a person confirms it, which is what each thank you screen says. None asks for a card number. Rates, deposits and cancellation terms are written into the form as content so they are read before anybody commits. Eight of the twenty six are Australian and use Australian terms, GST inclusive rates, state licence formats and public liability cover. Start from the booking closest to yours, change the deciding question, then change the cancellation wording and whatever your licence or insurer requires.

Every page in this collection

• Airport transfer booking form with the flight and the luggage

  An airport transfer booking form has to tell a driver which flight to track, how many people and suitcases are coming, and which car fits them. This one does it in eleven fields, with the vehicle choice written as passenger and suitcase limits so the customer picks a car that will actually close.

• Band booking enquiry form with the line up and the stage

  A band booking enquiry form has to match three things: the line up the client wants, the space and power the venue has, and the budget. This one gives each line up its stage size in metres, asks what the venue offers, from separate power circuits to a sound limiter, and takes a budget band so the quote is pitched right.

• Barber booking form with the cut and the beard timed separately

  A barbershop books in fifteen minute blocks, so a booking form that cannot tell a buzz cut from a skin fade with a hot towel shave is just a message with extra steps. This one asks the cut and the beard as two separate questions, each carrying the minutes the chair is held for, and it finishes on a mobile number because confirmation happens by text.

• Boat hire booking form with the licence and the weather policy on it

  A boat hire booking turns on two answers that a date field cannot capture, which are what licence the person at the wheel holds and what happens when the bureau issues a wind warning. This booking form asks for both, prices each boat by its passenger limit, and takes a signature under a weather policy written in plain terms.

• Campsite booking form that asks about the rig before the dates

  A camping ground fits vehicles to sites, so the booking that matters is not the date but the length of what is being towed. This campsite booking form asks for the total rig length in metres, the power in amps and whether a generator is coming, then closes with the fire rules that apply on any day the district is under a total fire ban.

• Car rental booking form with every driver named

  A car rental booking is really two bookings, one for the car and one for the people allowed to drive it, and the second is where rentals go wrong. This booking form takes the vehicle class, the locations and the times in seven fields, then asks for every driver by name, licence number and expiry in a table.

• DJ booking form with set times and a must play list

  A DJ booking form has to settle the date, the venue and exactly when the music starts and stops, then what the night should sound like. This one adds a five row must play table of songs and artists, a do not play list, and a checklist of the equipment the venue already has, so the DJ packs the right van.

• Dog boarding booking form with feeding and medication tables

  A dog boarding booking form has to prove each dog is vaccinated and tell the kennel exactly how to feed and medicate it, because staff will do both without the owner there. This one takes the certificate as an upload, sets feeding and medication out as tables, and has the owner sign an emergency vet consent with a dollar limit.

• Equipment hire booking form with the items as a table

  A hire yard prices a booking from three columns, which are the item, how many and for how many days, and everything else on a hire form is about getting the gear to a site and back. This booking form takes those three as a table, asks what the truck will find when it arrives, and closes with the waiver and the terms signed.

• Free consultation booking form that qualifies before the call

  A free consultation booking form has to qualify the lead and get a call in the diary, without making the free call feel like an exam. This one asks the services, the goal, a budget band and the timeline in seven screens, then hands the visitor to a booking calendar through the redirect add-on.

• Holiday rental booking form with the house rules accepted up front

  Two things ruin the end of a holiday rental stay: a bond deduction the guest did not expect, and a noise complaint from the house next door. This booking form puts both on the page before the dates are held, with the rules written out in full, a guest cap that is stated rather than implied, and a signature under the bond acknowledgement.

• Hotel booking form for a direct reservation request

  A direct hotel booking form has to do what a booking site does, minus the payment page, and it has to be clear that the stay is not confirmed until somebody replies. This one takes the dates, the room type with the nightly rate on each option, the bed configuration and the requests, and says plainly that no card number belongs in a web form.

