Help & Support

We are happy to help you with any request. Please use our Help Centre for assistance.

BookEntertainment.com gives your act immediate access to a large number of daily visitors looking for entertainment or event suppliers matching their exact criteria, and the chance to capitalise on our national media coverage. We can help you to get paid gigs from wedding, corporate, party and venue clients. BookEntertainment will also help you fill in blank spaces in your diary and secure late notice work. We provide a similar service to hotel booking websites but only in the Event Entertainment Industry. We can refer customers to you who are unlikely to have come across your direct website and social media.

Clients want to check availability and price instantly instead of contacting a list of individual acts. This can take days and many users won't wait, especially at the last minute. Our users want to search and book multiple acts in one place and it is these additional customers that BookEntertainment.com provides access to.

The more information about your act and good-quality media such as photographs, videos and audio you add to your listing, the more bookings you'll receive as you'll sell yourself to potential clients.

Bands, DJs, Musicians, Entertainers and Event Suppliers can get listed on our site in a few different ways:

• A user familiar with your act may have alerted us to your existence
• We may have heard about your act from social media (facebook / twitter etc.)

Because we want to be a comprehensive source of entertainment information for our users and we accept reviews for all Bands, DJs, Musicians, Entertainers and Event Suppliers that are listed on our site, we will not remove a listing at the act's request. If you'd like to remove your listing because your act has disbanded please contact us.

You specify your own requirements including:

• Availability via our system or Google calendar sync
• Bookable options
• Rates and special rates (e.g. midweek, bank holiday, New Year's)
• Travel and travel fees based per county
• Event types you want to gig at (e.g. wedding, party)

BookEntertainment.com displays matching acts and rates to the user in their search results. We take the booking via a simple booking form, taking our commission as a deposit, and send a confirmation email, copied to your email address. All bookings are also displayed in the "Bookings" tab on your extranet.

You collect your 5% deposit on booking and the remaining balance from the customer on the event, or balance in advance using our Stripe system. Using the balance in advance system will automatically debit the remaining balance from the customer's payment card on the payment due date. BookEntertainment.com calculates this using the payment date settings entered in your extranet and the payment will be made direct to your Stripe account. Where the booking is payable as soon as possible, BookEntertainment.com will take the full payment at the time of booking and the balance payment will go directly into your Stripe account. You can specify your own cancellation and payment policies, all customisable on BookEntertainment.com.

No further commission is due.

BookEntertainment.com does not allow you to set premium rates for our clients and/or mark up rates for BookEntertainment.com in any way, so bands, musicians, entertainers and event suppliers must always enforce rate parity. By accepting BookEntertainment.com's terms and conditions, you agree to pay our commission to take advantage of the services provided by BookEntertainment.com and reach the large number of customers the website provides. This commission may not be passed onto BookEntertainment.com customers, since customers do not pay a fee to use BookEntertainment.com.

Rate parity means the same and/or better rates for your services and any associated extras booked for the same dates and for the same location. The rates must be subject to the same and/or better restrictions and policies such as payment, booking amendment and cancellation policy as are available through booking directly and following the standard price list.

Please note: BookEntertainment.com regularly performs random price comparisons to ensure that all partners are advertising rates adhering to rate parity. Overcharging customers will result in the temporary suspension of your listing.

Where the rate parity policy is breached, the manager shall immediately notify BookEntertainment.com by flagging the booking, agree to refund or discount any difference, and update BookEntertainment.com rates to adhere to rate parity.

BookEntertainment.com acts as your agent (that is, the contract is between you and the customer). For businesses based in the UK, the commission (deposit) we deduct from bookings includes 20% VAT, which we pay to HMRC.

If you are VAT registered in the UK you can reclaim this amount. In your VAT return, you should account to HMRC for the full amount paid by the customer, including the amount deducted by BookEntertainment.com. We will send you a monthly VAT invoice for our commission via email.

For your pricing and balance payments there is no change to the way you would account for your VAT. You would account for VAT on the full amount of the booking (balance payments are made direct to your Stripe account and then bank account).

You can download a tax invoice for your Stripe fees by clicking on your user name at the top right-hand corner of your Stripe account and then Account Settings, and visiting the Documents tab.

Please consult your accountant for further advice on accounting for bookings through BookEntertainment.com.

If you need to issue a VAT invoice to a customer, please note that this should be for the full amount of your cost including the BookEntertainment.com deposit.

You must use our booking system to avail of a listing on BookEntertainment.com. We currently do not offer any paid advertising or listings on our site.

There is no charge to list on BookEntertainment.com. We only take a small 15% commission (including VAT) for a confirmed booking. If you don't get any bookings, you don't pay anything.

