A quick walkthrough
How RoomRota works
Put your hall online, share one link, and let groups book themselves, while you keep full control from a simple admin page. Here’s the whole thing, start to finish.
Step by step
From paper diary to online bookings.
No technical know-how needed. If you can fill in a form, you can run RoomRota.
Set up your centre
Add your centre’s name, your rooms, your opening hours, and what you charge (a community rate and a commercial rate if you use both). The setup wizard walks you through it in a few minutes.
Add your regular weekly hires
Enter the standing groups once (the Tuesday yoga, the Thursday toddlers, the Friday karate) as recurring slots. RoomRota keeps those reserved every week, so the public timetable only ever shows what’s genuinely free.
Connect card payments (optional)
Want money up front? Connect your own Stripe account and card payments land straight in your bank. RoomRota never holds your funds. Prefer cash or bank transfer on the day, the way you do now? Leave it switched off. It’s entirely your call, and you can change your mind any time.
Share your booking link
You get your own page: roomrota.com/your-centre. Put it on Facebook, your website, the parish newsletter, or a poster with a QR code on the hall door. One link is all anyone needs.
Bookings roll in
Groups pick a free slot and book themselves. The booker and the centre both get an email straight away. You manage everything from the admin dashboard, and if a booking needs cancelling, the refund (where one was paid) is handled for you.
You’re live
That’s it. Your timetable stays up to date by itself, the phone stops ringing about free slots, and the diary no longer lives in one person’s head. Most halls are up and running in about ten minutes.
Two simple views
What your bookers see, and what you see.
What your bookers see
What you see
Peace of mind
Built around how a small hall really runs.
No double-bookings
The moment a slot is taken it’s gone. Guaranteed, not just hopefully. No two groups pencilled into the same Thursday night.
GDPR-ready
RoomRota collects only what’s needed to take a booking, with a plain-English privacy notice and built-in data export and erasure.
Works on any phone
Bookers and committee members use it straight from their pocket. No app to install, nothing to download.
Live in about ten minutes
Sign up, add your rooms and hours, share your link. That’s a working booking page the same evening.
Money, made simple
The booking fee keeps you covered.
A small non-refundable booking fee
You can add a small booking fee to every booking. It is shown to the booker before they pay, and it is non-refundable. If someone cancels, you refund the room hire but keep the booking fee, so a cancellation never leaves you out of pocket on card charges.
The money goes straight to you
With your own Stripe account connected, every payment lands directly in your bank. RoomRota never holds or touches your money and takes no cut of your bookings. Card fees are Stripe's standard rate, and you set your booking fee to cover them.
Questions
The things committees usually ask.
Do we have to take payments?
Not at all. Plenty of halls just want to stop the phone tag and the double-bookings. You can take bookings with no payment whatsoever and settle up by cash or bank transfer exactly as you do now. Card payments are an optional extra you can switch on later, and switch off again if it doesn’t suit.
Is it hard to set up?
No. The setup wizard walks you through your rooms, hours and prices in a few minutes. If you can fill in a form, you can do it. And we’re happy to help you get the first one in.
Can multiple committee members manage it?
Yes. Your admin page is reachable from any phone or laptop, so the booking diary no longer lives in one volunteer’s head. Whoever’s on can see what’s coming up and take care of it.
What if we want to close for a bank holiday?
Block the date in a click and those slots disappear from the public timetable, so nobody can book a day you’re shut.
What does it cost?
You can start completely free, and there’s a simple flat monthly fee for busier centres, never a cut of your hall’s income. See the pricing page for the detail.