• Kids party booking form for a play centre

  A kids party booking form has to fix the package, the session and the number of children, because those three decide the room, the party host and the food order. This one adds the cake, a plain allergy question with a privacy note above it, and the parent's signature that makes the waivers their job.

• Massage booking form for a mobile therapist

  A mobile massage booking is a logistics problem before it is a wellbeing one, because somebody has to carry a table from a car to a room. This booking form settles where the session happens, what the parking is like and how long it runs, then asks about style and pressure in words a client can actually answer.

• Meeting room booking form with catering and AV in one request

  A meeting room request that arrives without a layout, a headcount and a cost centre becomes three emails and a coordinator moving chairs while eight people wait in a corridor. This booking form asks for all three in ten fields, puts the seated capacity beside every room name, and states the notice period on each catering option.

• Nail appointment booking form that asks about removal first

  A nail appointment overruns for one reason more than any other, which is that the previous set had to come off and nobody booked time for it. This booking form asks about removal on the second screen, before the date is chosen, and takes the saved design as an upload so the technician can say whether it fits the slot.

• Photo booth booking form with the print layout and props

  A photo booth booking form has to pin down the date, the hours and the venue, then the three choices that change what guests take home: the booth, the print and the props. This one describes each booth and print in its label, states the floor space and power needed, and takes a logo for branded prints.

• Private dining enquiry form with the minimum spend in writing

  A private dining enquiry form has to settle the room, the menu and the drinks, because together they decide whether a group clears the minimum spend. This one prices each choice in its label and puts the minimum spend and deposit terms above a required tick, so the quote that comes back holds no surprises.

• Restaurant reservation form with the occasion and the seating

  A restaurant reservation form has to settle the night, the time, the number of covers and where the party sits, because those four decide whether the table exists. This one adds the occasion, the dietary needs and a high chair, so the floor manager can place the booking before service instead of during it.

• Salon booking form that asks what has been on your hair

  A salon booking goes wrong when the slot booked and the service required are different lengths, and colour is where that gap gets expensive. This booking form puts the real duration beside every service, asks what has been on the hair in the last twelve months, and checks whether a patch test exists before anybody is offered a colour appointment.

• Site inspection booking form for an electrician's quote

  A site inspection booking form has to get a tradesperson to the right address, through the right door, with the right parts, at a time someone can let them in. This one asks the job type, access, a time window and parking, takes photos of the switchboard and the work area, and asks about pets before the gate opens.

• Tattoo booking request form that gives an artist enough to quote

  An artist cannot quote a tattoo from a description of the idea alone, because price follows placement, size and skin rather than sentiment. This booking request asks for the longest side in centimetres, where on the body it goes and whether it sits over existing work, then takes the references as an upload.

• Tour booking form that asks about fitness before the date

  A day tour is ruined for everybody when one person is on a walk that is two grades harder than they expected, and no booking system catches that. This tour booking form names the distance, the climb and the grading in every option, then asks the group to describe the least fit person coming, in words that make the honest answer easy to give.

• Tutoring session booking form with subject, format and free times

  A tutoring session booking form has to match a student to a tutor who teaches the subject at that year level, in the right format, at a time both are free. This one asks each of those on its own screen, uses a weekly grid for availability, and asks what the first session should cover so it starts on real work.

• Venue hire form for a community hall

  A community hall committee is a handful of volunteers approving bookings between other jobs, so the hire form has to arrive complete or it costs somebody three emails. This one asks for the access and vacate times rather than the event time, names the five ways alcohol can appear at a function, and asks for a current certificate of public liability insurance, which the hall checks before it confirms a booking.

• Vet appointment booking form with the reason and the urgency

  A vet appointment booking form has to tell reception what the visit is for and how soon the animal must be seen, because those two set the consult length and the place in the queue. This one asks both on their own screens, sends real emergencies to the phone before the first question, and flags new clients.