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Yatoon Appointment Booking for Salons & Spas with AI Assistant

Yatoon Appointment Booking for Salons & Spas with AI Assistant

Description

Run salon bookings from WordPress and your connected calendar

Yatoon Pro combines a mobile-first customer booking experience with Square Appointments or Vagaro synchronization, staff tools, reminders, deposits, no-show workflows, and customer self-service. AI guidance is optional and never required for normal booking.

The guided setup asks for integration credentials only when the matching Pro mode is selected. New installations stay empty unless the administrator explicitly chooses sample content.

Official source, copyright, and support

Yatoon Salon Booking Pro is an official Yatoon plugin. Official downloads, updates, licensing, and support are provided through https://yatoon.com.

Live demo: https://yatoon.com/bookingdemo/

The plugin code is distributed under the GPLv2 or later, as required for WordPress-compatible distribution. Copyright notices, author attribution, and the Yatoon brand identity must be preserved. Modified or forked versions must not claim to be the official Yatoon release, use Yatoon branding in a misleading way, or imply official support unless authorized by Yatoon.

For the safest installation, download Yatoon only from the official source and avoid unsupported redistributed copies.

Built by a salon owner who got tired of generic booking plugins.

After trying plugin after plugin designed for dentists or yoga studios, we gave up and built our own. Yatoon is the booking system we wish existed when we opened our salon – and now we’re sharing it with every beauty business owner who’s been through the same frustration.

No complicated setup. No $50/month SaaS fees. No features you’ll never use. Just a beautiful, fast booking experience your clients will love.

WordPress 7.0 AI-ready booking

Yatoon 3.0 is built to work with the WordPress 7.0 AI Client when an AI provider is connected in WordPress Settings > Connectors. This makes Yatoon an early AI-ready salon booking plugin for WordPress 7.0 while staying fully compatible with WordPress 6.9 and older: if AI is not available, the normal booking flow keeps working and AI actions show clear availability guidance.

  • AI service helper – clients describe what they want and AI suggests clickable matching services from your real service menu
  • AI service description helper – salon owners can improve service descriptions from the Services editor so customers and AI have clearer details
  • No plugin-owned AI billing – AI provider/API keys are managed by WordPress Connectors; usage costs depend on the site owner’s chosen AI provider
  • Provider fallback – when multiple providers are connected, Yatoon prefers OpenAI/GPT first, then Google/Gemini, then Anthropic/Claude
  • Safety-first prompts – AI is instructed not to invent prices, appointment times, medical advice, refunds, or policies
  • Pro upgrade path – Pro adds AI reply drafts for Text Us messages

What makes Yatoon different

Most booking plugins were built for generic businesses. Yatoon was built for beauty. That means:

  • Clients can book multiple services in one visit – nails + pedicure + eyebrows, all in one checkout
  • AI-guided service selection helps unsure clients understand which service fits their needs
  • Group appointments – your client books for herself and her friend, with separate services and staff for each person, in one go
  • A restaurant-style service menu with photos, pricing, and a Book button right on the page – not a separate popup or redirect
  • Staff profiles with real star ratings from verified clients – clients pick who they trust
  • A photo gallery that auto-scrolls your nail art – because your work sells itself
  • Tip / gratuity at checkout – preset percentages or custom amount, right in the booking flow

This is the stuff that actually matters in a salon. Everything else is just noise.

Booking experience your clients will love

  • Mobile-first – the entire booking flow is designed for phones first. Your clients book from the nail salon parking lot or their couch.
  • Multi-step flow with animated progress bar – clients always know where they are and what’s next
  • Real-time availability – live calendar that loads actual open slots from your schedule
  • “Any staff” option – clients who don’t have a preference get the first available technician automatically
  • Waitlist capture – when a time is fully booked, clients can join a list so you can follow up manually
  • “Text Us” button – if nothing is available, clients can reach you directly with one tap
  • Add to Calendar – Google, Apple, and Outlook with one click after booking
  • Self-service portal – clients reschedule or cancel on their own, without calling you

