Liverpool Arts Bar Studios: replacing off-the-shelf booking software with a platform built to scale
A booking platform built around the way Arts Bar actually works
Liverpool Arts Bar operates a growing collection of creative studios across multiple locations, giving musicians, performers, dancers and other artists access to bookable space across the city.
Bookings were initially handled through BookingPress, a WordPress plugin that worked well enough as a starting point. As the studio operation developed, though, its limitations became harder to ignore.
The plugin was bloated, difficult to extend and built around a one-size-fits-all model. Liverpool Arts Bar needed something far more specific.
I replaced it with a bespoke Laravel booking platform designed around the business from day one. Customers can view live availability, reserve multiple sessions, pay online and manage their bookings, while the Arts Bar team has complete control over studios, locations, customers, payments and reporting.
The
challenge
Off-the-shelf booking systems are designed to work for as many businesses as possible.
That sounds useful until your business does not behave like a hairdresser, dentist or yoga studio.
Liverpool Arts Bar needed to manage several studios across different locations, with availability divided into 30-minute slots. Customers needed to view live availability, reserve multiple future sessions and complete everything through one straightforward checkout.
Behind the scenes, the team needed much more than a calendar. They needed control over studios, bookings, customers, cancellations, refunds, invoices, availability and performance data.
The existing WordPress plugin could handle the basics, but every new requirement meant working around functionality that was either missing, unnecessary or fundamentally designed for somebody else.
Rather than keep adding patches to a system that had already reached its ceiling, I built a new platform around the actual operation.
Building the booking platform Arts Bar couldn’t buy off the shelf
The replacement was developed as a standalone Laravel application, giving complete control over the booking logic, customer experience and administration tools.
Vue powers the interactive calendar, allowing customers to browse locations, move between studios and view live availability without repeatedly loading new pages. Stripe was integrated directly to handle secure payments without relying on an additional ecommerce layer.
The platform divides studio availability into 30-minute intervals and continually validates each selection to prevent booking collisions. Individual ICS feeds also provide compatible calendar access for each studio, keeping reservations visible outside the application without creating competing records.
Every part of the system was built around Liverpool Arts Bar. There is no unused machinery for salons, restaurants or dental appointments quietly rattling around underneath it.
Making detailed availability straightforward to book
Customers can browse studios across different locations, check live availability and add several sessions before paying. This makes it possible to block-book future studio time without completing a separate checkout for every date.
Creating an account allows returning customers to save their details and manage existing reservations more quickly. The platform then connects each selected studio, time slot, customer and payment into one clear order.
Confirmation emails, reminders and invoices are generated automatically, keeping customers informed without requiring staff to manually manage the routine parts of each booking.
A structured cancellation process also calculates the applicable refund according to the time remaining before a session. This creates a clearer experience for customers while helping Arts Bar protect time that may be difficult to resell at short notice.
Giving the team control without adding more admin
The administration platform brings the studio operation into one place. Arts Bar can manage locations, studios, pricing, availability, bookings, customer accounts, cancellations, refunds, invoices and payments through tools designed around its own processes.
Staff can make manual adjustments where needed, while the system handles the repetitive work surrounding ordinary online bookings. Availability checks, payment records, confirmations, reminders and calendar updates remain connected instead of being spread across plugins, inboxes and separate spreadsheets.
This reduces the amount of intervention required for each reservation and gives the team a dependable overview of what is happening across every studio.
The aim was not simply to automate checkout. It was to remove the background faff that appears before and after it.
Turning booking activity into useful business insight
A bespoke analytics suite gives Liverpool Arts Bar a clearer picture of how its studios are performing.
The system tracks booking volume, studio usage, customer behaviour, income and periods of unused availability. This helps the team understand which spaces are busiest, where quieter periods occur, how far ahead customers reserve and how often they return.
That information provides a stronger basis for pricing, promotions and operational decisions than instinct alone.
The platform continues to evolve alongside the business. Because it is bespoke, new functionality can be developed around genuine requirements rather than squeezed into the boundaries of a third-party plugin. Since launch, it has expanded across customer accounts, block bookings, analytics, cancellations, refunds, invoicing and studio calendar feeds.
The
outcome
A booking system operating at real scale
Since launching in August 2024, the platform has managed more than 9,000 individual studio bookings and over 15,000 hours of creative studio time.
Almost 2,000 customers have used it to find availability, reserve studios and pay online. More than half have gone on to place another order, showing that the platform supports regular use rather than occasional one-off bookings.
Liverpool Arts Bar now owns the complete booking journey, from availability and checkout through to customer management, cancellations, refunds and operational reporting.
What began as a replacement for a limited WordPress plugin has become a central piece of infrastructure behind the studio business.
9,000+
Bookings made
15,000+
Studio hours booked
2,000+
Customers served
53%
Customers returned
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