From paper diaries to online bookings

Rinko is the booking software we build and run for salons, barbershops and beauty clinics: an online booking page, a team calendar, automatic reminders and reports, on the web and on Android.

Beauty & wellness
Mobile app
Flutter + Laravel

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Rinko on a laptop and a phone, showing the salon’s team calendar and the online booking page

At a glance

Client: Rinko, our own product
Industry: Salons, barbershops and beauty clinics
What we built: Booking software with an online booking page, team calendar, reminders and reports
Platforms: Web app · Android app (iOS coming soon)
Technologies: Flutter · Laravel
Links: rinko.ro Google Play

The challenge

Bookings on paper and on WhatsApp

Many salons in Romania still handled appointments on paper or through WhatsApp messages. Missed appointments, mix-ups and time lost on the phone hurt both the owners and their clients.

International booking platforms were not made for this market: salons needed an interface and support in Romanian, WhatsApp Business as the main channel, prices in lei and invoicing that follows Romanian tax rules.

What we built

Everything a salon needs to run its bookings

Online booking on a phone – choosing the services

Online booking – choosing the specialist

Online booking page

Clients book at any hour on the salon’s own page: they pick the service, the specialist and the time, without a phone call.

Team calendar

Every appointment of the team in one calendar, with drag and drop to move bookings and a waiting list for full days.

Reminders on 4 channels

Automatic confirmations and reminders by WhatsApp, email, Web2SMS or SMS from the salon’s own SIM, with delivery status for every message.

Client history

A file for every client with past visits, spending and notes the team sees at each booking.

Campaigns and reviews

Messages to chosen groups of clients, scheduled in advance, and automatic requests for Google or Facebook reviews.

Reports and locations

Revenue against a monthly goal, staff occupancy, profit and loss, and several locations in one account.

How we built it

Built and run by our own team

Evaluation & design

Rinko started from a real problem: salons booking on paper and on WhatsApp. The design focused on a booking page clients can use without help and a calendar the team can read at a glance.

Development

One Laravel backend serves the web app and the Flutter mobile app, so the calendar, clients and messages stay in sync on every device.

Testing & launch

A demo salon to try every screen, a 14-day free trial without a card, and a public status page that monitors the platform.

Support & updates

Support in Romanian on working days, and new versions of the Android app released through Google Play.

Flutter: The Android app, built from one codebase that can also target iOS; the iOS version is listed as coming soon.
Laravel: The backend and API behind the web app and the mobile app: bookings, clients, messages and reports.
Messaging: WhatsApp, email with calendar invitations, Web2SMS and SMS sent through the salon’s own SIM.
Hosting, payments and monitoring: AWS servers in the EU (Frankfurt), card payments through Stripe, and a public status page that checks the API, the database and background jobs.

Facts & figures