Everything you need to run your salon

For your clients:
* Beautiful booking form that matches your website
* Instant confirmation email with full appointment details
* Automated reminder email before their appointment
* One-tap star rating after their visit – no login required
* Secure link to reschedule or cancel anytime

For your team:
* Staff portal – technicians view their own schedule on their phone, no logins needed
* Staff profiles with photos, bios, and real star ratings
* Each staff member linked to only their services

For you:
* Dashboard with today’s bookings, monthly revenue, and no-show rate at a glance
* Client list with visit history, notes, and allergy information
* Closed dates manager – block holidays for everyone with one click
* Custom booking form fields – add questions like nail shape preference, allergy notes, or reference photos
* Fully customizable confirmation email template

Service display shortcodes

  • [yatoon_booking] – the full booking form. Put it on any page.
  • [yatoon_service_menu] – restaurant-style menu with photos, prices, and Book buttons. Clients browse and book without leaving the page.
  • [yatoon_catalog] – image card grid with category filters.
  • [yatoon_gallery] – auto-scrolling photo carousel of your work. Supports mobile swipe, lightbox, and infinite loop.
  • [yatoon_customer_portal] – client self-service: view upcoming bookings, reschedule, cancel.
  • [yatoon_staff_portal] – technician schedule viewer. Installable as a home screen app on iPhone and Android.

Pro features included – for salons that are growing

This Pro package includes the features growing salons depend on:

  • Square & Vagaro live sync – your Square Appointments or Vagaro availability syncs in real time. No double bookings, ever. Clients see exactly what’s open.
  • AI reply drafts – turn Text Us messages into warm, staff-reviewed response drafts
  • SMS reminders via Twilio – automated text messages before every appointment cut no-shows dramatically
  • Google Calendar two-way sync – your bookings appear in your personal calendar automatically
  • Unlimited staff members – no cap on technicians
  • Deposits & prepay – require a credit card or partial payment upfront for clients with a no-show history, or for high-value services
  • Waitlist auto-notify – email clients automatically when a matching slot opens
  • No-show tracking – automatically flag clients who miss appointments
  • Recurring bookings – clients set up weekly or bi-weekly repeats from the confirmation page
  • Service packages, memberships, coupon codes & gift cards – sell and redeem prepaid value from your site
  • Priority support – direct access to the team that built and runs this in a real salon

Get started in 5 minutes

  1. Install and activate the plugin
  2. The Setup Wizard launches automatically – follow 5 simple steps to configure your business info, hours, and booking page
  3. Add [yatoon_booking] to your booking page
  4. Add [yatoon_service_menu] to your services page
  5. Upload photos to your services and add [yatoon_gallery] to your homepage
  6. Preview the client booking experience at https://yatoon.com/bookingdemo/

That’s it. Your clients can start booking.

External Services and Privacy

AI features use the WordPress 7.0 AI Client when a site administrator connects an AI provider in WordPress Settings > Connectors. Yatoon does not store AI provider API keys and does not charge for AI usage. Any AI usage cost depends on the site owner’s selected AI provider. On WordPress 6.9 and older, AI features stay hidden and the booking system continues to work normally.

Pro integrations connect only after the site administrator enables them and enters credentials. Depending on enabled features, booking, customer, payment, calendar, or message data may be exchanged with Square, Vagaro, Stripe, Twilio, Google Calendar, or Freemius to provide the requested service.

When a site administrator opts in to Freemius software analytics, Yatoon also sends one-time setup funnel event names together with the plugin version, Free/Pro tier, booking mode, and event time. These events do not include customer names, contact details, appointment content, payment information, or an explicit site-domain property. Sites that do not allow tracking keep these milestones only in their own WordPress database.

  • Square: https://squareup.com/us/en/legal/general/privacy
  • Vagaro: https://www.vagaro.com/PrivacyPolicy.aspx
  • Stripe: https://stripe.com/privacy
  • Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/legal/privacy
  • Google Calendar / Google APIs: https://policies.google.com/privacy
  • Freemius: https://freemius.com – Terms: https://freemius.com/terms/ – Privacy: https://freemius.com/privacy/

Screenshots

FAQ-e

Does this work with Square or Vagaro?

