Service families, combos, packages and memberships: which should your salon use?

Use a service family when the client needs to choose a variation. Use a bookable service combo when they need several services in one appointment. Use a prepaid package when they are buying entitlements to redeem later. Use a membership when they are subscribing to recurring benefits.

Those arrangements can look similar in a price list, but they create different work for the booking system and the team.

OpenChair supports these as distinct structures. Choosing the right one starts with what the client is trying to buy, not what sounds most attractive in a promotion.

Compare the four customer intentions#

A gift voucher is a separate gifting or redemption instrument. It should not be treated as automatically interchangeable with any of these four structures, even where a gift option relates to services or a package.

Use a family to make a menu easier to choose from#

A service family groups related options under a clearer customer-facing choice.

An illustrative hair salon might use a Haircut family with short, long and restyle services underneath it. Each underlying service still needs its own price, duration and booking configuration.

The family helps organise the menu. It does not mean the client has purchased every option in the family, and it does not remove the differences between them.

The same idea may suit a nail salon with related service variations, provided the options are genuine services configured by the venue. Do not use one vague label to hide meaningful differences in time or work.

Test the final selection. Can the client tell which service they have chosen, and can the team identify it in the resulting booking?

Use a bookable combo for one visit with several services#

A bookable service combo brings multiple configured services into one online offer. The booking still needs to carry the relevant service lines and respect the appointment requirements.

An illustrative hair example is colour with a finish. A beauty venue might have an appropriate combination of services that clients commonly book together.

For a day spa, the key question is whether the included services can be scheduled as the intended visit, with the relevant therapist and room constraints. A combo is not proof that a specialist couples-treatment or shared-capacity arrangement is supported.

A polished offer name does not make an impossible appointment fit. Review the service sequence, duration, eligible staff and required resources before promoting it.

This is also different from merely mentioning two services in a description and expecting reception to rebuild the appointment.

Use a prepaid package for entitlement that will be redeemed later#

A prepaid package records something bought upfront for later use.

OpenChair distinguishes a Prepaid service bundle, covering multiple sessions of one service, from a Prepaid service combo, covering a mix of services bought in advance.

That second label needs care. A prepaid service combo is not the same as a bookable service combo. One concerns a purchase and later entitlement; the other concerns services booked together in an appointment.

An illustrative barber bundle might cover several future visits for one service. An illustrative day-spa prepaid combination might include different services to redeem under the package's configured rules. Neither example creates appointment availability merely because the purchase has been made.

The package dashboard and online storefront listing require Pro. Package redemption at checkout works across plans. Online purchasing also needs the appropriate connected payment setup.

Before selling, check the included services, quantities, selling terms, online visibility and redemption behaviour. Do not assume that changing a template later can rewrite an entitlement already sold.

Use a membership for a recurring client arrangement#

A membership is a recurring subscription sold by the venue to its customer, with configured benefits and service credits. In OpenChair, memberships are Pro features using connected payment arrangements.

This is separate from the venue's own OpenChair software subscription.

An illustrative regular-client membership might make an eligible service benefit available as part of an ongoing arrangement. The team still needs to check the membership state and whether the benefit applies to the actual service.

A membership does not guarantee attendance or reserve every future appointment. It also does not make every visit free of further charges simply because the client has a membership badge.

The booking, the active subscription and the eligible redemption remain separate things to verify.

Check what the team sees at fulfilment#

The public offer is only the first part of the workflow.

For a family, inspect which service was selected. For a bookable combo, inspect the service lines and timing. For a package, inspect the entitlement being used. For a membership, inspect the eligible benefit and the recorded result at checkout.

A useful test includes an appointment that should not qualify. For example, try a service outside the offer rather than assuming every service with a similar name is covered.

Keep redemption and money movement distinct. A record showing that an entitlement was used is not a reason to assume an unrelated payment, refund or subscription change has occurred.

Choose one structure before combining several#

A venue may eventually use all four structures, but it does not need to introduce them at once.

Start with one offer you already sell. Describe what the client is buying in an ordinary sentence, choose the matching structure and follow it through the booking and checkout journey.

For room-dependent services, see the therapist and treatment-room scheduling guide. For the historical development of service families and booking combinations, see the June release notes.

A clear offer should be as easy for the team to fulfil as it is for the client to understand.