Sell Services by Hours with WooCommerce Bookings

Selling services by the hour from your WooCommerce store is one of the easiest ways to turn your time into income. Whether you’re a consultant, coach, freelancer, or service provider, offering hourly bookings online helps you manage your schedule, reduce back-and-forth communication, and get paid upfront.

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to sell hourly services using WooCommerce, what types of businesses can benefit, and how the PluginHive’s WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin makes it easy to set up and manage your hourly services all from your WooCommerce dashboard.

Table of Contents

• Who Can Sell Hourly Services
• Streamline WooCommerce Hourly Bookings with the Right Plugin
• Start Selling Hourly Services on Your WooCommerce Store
• Real World Use Case
• Conclusion
• FAQ’s 

Who Can Sell Hourly Services

If you offer time-based services, you can sell them by the hour using WooCommerce. This works well for many types of businesses.

Here are a few examples:

• Coaches and consultants offering 1-on-1 sessions.
• Tutors and trainers providing hourly lessons.
• Freelancers like designers, developers, or writers who bill by the hour.
• Beauty salons and spas with services like haircuts, facials, or massages.
• Repair and maintenance pros charging for the time spent on-site.

These are just a few examples. Many other service-based businesses can also benefit from offering hourly services. With the right WooCommerce booking plugin, you can let customers book time slots, manage your availability, and simplify your day-to-day work.

Streamline WooCommerce Hourly Bookings with the Right Plugin

WooCommerce is great for selling products, but when it comes to hourly services, it falls short. You can’t show time slots, manage availability, or take appointments without a booking plugin.

That’s where the PH WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin comes in. It is one of the best tools for selling services by the hour. It’s made for WooCommerce and is easy to use, even if you’re not tech-savvy.

Here’s what makes it stand out:

• Set bookings by the hour, minute, or custom duration
• Show real-time availability on your product pages
• Add buffer time between appointments
• Assign bookings to staff or resources
• Sync with Google Calendar to stay organized
• Send automated email confirmations and reminders
• Works for both individual and group bookings
• Mobile-friendly for customers on the go

With PluginHive, you can fully control your bookings and give customers a smooth experience.

Start Selling Hourly Services on Your WooCommerce Store

Once that’s done, you’re ready to start offering your hourly services online. Here’s how to do it in a few simple steps:

1. Set Service Duration and Availability

Define how long your service lasts – for example, 1-hour or 2-hour slots.  Set your working hours, choose days you are available, and even block holidays or breaks.
You can also add buffer time between appointments.

Example – Mobile Mechanic: Offer 2-hour service slots for repairs. Add a buffer time (like 1–2 hours) after each booking to allow for travel between appointments.

Learn how to set booking availability and add buffer time between bookings

2. Add Hourly Pricing and Seasonal Rules

You can charge a flat hourly rate or vary it by day, season, or time. Offer weekday discounts or raise prices on weekends.
For example, you might offer a 10% discount ($90/hour) on Tuesdays to fill slower slots, and charge a higher weekend rate of $120/hour on Saturdays and Sundays when demand is high.

Learn how to set booking costs.

3. Assign Staff or Equipment (Assets)

If your service needs specific staff or tools, you can add them as assets. The plugin auto-assigns based on availability or lets customers choose.

In this case, I’ve added each mechanic as an asset so no two bookings overlap for the same person.

Learn how to use Booking assets

4. Let Customers Choose Services (Resources)

Use resources to allow customers to select the service they need during booking, each with its corresponding price.
In this case, I’ve listed services like “Oil Change”, “Brake Inspection”, and “Battery Replacement” as resources that customers can select while booking.

 Learn how to set up booking resources

5. Automate Email Confirmations and Booking Reminders

Automatically send confirmation emails right after booking and reminder emails before the scheduled time. You can customize these messages for a more personal experience.

Example: After booking a “1-Hour Brake Check,” the customer receives a confirmation email, and a reminder email is sent 3 hours before the appointment.

See how to set up booking email reminders.

6. Accept and Manage Bookings Easily

Customers can book time slots right from your product page. To collect advance or partial payments, you can use the WooCommerce Deposits plugin. You can track and manage all bookings using a calendar inside your WooCommerce dashboard.

That’s it! Whether you’re selling hourly consulting, coaching, salon services, or repair work, the PluginHive WooCommerce Booking plugin makes everything smooth, from setting time slots to handling payments and calendars.

Real-World Use Case: Pet Grooming by the Hour

Let’s say you own a WooCommerce-based pet grooming salon offering services like baths, hair trimming, nail clipping, and flea treatment, all rounded to hourly slots. Instead of fixed packages, clients can book time-based appointments suited to their pet’s needs.

The Challenges You’ll Face 

• Booking via phone and email often leads to double bookings or missed appointments.
• Clients may request times that conflict with your schedule, causing confusion.
• Tracking appointments, invoicing, and reminders eat up admin time.
• Without automation, scaling your service becomes slow and error-prone.
  

How It Can Be Solved

With PluginHive’s WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin, you can set up a smooth, reliable system:

• Display live availability and allow clients to book hourly slots.
• Define working hours, add buffer time between appointments, and block holidays.
• Send confirmation emails and reminders to keep schedules rock-solid.
• Manage all bookings, staff assignments, and cancellations in one dashboard – no spreadsheets, no hassle.
  

This setup allows your salon to run efficiently, delight customers, and scale with confidence, whether you’re solo or have a team of groomers.

Conclusion

Selling hourly services on WooCommerce is an easy and effective way to manage time-based bookings online. With the PH WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin, you can set hourly availability, assign staff or resources, automate confirmations, and handle everything from your WooCommerce store.

Whether you offer consulting, grooming, repairs, or training, this solution helps streamline your booking process and improve the overall customer experience.

Need Help? For setup assistance or custom booking requirements, contact PluginHive Support.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can I offer different hourly rates on different days?
Yes. With PluginHive Bookings plugin, you can set a standard hourly rate and then adjust prices for weekends, holidays, or peak times using seasonal or date-based pricing rules, a great way to optimize your revenue.

2. What happens when a customer cancels a booking?
If you allow cancellations, customers can cancel from their account page. You can set how early they need to cancel (like 12 hours before). Once canceled, the time slot becomes free again. Refunds need to be handled manually.

3. Can I block off time easily (e.g., lunch or holidays)?
Definitely, you can add availability rules to block time ranges, specific days, or even entire weeks, ensuring no one books when you’re unavailable.

4. Is the booking calendar language-friendly (WPML, translation)?
Yes. The plugin works with WPML and other translation tools. You can change the calendar language, date formats, and booking texts to match your site’s language.

5. Can I view and manage all hourly bookings in one place?
Yes. You get a calendar inside your WooCommerce dashboard where you can view, filter, confirm, or cancel hourly bookings. You can also filter by status, date, and even export bookings to CSV.

6. Does PluginHive support ongoing or repeat bookings (e.g., weekly calls)?
While the basic plugin handles standard hourly bookings well, recurring or multi-time scheduling (like weekly coaching) requires PluginHive’s Recurring Appointments add-on, available separately.