About Bookaby

Hello!

My name is Steff and I'm the founder of Bookaby... the best booking system ever (according to my kids, anyway!).

The story begins back in 2019 on a bright summer's morning. I went to drop my eldest off at an activity day camp and saw that staff were using a paper based system to record bookings and attendance. The registration and payment process was a hassle for parents as well as the staff members, and it was all a bit chaotic.

I got home and had a look for booking systems that were already on the market. While there were some popular ones out there, I found them to be a bit clunky or outdated, and other than taking attendance, they didn't really do much other than accept bookings.

"Maybe I can do better!" I thought.

Over the next month or so, I started jotting down ideas and features that I as a parent would like to see, and also spoke to a broad range of organisers - some who run sessions just for grown-ups, some just for kids and a few who do both! It was incredibly useful to find out what systems they currently had in place and what pain points they experienced on a day to day basis.

10th of October 2019 - I started writing code for a yet un-named booking platform. Little did I know that this was to be the start of an eighteen month slog, which would involve much frustration and countless sleepless nights!

A few months in and development was going really well... I was making great progress! Then... the v***s happened! My wife and I were now having to juggle working from home, as well as home-schooling our two kids! Not an easy task! Sleepless nights got longer as I worked later into the evening, and moments of deep concentration were often sharply interrupted by arguments downstairs over someone not sharing their toys!

Thankfully, a few lockdowns later, things started to get back to normal, and late spring of 2021, the internet was introduced to Bookaby - the booking platform that nearly broke its creator!

Now it's all up and running, when I look back at everything, I'm super proud of how Bookaby has turned out, and the great feedback I receive from customers across the UK is always really nice to hear!

I sincerely hope that you enjoy using Bookaby too...

Thank you for reading this ramble!

Steff