SimplyBook.me – Booking and reservations calendar vs Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce

SimplyBook.me is the easiest way to start collecting bookings on your WordPress website. The plugin will allow you to register your free account and immediately publish your booking calendar on the front-end of your site. With a few clicks, you can easily add your services and service providers, and design the most beautiful booking widget. You will be collecting appointments and reservations in no-time! Easy appointment scheduling Simple plugin onboarding and configuration Manage your calendar and bookings using the powerful mobile app (iOS and Android) Accept touchless payments via the app on your onsite checkout High email deliverability for reservation confirmations and appointment reminders. Create multiple services, providers, categories and locations Send email and SMS notifications to your customers for their bookings Add “Book now” buttons on your Instagram, Facebook and Google Business Profile Sell Memberships, packages & gift cards Manage bookings for Classes & Events Increase sales by offering products and service add-ons in the booking process Marketing campaigns by emails and push notifications Waiting Lists and “Make me look busy” features Offer Coupons and a Loyalty System to enhance brand loyalty Insights and statistics about your bookings, reservations, cancellations, workload and revenues Adjust time zone settings if you have clients in different time zones Create individual schedules for staff Create multiple users related to providers Accepting payments and/or deposits to confirm the bookings in the booking process Easily implement your booking widget with a Gutenberg block, Elementor Widget or a shortcode SimplyBook.me can be used for free up to 50 appointments per month. In addition, you can use one of the Special features for free! You will automatically be signed up for a Free 14-day trial, which allows you to test the Special Features without any restrictions, including advanced scheduling tools. Why SimplyBook.me? SimplyBook.me is an advanced online booking system that creates a professional booking widget on your WordPress site where your clients can book your services at any time. You will then have access to an admin interface where you can manage your bookings, calendar, and settings. On top of that you will get an admin app where you can manage all your bookings, handle appointments, adjust scheduling, and accept payments on the go. Thousands of clients all over the world have selected our booking system to make their business easy and comfortable to use (see our testimonials). SimplyBook.me provides users with a broad range of features so that you can tailor the system to your needs, irrespective of what industry you are in. For a more detailed understanding of the SimplyBook.me service, you can explore at the following link: https://simplybook.me/ This plugin is developed by SimplyBook.me, is ISO27001 compliant and utilizes its API to transmit and store all information, including settings and details of bookings, as well as other personal client data, directly on SimplyBook.me. Before using the plugin, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policy and terms of use of SimplyBook.me at the following links: Privacy Policy Terms of Use This will help you better understand the terms of use of the plugin and ensure your confidentiality. This is the official SimplyBook.me plugin, developed by SimplyBook.me and Really Simple Plugins About Really Simple Plugins: Really Simple Plugins is the creator of most-used plugins Really Simple Security and Complianz. With a total of ~6 million installs, we focus on making the most user-friendly and easy-to-use plugins. We work with SimplyBook.me to make the most powerful booking system available directly in your WordPress dashboard. Benefits of the Online booking system Integrating an online booking system like SimplyBook.me is crucial for service businesses aiming to improve customer experience and extend their market reach. By enabling clients to book appointments outside of traditional office hours, an online scheduling and booking system increases accessibility and customer satisfaction. This system simplifies the entire appointment process, automates important reminders, and reduces scheduling errors, freeing up staff to concentrate on delivering superior service. Additionally, an online booking system offers powerful analytics that provide deep insights into customer behaviors and preferences. This data is essential for making informed adjustments to service offerings and planning effective marketing strategies. Last but not least it´s the best way to boost your sales by offering service add-ons and products for sale in the booking process, by sending tailored marketing email campaigns, offering coupons on less busy days, by prompting tips during check out and so much more, the options are endless!

