Every class goes on one page with its date, its menu and the seats left, capped at the benches you have. The place is paid for when it is booked rather than on the night, and a seat somebody gives back goes straight onto the date, so the number you shop for on Friday morning is the right one.
Blu KitchenBook online
Friday pasta class3h · 8 benches$85.00
Knife skills evening2h · 10 benches$55.00
Whole kitchen, privateHalf dayBook
Next freeThu 6:30 PMFri 6:00 PMSat 11:00 AM
Seats left
2 of 8
Then the page starts a list
Paid at booking
$85.00
Before you do the Friday shop
Dietary notes
On the booking
Two vegetarians, no shellfish
A cookery school spends money before anybody arrives, which makes the number who booked and what they can eat the two things worth getting right.
Each date with what is being cooked, how long it runs, what it costs and how many places are left. Somebody buying a present at eleven at night can see all of it and book.
Set the number from the stations you have, not the room, and the page stops selling when it is reached. On the paid plans it starts a list instead, which is how you decide whether to put a second Friday on.
On the paid plans, ask at booking rather than at the door. Two vegetarians and a shellfish allergy are on the list you take to the market on Friday morning, not a surprise you deal with at half six.
Take the whole price or a deposit at the point of booking through your own payment provider. The seat is held once the money has gone through, which is what makes the Friday shop safe to do.
A hen party, a team from an office and a family taking the Saturday for a birthday are not eight individual seats. They are the whole kitchen for four hours with a different price, a different menu and a deposit up front. Set private hire up as its own bookable thing and the page holds the room, the chef and the equipment together, and takes the class off sale for that slot at the same time. Nobody buys a single place on an evening that has already gone to one group.
Somebody who cancels puts their place back on the date, where the next person looking at your page takes it; on the paid plans the people already waiting for it are offered it first. That matters more here than on most classes, because by Friday morning the ingredients for that seat have already been bought, so a place refilled on Wednesday is a real difference and a place refilled on Friday afternoon is not. You set how late somebody may cancel and still release a seat, so a withdrawal after the shopping is one you have been paid for.
Quarter past eight on a Friday morning at the market, buying for eight because eight is the number on the piece of paper by the till. By half six that evening there are six people in the kitchen: one cancelled by voicemail on Wednesday and one simply did not come, having paid nothing at all when they booked.
One of the six turns out not to eat shellfish, which is the entire second course, and there is no time to do anything about it now. Two people who wanted a place on Friday emailed on Monday and got an answer on Thursday, by which point they had booked a class somewhere else.
Picktime puts every date on a page with its menu and its seats left, takes the money when the place is booked, and puts a returned seat straight back on the date where somebody else can take it.
List every date with what is on the menu, how long it runs and what it costs. Set the cap from the benches or hobs you can actually run, and add private hire as its own booking with its own price.
Take the full price or a deposit at booking through the provider you already use, and say how late somebody may cancel and still release the place, which is the line between a cancellation you can refill and one you have already shopped for.
On the paid plans, write the booking fields so the page asks about dietary requirements, allergies and whether it is a gift, and the answers arrive with the booking. The list you take to the market on Friday is then the correct one.
A cookery school runs its classes with both hands occupied, and the calls arrive during them. The AI receptionist answers instead, and it does more than take a message: it talks the caller through which dates are running, what is being cooked on each and how many places are left, then holds a place and sends the same confirmation anybody booking on the page receives. Where it cannot help (a private hire quote, a question about a menu you would rather answer yourself), it passes the call to you or takes the details. It is on at midnight and on a Sunday, which is when presents get bought.
The free plan is a plan, not a trial. There is no date at which it stops, no card to add, and nothing that quietly turns off in a fortnight.
A class lands in the calendar you already have open, and the paid plans sync it both ways, so when it moves there it moves here, which is what stops a Saturday being sold as eight seats and hired to one group in the same week. Payment for a place or a private hire deposit runs through the provider you already use.
Picktime runs in a browser on a phone as well as a laptop, and there are iOS and Android apps, so the numbers and the allergy notes are in your hand at the market rather than on a piece of paper by the till.
The useful test for a cookery school is whether the money is taken at the moment of booking, because the number has to be right before you shop. Picktime does that alongside dated classes and a cap per bench, free for a single kitchen, with dietary fields and a waiting list on the paid plans.
Yes. Picktime’s free plan gives one kitchen a booking page, a cap on every date, a returned seat straight back on the page and guest records, with no card and no end date on it. Waiting lists and your own dietary fields sit on the paid plans.
Yes. Connect PayPal on the free plan, or Stripe or Square on the paid ones, and take the whole price or a deposit at booking. The seat is only held once the payment has gone through, which is what makes the shopping safe to do the morning before.
Yes, on the paid plans. You write the booking fields yourself, so the page asks about allergies, dietary requirements and whether the place is a gift, and the answers arrive attached to the booking, on the list you take to the market rather than discovered at the door.
Yes, and the cap is set per date rather than per class, so a Friday evening in the main kitchen can take eight where a Saturday demonstration takes twenty. When it fills, the page stops selling; the waiting list that opens instead is on the paid plans.
Yes. Private hire is set up as its own bookable thing with its own price, length and deposit, and booking it takes the individual class off sale for that slot, so nobody buys a single seat on an evening that has gone to one group.
The seat goes back on the date, where the next person looking at your page takes it; on the paid plans the people already on the waiting list are offered it first. You decide how late a cancellation may be made and still release the place, so a withdrawal after you have shopped is one you have been paid for.
Dated sessions Half-days and CPD sessions, capped at the room and billed to an employer.
See workshop scheduling
Studios and terms Terms and one-off tasters, capped at the easels and the kiln shelves.
See art class scheduling
Dates and deposits One date taken from enquiry to confirmed, held by a deposit.
See event schedulingFree forever for one kitchen. No card, no trial clock, and Friday’s class can be taking bookings this morning.
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