BookEntertainment.com is a trading name of Book Entertainment Limited. We are registered as a company in Northern Ireland, UK and are based at 50b Clooney Terrace, Londonderry, BT47 6BG.

Please feel free to arrange any cancellations or changes to bookings directly with the client.

We do not automatically restore availability dates for a cancelled or amended booking. You can amend your availability by using our extranet.

Please note that BookEntertainment.com's deposit is generally non-refundable.

Please use the flagging system in the Bookings tab of the manager portal if a customer cancels or amends a booking with you. This is the quickest and easiest way to keep BookEntertainment.com up to date with your bookings.

To help make the most of last-minute bookings without the hassle, you can access your extranet and set the booking time restrictions that suit your act.

We need to add this section once the system is fully built.

You can add a calendar feed of your availability. We refresh every 15 minutes. Important: your booking system must offer a calendar feed of bookings for us to turn on this feature. A calendar feed is a web link starting with http or https.

To add an external calendar feed, visit the allocation tab in your manager portal and follow the instructions to connect your calendar feed link for each unit. Paste the calendar feed link (beginning https or http) into the pop-up and ensure you use the link corresponding to the right unit.

• Check your emails and text messages regularly
• Respond rapidly to a booking request
• Keep your availability calendar and Google calendar in sync
• Consider allocating availability to BookEntertainment.com on an exclusive basis
• For bookings not exclusive to BookEntertainment.com: keep your availability up to date and adjust your calendar immediately when you receive a direct booking
• For groups and bands: make sure a member is trained to manage the BookEntertainment.com extranet at all times
• If you are worried about receiving very last-minute bookings, you can choose to disable bookings within a certain number of hours before arrival on your extranet

Once you have synced your Google calendar, download the Google Calendar app. You can add and remove dates from your gig diary and these will sync with BookEntertainment.com's availability.

You can also visit your extranet via your smartphone's browser and use the availability calendar manually.

BookEntertainment.com booking confirmation emails and text message notifications are immediately sent to the customer and to the email address specified for your act. Please check email regularly to ensure that last-minute bookings aren't a surprise.

We show all bookings in a Bookings tab within your extranet, and we automatically book the event in your availability diary.

You have the choice to accept the client's booking from BookEntertainment.com. Running our booking system this way should avoid double bookings.

If you have accepted the booking from BookEntertainment.com and have later found out that you have taken another booking directly or through another party, you must honour the booking made via BookEntertainment.com and cancel the incumbent booking.

If the double booking falls on uncontrollable circumstances, it is your responsibility to contact both the customer and BookEntertainment.com. The quickest and easiest way to inform BookEntertainment.com of any booking problems or double bookings is to use our helpdesk.

To resolve the matter for the client, you can:

• Offer alternate dates or an alternative act if the customer is happy to do so and will not incur any costs. Remember to deduct the customer's 15% deposit paid to BookEntertainment.com from any new booking made for the customer.
• Refund the customer: if you cannot honour a booking you must refund the customer's deposit paid to BookEntertainment.com. We enforce this rule vigorously.

Please use our helpdesk system in your extranet to inform BookEntertainment.com of any booking problems as soon as they occur.

Use the helpdesk by submitting a ticket for double bookings, any bookings that break your booking conditions, a booking that has been processed at the incorrect price, or if a customer has cancelled or amended their booking with you. By using the helpdesk system effectively, it will ensure you receive daily booking reminder emails that are completely accurate and up to date.

This is the quickest and most straightforward way to inform BookEntertainment.com of any booking problems or double bookings, especially in our busiest season. This should be your first and foremost way to contact us about these issues, rather than by phone.

You determine your own policy regarding when you would like to receive the balance payment. This policy is displayed prominently for clients on the booking info section on your profile, on the booking form, and on the customer's booking confirmation email. We take our commission plus 5% deposit for you as a deposit on booking.

To avoid chasing payments and losing money from clients, all partners will receive their balance payments via our Stripe system. BookEntertainment.com will trigger the balance payment from the customer's card on the date specified by you and send it direct to your bank account.

You may need to modify your cancellation policy to take account of the fact that BookEntertainment.com's deposit is non-refundable. Please inform BookEntertainment.com if a customer cancels their booking with you using our helpdesk system in the Bookings tab of the manager portal.

The BookEntertainment.com 15% deposit is non-refundable unless a booking needs to be cancelled or amended for reasons outside the control of the client. These may include:

• Incorrect calendar or availability management resulting in a double booking
• Where the act has been misrepresented as a result of information added to or omitted from the listing
• Incorrect pricing where you will not honour the client's booking at the rate reserved
• The band breaks up or act retires and does not honour bookings

If a client is forced to cancel their booking for the above reasons, you must refund the 15% BookEntertainment.com deposit (pro-rated in the case of a partial refund), as outlined in your agreement with BookEntertainment.com.

