The deal
A booking marketplace, Fresha, Treatwell, Booksy, ClassPass, Mindbody's consumer app, lists your business alongside your competitors, brings you clients who were searching the platform rather than searching for you, and takes a fee or a commission for the ones it delivers. Some also offer free booking software in exchange for being the marketplace.
For a new business with an empty diary it can be the fastest way to fill it. For an established one, it is often a slow leak of margin and of something more valuable: the client relationship.
What you give up
The client's contact details, in practice. The marketplace has them. You may see a name and a mobile number, or you may see a first name and a platform message thread. Marketing to that client, reminding them, offering them a rebook, happens through the platform on the platform's terms.
The client's habit. They booked you on the app. Next time they open the app, they see you and four competitors, sorted by whatever the platform prefers, with the platform's promotions overlaid. You trained them to go somewhere that sells them alternatives.
The fee, forever. Commission on a first booking from a new client is a fair acquisition cost. Commission on the fortieth booking from a regular who would have come anyway is a tax. Most marketplaces charge on every booking made through the platform, and a client who books through the app keeps booking through the app.
Your pricing. Platforms run discounts and promotions, sometimes without much say from you, and clients learn that your service is a thing that goes on sale.
Your reviews. The reviews live on the platform's profile, not on your Google listing or your website, where they would help you rank and convert people who are searching for you directly.
What you get
Discovery. People browsing for "massage near me" inside an app they already use, who would not have found your website. For a new business, or one moving to a new area, this is real and it is the reason to be there.
A booking system, sometimes free. Fresha's model in particular gives you good software at no subscription cost, funded by marketplace fees and payment processing. If you have no booking system, that is a genuine offer.
Filled gaps. Last-minute slots on a slow Tuesday, sold at a discount to someone who was going to book someone.
The arithmetic
Take a month of marketplace bookings and split them: new clients you had never seen, and existing clients who happened to book through the app. The first group is what the fee buys. The second is what it costs. On most established businesses we look at, the second group is the majority within a year of joining, and the fees on it exceed what a website and booking system would cost outright.
The strategy that works
Use the marketplace as a front door, not a home. Take the new clients it sends. Then, from the first visit, move the relationship onto your own ground:
- Your own booking system, on your own website. A proper one, with your branding, reminders and deposits, linked from your Google Business Profile and your Instagram. This is where you want every rebook to happen.
- Ask at the till. "Next time, book straight with us at [your site]; it's quicker and you'll get our reminders." Hand them a card with the address. Most regulars will switch when asked; nobody switches if not asked.
- Collect the details yourself. An intake form on the first visit, with consent for reminders and occasional emails. Now you have the relationship, whatever the platform shows you.
- Offer a small reason. Loyalty points, a rebook discount, priority on the waitlist, available only when booking direct. Enough to tip the habit; not a war with the platform.
- Keep the marketplace listing for discovery, with your availability restricted to the slots you actually want to fill from strangers. Some businesses list only off-peak hours there.
- Watch the split monthly. New versus existing. When existing clients booking through the platform drops to a trickle, the strategy is working.
When to stay fully on a marketplace
Very new, very small, no website and no budget for one yet, in a category where the platform has genuine consumer pull. Use it, fill the diary, and plan the move to your own booking within the first year, before the habits set.
When to leave entirely
When new-client bookings from the platform have fallen to a handful a month and the fees on regulars dominate. Export what you can (some platforms make this hard, which tells you something), tell your clients in person and by message, and switch off the listing. Businesses that do this almost always report the same thing: the diary stays full, and the fee line disappears.
Where this sits
Setting up direct booking on the business's own site, and the till-side script that moves clients onto it, is the core of what we do for booking-led businesses. The marketplace is not the enemy. It is a channel, and channels are for acquiring clients, not for keeping them.