Marking gigs as booked

While we hope our members find our booking platform to be convenient and useful, we understand that sometimes it makes more sense to handle a booking off-site. Perhaps the client cannot make a full payment upfront, or maybe your booking requires a specific contract. In those cases, you can still come back to GigSalad, pay a small service fee, and mark that gig as booked to get all the benefits of a verified booking.

Note: Users with free or expired memberships are required to mark leads as booked if the gig is finalized off the site. 

You can mark both past and future gigs as booked. However, you should only mark future gigs as booked if the booking has been finalized directly with the client through whatever means you have decided to use. Once you mark a gig as booked, the client will see the status change on their side to "booked" for the amount you input, so be sure the information is accurate. 

To mark a gig as booked:

1

Log in to your control panel and go to your Inbox.

2

Choose the lead that you booked off-site.

3

Select the option at the top of the thread that says "I already booked this gig with the client directly." Then click Continue.

4

Enter the booking details (the total fee and deposit amount for the gig)* to calculate the service fee.

5

The service fee for the gig will appear at the top of the credit card form. Enter your card information or use a saved card to pay the fee.

6

Click Mark as Booked.

*Attention Canadian members: 

When marking gigs as booked, the service fee charge will always be in USD due to the payment processor used for these transactions. When entering the total fee for your gig, you will need to use the USD equivalent instead of the CAD amount in order to pay an accurate service fee. 

Service fee

With regular on-site bookings, both you and the client pay separate service fees, which cover the costs of maintaining our platform. With off-site bookings, we only collect payment from you, so the service fee is slightly higher to cover both sides. The percentage is calculated on a sliding scale, offering a lower fee for larger bookings.

In simpler terms, paid members are covering the cost of the client's fee, while our free members are covering the event planner's fee plus an additional 2.5%. 

Benefits of verified bookings

When you mark a gig as booked, it becomes a verified booking, which means you'll get the following benefits:

More leads. Booking activity plays a significant role in which members receive leads from GigSalad. These leads make up about 85% of the total leads coming through our site, which means it's extremely important to do everything you can to increase your chances of receiving them.

Verified reviews. We’ll request reviews on your behalf if you mark your gig as booked before the event takes place. Reviews associated with verified bookings are also verified and carry significantly greater weight in your overall rating. They also look great to potential clients.

Credibility. Your total number of verified bookings is displayed on your profile in GigSalad search results. In our user testing, we've found an increase in profile views for those with verified bookings present. Planners also reported having more confidence in booking providers with more experience.

Top Performer. Verified bookings are one of the criteria for achieving Top Performer status. Being a Top Performer looks great to potential clients and boosts your placement in search results.

Good karma. You got the gig, so showing love to GigSalad for delivering the lead will bring you good karma. ;)

Why we ask for pricing details

When you mark a gig as booked, you'll be asked to provide booking details, including the total fee you charged and the deposit you required for the gig. It's very important that you provide accurate pricing information for a number of reasons: 

To calculate the service fee. We use the total fee you provide plus your level of membership to calculate the service fee to mark the gig as booked. Because we delivered the lead, it's reasonable and fair for us to collect a modest but proportional fee for that paid gig. Paying service fees also helps us stay in the business of getting you gigs! Plus, as we mentioned before — karma. 

To collect data. There are places on the site where we display average prices for various categories and locations. We calculate those averages using data from quotes sent through our site and final booking totals. Providing inaccurate prices could skew that data which hurts both event planners looking for the information and the providers who may lose out on a gig opportunity because of it.

To prepare for future changes. In the future, total booking dollars may affect your placement in search results or our lead distribution algorithm. Those with more verified bookings and higher booking totals would get a bit more exposure. When this happens, we will take past booking totals into account so it's important to start building up those numbers now! 

Pro-bono or charity events

If the event was for charity and/or you donated your time at no cost, you can mark it as booked and just pay the minimum service fee ($10). The form won't allow you to enter $0 for the total fee/deposit, so just put in $1.