We urge you to keep availability accurate at all times, check your listing information thoroughly, and ensure all rates and pricing rules are correctly specified.

Partner details are for internal BookEntertainment.com use only and under no circumstances will be made public. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

We'll only send you marketing communications if you've selected Yes in your Notifications settings in the manager portal.

To check or amend your settings, log in to your manager portal and click the Me button to the top right of the screen. Select My details. In the Notifications settings box, select Yes or No next to I'd be happy to receive occasional marketing communications from BookEntertainment.com.

We'll display your profile and location when users want to find out more. Telling us about your booking options means that your band, DJ, musician, entertainer or event supplier will come up when users search for those acts. Descriptions, video or audio and photos will be added to your profile page on our site to give users maximum information. Lastly, telling us your email address means that we can forward any booking details from our users straight to you.

Just log in to your extranet to set up and manage your act profile.

Just log in to your extranet to set your act name and short description on your profile.

Just log in to your extranet and click on Acts and the yellow edit button on the act you wish to change packages and rates (e.g. 2 Hour DJ set and 4 Hour DJ Set). Scroll down to pricing options and add your option name, a short description and basic price. You can then change the basic price depending on date by using the special dates tab.

Just log in to your extranet to choose the categories and event types that apply to your act.

Just log in to your extranet to update your profile at any time.

Just log in to your extranet to configure travel rates and fees per county.

Just log in to your extranet to configure how many days before an event a provisional hold expires.

Just log in to your extranet to upload or change your act featured image.

Just log in to your extranet to add photos, videos and other media to your listing.

Just log in to your extranet to add custom information sections to your act profile.

Just log in to your extranet to set SEO meta title, meta description and keywords for your listing.

Just log in to your extranet to manage multiple act profiles under your account.

Just log in to your extranet to configure notification email addresses for booking confirmations.

Coming soon. Yes, please feel free to link your BookEntertainment.com listing to and from your website. This feature is under development and will be available soon.

The performance of your listing is mainly determined by (1) your ranking within search results and (2) the information provided on your profile.

You will only appear in search results for searches matching your availability, category, location and event type, so ensuring that all relevant options are selected is crucially important.

Factors that influence your ranking include consistent sales performance, average customer rating and number of reviews, and the number of bookings you accept from BookEntertainment.com.

Once users reach your profile page, maximise bookings with complete and accurate information including good-quality photos (8–10 photos can attract up to 150% more viewers), appealing descriptions, and video or audio where applicable.

You're in charge of all of your information and you can add or remove availability from the site at any time. Need to remove availability because you've got a booking? You can take it off the site in seconds.

To add, update or remove available dates, use Google Calendar sync or update your availability manually in the extranet.

Use the Special Dates tab in your extranet to set reduced or increased rates for specific dates.

Use the password reset link on the login page, or contact us via the Help Centre if you need further assistance.

We work with a payment company called Stripe. Their system powers BookEntertainment.com to bill the client's card and send the 15% deposit to BookEntertainment.com and the 5% deposit and remaining balance directly to you.

The balance will be billed to the customer on the due date. We calculate this based on the settings in the payment section of your extranet.

Our payments system enables you to link your bank account to our Stripe payments system so we can trigger payments from the client automatically.

Our payments system only works if you're in the UK or Ireland at the moment.

It is not possible to add a surcharge to Stripe payments and only the balance payment will be deducted from a client's card. As a BookEntertainment.com partner you benefit from a lower transaction rate with Stripe payments than the rates you would be offered as a stand-alone customer.

Our payment system can take the client's deposit and balance automatically. BookEntertainment.com will debit a deposit from the client upfront with the remaining portion going to you as a deposit after our commission.

For information about how to contact Stripe, visit stripe.com/contact. BookEntertainment.com have chosen Stripe as a partner to help facilitate your payment management. However, this is a third-party service and, as a Stripe account holder, any issues you may encounter with Stripe's service should be taken up directly with them. BookEntertainment.com does not have access to their internal systems and will be unable to provide support on these matters.

Transfers from your Stripe account to your bank account are a sweep of the existing balance. To view the components of each transfer, visit the Bookings tab in your manager portal and use the download options for Stripe transfer details where available.

You can also access monthly reports on Stripe's website setting out overall changes in your balance.

There is no way to change the card details for a pending balance payment, change the balance payment to a different date, or amend the balance payment to take into account modifications or partial payments.

Payments can be viewed in the Bookings tab in the manager portal. You will notice a Balance status column next to the flagging system summarising the balance payment status for all your bookings, such as Paid or Pending.

To prevent a balance payment happening on the due date, click Pending and then Cancel balance payment.

Sign up for Stripe through your BookEntertainment.com extranet payment settings. Follow the on-screen steps to connect your Stripe account to receive deposits and balance payments.

