Unless you have a standing appointment at your preferred salon, finding an empty slot on the fly can be quite an undertaking. When your hair needs straightening or your brows need taming, time is of the essence, and calling around for an appointment can be maddening.
To make things a little more sane, BeautyBooked has just launched the Dallas platform of its e-booking site, with about 50 local salons and spas in the system and more being added every week.
It’s like Expedia or Opentable but for grooming, with the added bonus of knowing that each venue has been vetted by a team of experts.
Founded in 2012 by New Yorkers Hillary Hutcheson and Ritika Gill, the former L’Oréal brand managers had grown tired of wasting lunch breaks calling local salons and being placed on hold. So they took matters into their own manicured hands and came up with the idea for a website that would make snagging an appointment simple and straightforward.
To be sure, the beauty booking business was a fairly tough nut to crack given that every salon has its own system – and likes to keep it that way. But Hutcheson and Gill — with MBAs from London Business School and Cornell, respectively — came up with their own method for digitizing appointment availability.
Members can search by service type or salon and then refine the results based on price and location. You might come up with Chad Rookstool if all you need is a haircut downtown. Or The Pretty Kitty in you want to be waxed in Uptown.
It’s like Expedia or Opentable but for grooming, with the added bonus of knowing that each venue has been vetted by a team of experts. Members earn points for each appointment, which add up to free products or services. What’s more, there are a handful of brand-new features rolling out, including same-day appointments, at-home services, complimentary upgrades and gift cards to share the beauty wealth.
If your usual spa or salon is in the system, you’re golden. (Never have to deal with that gum-snapping receptionist who stops answering the phone after 4 o’clock again.) Or you might end up discovering a new hair stylist you really click with.
Schedule an appointment at Chad Rookstool Salon via BeautyBooked.