Real-time Square and Vagaro calendar sync is available in Yatoon Pro. The free version supports local availability management through the built-in calendar.

Can clients book for a group?

Yes. Yatoon supports group appointments – your client can book services for themselves and a guest in a single checkout, with separate service and staff selection for each person.

Can I add multiple services to one appointment?

Yes. Clients can add as many services as needed. The booking form shows a running total of time and price, and the calendar finds a start time that fits the full combined duration.

Is it mobile-friendly?

Yatoon is designed mobile-first. The booking form, service menu, and photo gallery all work smoothly on phones and tablets.

Does it send confirmation emails?

Yes. Automated confirmation emails go out immediately after booking, with a full appointment summary and a link to manage or reschedule.

Can clients leave a star rating without creating an account?

Yes. After their appointment, clients receive an email with a one-tap star rating link. No login or account required.

How do I display my service photos?

Upload photos to each service (Services > Edit > Gallery Images), then add [yatoon_gallery] to any page. The carousel auto-scrolls and supports swipe on mobile.

Does AI cost money?

WordPress 7.0 provides the AI Client interface, but the site owner pays their chosen AI provider if that provider charges for usage. Yatoon does not store AI API keys or charge for AI usage.

Does Yatoon still work on WordPress 6.9?

Yes. The booking system remains compatible with WordPress 6.9 and older. AI features only appear when the WordPress 7.0 AI Client is available and configured.

What languages is Yatoon available in?

Yatoon is translation-ready and compatible with WPML and Polylang. All strings are localized.

Reviews

Read all 1 review

Contributors & Developers

“Yatoon Appointment Booking for Salons & Spas with AI Assistant” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

4.0.0

  • New: Formal major release with a unified SaaS-style admin, booking, staff, and customer experience.
  • Performance: Booking confirmation no longer waits for email, SMS, push, calendar, webhook, or design-image processing.
  • Reliability: Added a durable background queue, automatic retry policy, request timing dashboard, and failed-job recovery.
  • Commerce: Added orders, line items, invoices, payment history, balances, and append-only refund records.
  • Automation: Added delayed email, webhook, and internal-note workflows for booking and payment events.
  • Capacity: Added shared equipment, chair, room, and workstation limits to availability calculations.
  • Scale: Added server-side booking search, status filtering, and pagination.
  • Integrations: Added native Gutenberg blocks, an Elementor widget, lifecycle hooks, queue hooks, and developer documentation.
  • Experience: Includes mobile category fitting, contextual compressed design uploads, manager all-team calendars, and the complete 4.x interface polish.
  • Compatibility: Preserves 3.6.0 bookings, services, staff, settings, shortcodes, customer links, and portal permissions.

3.6.0

  • Added a Today workspace with next-client, appointment, unpaid, pending, and late indicators.
  • Added Staff, Manager, and Owner permission presets while retaining granular portal permissions.
  • Added staff time-off requests with manager approval or rejection and automatic availability blocking.
  • Added client visit history, allergy, preference, and recent-note context to appointment details.
  • Replaced squeezed mobile multi-staff columns with horizontal employee tabs.
  • Preserved existing appointments, availability rules, staff PINs, shortcodes, and settings.

3.5.0

  • Added a dedicated Yatoon admin shell and improved responsive admin layouts.
  • Refined the staff portal with Day, Week, and Agenda views.
  • Added secure customer design-image uploads for enabled services and design add-ons.
  • Added reusable existing-item selection for service options with shared reference IDs.
  • Improved mobile booking progress, fixed visible encoding artifacts, and preserved 3.4.0 compatibility.

3.4.0

  • Improved: Preserved the 3.3.20-3.3.29 Services admin refinements as the new release baseline.
  • Improved: Added clearer Active/Hidden controls, editable options, compact service cards, and reliable responsive widths.
  • Analytics: Added a privacy-aware five-step activation funnel using Freemius only on sites that already allow tracking.
  • Privacy: Conversion events exclude customer, appointment, payment, and explicit site-domain data.
  • Stability: Free and Pro share the same telemetry and database core, backed by release parity tests.