For a booking with immediate payment, there is a single transaction and the business name set in your Stripe account will appear on the customer's statement. Our commission is deducted from the payment as a fee by Stripe.

Processing costs depend on where your bank account is located. For businesses with Stripe accounts linked to banks in the EEA (except Norway), a per-transaction fee of 20p or €0.25 applies plus card fees (typically 0.3%–2.9% depending on card type and location). Partners in the USA: 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction. Partners in Canada: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. For other countries, visit stripe.com/pricing. We do not currently accept American Express. Stripe will not rebate its fees when refunding a customer.

You can view the status of your balance payments at any time via your Stripe account under Transfers. You can also sign up for email alerts when a balance payment is made via your Stripe account profile email settings.

• Take card payments without a separate machine and merchant account
• Automatic payment transactions with no need to chase customers
• No need to copy down card details or worry about PCI compliance
• More bookings because it is easier for customers to arrange their entertainment
• Payments pass directly into your payment account
• Reduced paperwork with booking confirmations setting out both transactions
• Full reporting via your Stripe and BookEntertainment.com accounts

We will send an email to remind the customer that their balance will be taken one day before it is due.

1. Visit the Bookings tab in your manager portal
2. Find the booking concerned
3. Click Pending or Due soon (reminder email sent)
4. In the pop-up window, click Cancel balance payment
5. Don't forget to notify BookEntertainment.com using the flagging system to report a problem with a booking.

BookEntertainment.com will take payments automatically in accordance with your current payment date settings. Check this is set up correctly in the Payment section of your extranet.

For example, if payment is due four weeks before the event date, the deposit is taken at booking and the balance is taken on the calculated due date and transferred directly to you by Stripe. If a booking is made after the due date window, payment is taken as soon as possible.

Pending: the payment is still due.
Due soon (reminder email sent): the payment date is approaching and the reminder email has been sent.
Paid: payment was successfully taken and you should expect it in your nominated account in approximately 7 days.
Paid*: immediate payment was taken at booking.
Payment error: the customer's card was declined.
Payment error (email sent): decline notification sent to the customer.
Payment cancelled: you cancelled the balance payment; no further payments will be taken.

Cancellation before payment date: stop the balance payment in the Bookings tab (Cancel balance payment) and flag the booking.

Cancellation after payment or for immediate payment: refund the customer via your Stripe account in accordance with your refund policy. Use the flag button to request an exceptional deposit refund where applicable.

If the customer amends their booking and the price changes, liaise directly for any difference and cancel any automated balance payment if needed.

The customer will be sent an email in the event of payment failure. This email is also sent to your booking confirmation addresses and the booking will show Payment error in the Balance status column.

We cannot re-attempt the payment or access card details. Customers are asked to contact you to arrange alternate payment. If no payment is made, you can implement your cancellation policy. Don't forget to flag cancelled bookings.

BookEntertainment.com should be considered as a facilitator for your online payment management but payment management ultimately remains your responsibility. Failed payments require manual intervention on your part.

Customers can pay via credit or debit card only when booking via our payment system.

Payments are made directly to your bank account and Stripe will pay these on a 7-day rolling basis.

Visit the Payments menu and View all payments. You will see the booking ID on each row. Click the row for full details, or check the Transfers menu charge description for the booking ID.

Stripe is an online payments company founded in 2010. Clients include many leading online businesses. Stripe supports payments in over 130 currencies.

We developed a payment system because clients can be hard to reach on the phone, clients don't want to pay cash on the night anymore, and clients don't feel comfortable paying via BACS transfer.

Where payment would be due immediately, the full cost is billed by your account with BookEntertainment.com commission deducted as an application fee. If a customer's card were declined at booking, the failure may show in Stripe but the booking would not have been placed and will not appear in your Bookings tab.

The overall rating at the top of the Reviews tab is the average of all overall scores guests have left in their reviews. When you have five or more reviews, this number may also appear next to your listing on search results.

The overall score is required when leaving a review and is not calculated as an average of the other optional rating fields.

It's usually better to reply to your clients rather than disputing their reviews. Try to turn things into a positive. To keep things clean, please follow our guidelines: address problems courteously and factually, avoid personal insults, don't include contact details or special offers, avoid unnecessary caps and explicit language, and note that your comments are not automatically emailed to customers.

Our user reviews are intended to provide another perspective on listed acts. To respond you can:

1. Add a manager comment (recommended) in the Reviews tab of the manager portal. This is published beneath the live review.

2. Use our dispute process for reviews that are fictitious, contain serious personal insults, or substantial false information. Disputed reviews are investigated; in most cases we ask that you use the manager comment section to set the record straight.

Managers can opt to receive alerts of new reviews in the manager portal.