Formerly known as Woo Store Vacation — trusted by WooCommerce stores since 2017. Going on vacation, closing for a holiday, or pausing for a fulfilment break? Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce lets you temporarily stop taking new orders while keeping your store visible to customers. Instead of taking your website offline, the plugin keeps your shop browsable and your products indexed while giving you control over whether visitors can place new orders. Schedule a vacation period, disable purchases, display a clear notice, and automatically reopen your store when the vacation ends. This is useful when you want to: Take time off without receiving new orders. Pause checkout while still letting customers browse products. Show a clear vacation or holiday notice on your store. Let customers know when your shop will reopen. Keep selected products available during vacation mode. Avoid confusion, missed expectations, or unnecessary support messages. Pause WooCommerce orders while keeping your store visible When vacation mode is active, your shop remains online and accessible to visitors. Customers can still browse your products, but purchases can be paused by disabling the cart, checkout, and add-to-cart buttons. This preserves your storefront and product visibility — and your SEO ranking — while preventing new orders during periods when you are unavailable. Schedule your vacation dates Set a start date and end date for your vacation period based on your site’s local timezone. Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce automatically applies the vacation settings during the scheduled period and restores normal store behavior when the vacation ends. You can also deactivate vacation mode manually at any time if you return earlier than planned. Display a custom vacation notice Create a clear vacation message to explain why the store is temporarily closed and when customers should return. The vacation notice can include: Custom message text. Start and end date smart tags. Custom text and background colors. A call-to-action button. A custom button URL, such as a contact page. The notice appears on WooCommerce shop and product pages. You can also place it on other pages using the Store Vacation Notice block, Elementor widget, or [woo_store_vacation] shortcode. Control product availability during vacation mode Sometimes you may want to pause most of your store while keeping selected products available. Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce includes condition settings that let you keep specific items purchasable while vacation mode is active. You can exclude selected: Products. Product categories. Product tags. Product types. Shipping classes. This gives you more flexibility than fully closing the entire store — perfect for keeping digital downloads, gift cards, or pre-orders available while pausing physical fulfilment. Built for real store situations Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce is designed for the closure situations WooCommerce merchants actually run into: personal vacations, holidays, illness, family emergencies, fulfilment delays, stock reviews, maintenance windows, or short business breaks. The plugin is translation-ready and includes configuration support for multilingual stores using WPML and Polylang. Lite features Schedule a temporary vacation period. Pause purchases automatically during vacation mode. Keep your shop and products visible while paused. Display a vacation notice on WooCommerce shop and product pages. Add the notice anywhere with a block, shortcode, or Elementor widget. Add a call-to-action button to the notice. Use {{start_date}} and {{end_date}} smart tags in your message. Customize notice text and background colors. Keep selected products, categories, tags, product types, or shipping classes available. Allow shop managers to manage vacation settings. HPOS compatible. Translation-ready with WPML and Polylang support. Need more control? Upgrade to Store Vacation Pro Store Vacation Pro adds advanced scheduling, saved-cart tools, storefront controls, and vacation reporting for stores that need to do more than pause purchases. Upgrade to Store Vacation Pro to unlock the full workflow. With Store Vacation Pro, you can: Plan closures for real business rhythms Schedule unlimited vacation periods — plan holidays and seasonal breaks months in advance. Set recurring weekday closures — close every Sunday, every Monday morning, or any custom pattern. Configure opening hours — publish your business hours and auto-close the shop outside them. View a calendar of every upcoming, active, and past closure at a glance. Turn closures into conversions, not lost customers Save Cart for Later — customers can save their cart before you close, then restore it in one click when you reopen. Shareable saved cart link — customers copy, bookmark, or share their cart across devices. Email the saved cart — send the restore link straight to the customer’s inbox from the storefront. Allow cart building while checkout is closed — shoppers keep adding items during vacation and check out the moment you reopen. Countdown timer — show a live counter to your reopening date directly in the notice. Announcement bar — display a site-wide vacation banner across every page. Advance notice before closure — warn customers days ahead so they can order early. Measure what happens while you’re away Vacation reports dashboard — see cart interactions, checkouts, revenue, and unique customers during each closure. Recent activity table — every add-to-cart, cart update, saved cart, and checkout that happened while paused, with product and customer resolution. Filters and CSV export — narrow by date range and vacation period, export the raw event log. Configurable data retention — auto-prune old event logs after your chosen number of days, weeks, months, or years. Track vacation orders — flag and filter orders placed while vacation mode was active, right from the WooCommerce Orders screen. Control exactly what customers see Replace shop pages with custom content — serve your own vacation landing page instead of the default product grid. Password-protect shop access — gate the store behind a shared password. Private access links — send unique URLs that unlock the store for approved customers. Bypass restrictions for unlocked visitors — approved shoppers check out normally while the rest of the store is paused. Hide prices, add-to-cart, and mini cart — strip commerce UI entirely during vacation, converting the store into a browsable catalog. Advanced vacation notices — reusable templates with smart tags, rich text, CTAs, and custom styling. Vacation Content block — build custom pages that only appear while the store is in vacation mode. Fine-tune product availability Exclude by product, category, tag, product type, shipping class, WooCommerce brand, or user role. Copy conditions between schedules so you don’t rebuild the same exceptions for every closure. Ship it with confidence Admin reminder emails — get an email before each vacation starts. Dashboard widget — see upcoming closures at a glance on your WP admin dashboard. Force close the store instantly — pause purchases immediately without setting up a schedule. Import and export settings — move Store Vacation configuration between sites. REST API — access vacation schedule data programmatically. If your store needs recurring closures, multiple schedules, opening hours, saved carts, vacation reporting, or more control over what customers see while the shop is closed, Store Vacation Pro is the best upgrade path.