3.3.29

  • Replaced the Services list status checkbox with a clear Active/Hidden status button so selection and visibility controls are no longer confused.
  • Widened the Edit Service modal, added an explicit close button, and prevented option action controls from being clipped.

3.3.28

  • Made Service Options / Variations editable directly inside the Edit Service modal, including name, duration, price, and type.
  • Added per-option Save and Delete controls so add-ons no longer need to be deleted and recreated for small changes.

3.3.27

  • Reworked the Services admin page into self-contained service rows that show key details without dragging right.
  • Disabled resizable-column behavior for the Services list so old saved column widths cannot squeeze the visible content.

3.3.26

  • Reworked the Services admin list into a compact overview that fits common admin screens without hunting for far-right actions.
  • Added click-row-to-edit behavior so service details, categories, options, and add-ons are managed in the edit modal instead of a wide inline table.

3.3.25

  • Moved Services admin management actions into the top toolbar: select one service, then Edit Selected, Add Add-on, or Delete Selected.
  • Hid the far-right row Actions column from the Services table so important controls no longer require horizontal scrolling.

3.3.24

  • Fixed the Services admin table column initialization so Service Name no longer expands and pushes Duration, Price, Category, Status, and Actions off-screen.
  • Preserved resizable columns while applying practical default widths and a one-time reset of older saved oversized Services table widths.

3.3.23

  • Refined the Services admin table so default columns start narrower while remaining resizable by the user.
  • Reset old saved Services table widths and made service selection update immediately on pointer down.

3.3.22

  • Improved the Services admin table so key actions stay visible without horizontal hunting on desktop screens.
  • Made service row selection more reliable by increasing checkbox hit targets and allowing the checkbox cell to toggle selection.

3.3.21

  • Improved the Services admin option editor with visible Save/Delete actions, Unsaved/Saved feedback, and clearer inline option management.
  • Fixed duplicate horizontal scrollbars on the Services admin table so option editing is easier to use.

3.3.20

  • Fixed mobile option and add-on cards on Android/narrow browsers so long service option names wrap normally instead of collapsing into vertical text.
  • Improved mobile booking width and option-card spacing to reduce empty side gutters while keeping prices and selection circles readable.

3.3.19

  • Stability: Free and Pro now load the same shared core before all business classes.
  • Upgrade safety: UI-only releases no longer rerun the full database schema migration.
  • Testing: Added automated shared-core, schema-upgrade, package parity, and WP-CLI smoke tests.
  • Onboarding: New Square/Vagaro-aware setup wizard with optional demo data, automatic page creation, and direct test booking.
  • Insights: Added a local activation funnel from activation through the first real booking.
  • Trust: New installations stay clean unless sample staff and services are explicitly selected.

3.3.18

  • Improved: Client profiles now surface VIP, upcoming booking, no-show, and unpaid signals directly in the client list.
  • Improved: Square no-show fee statuses are clearer across Staff Portal, admin calendar, and bookings.
  • Improved: Booking payment status labels now include no-show fee charged and waived states for cleaner operations.

3.3.17

  • New: Added a Square-only no-show fee workflow for Staff Portal and admin calendar.
  • New: Staff can open Square, copy the Square booking ID, mark a no-show fee charged in Square, or waive the fee after marking an appointment No Show.
  • Improved: No-show appointments remain visible in operational calendar views so staff can finish the charge/waive decision.

3.3.16

  • Refined: cleaner admin license wording, steadier mobile spacing, stronger button/focus states, and clearer release metadata for Free and Pro packages.
  • Improved: tightened service/category cards and booking controls so the interface feels more polished on phone and desktop.

3.3.15

  • Final polish: mobile steps, service cards, category tabs, AI helper, and license/upgrade wording are cleaner and easier to scan.
  • Improved: Booking flow copy is clearer across group bookings, staff choice, appointment length, review, and mobile cart states.
  • Improved: Add guests and services review uses numbered guest labels and a consistent primary action style.
  • Improved: Time selection now uses an Edit Services action that returns customers to the service/guest review instead of defaulting to adding another service for Me.

3.3.14

  • Improved: Group guest appointments now show the time range first and Reserved Time underneath, with guests clearly shown as starting together instead of implying sequential service order.