From Zero to Online Bookings in 7 Days: A Limo Operator's Launch Checklist

What has to be ready before day 1?

Nothing technical. What slows launches is missing business information, not missing software. Collect these before you start and the week runs on schedule.

If you cannot answer a rate question from memory, write it down now — you will be asked for it on day 2.

• Your vehicle classes and passenger/luggage capacity for each.
• Hourly rates, minimums, and any weekend or late-night uplifts.
• Airport flat rates by airport and vehicle class.
• Gratuity policy, tolls, parking, waiting-time and cancellation rules.
• Chauffeur names, mobile numbers and licence expiry dates.
• Your Stripe account (or the email you'll use to create one).
• Access to your website so a booking widget can be embedded.

Days 1–2: what do you configure first?

Start with the things every later step depends on: company profile, vehicle classes and pricing. Get pricing wrong and every quote, invoice and payment after it is wrong too.

Days 3–4: how do you get dispatch and drivers running?

Dispatch and the driver app should be proven on real work before any passenger sees a booking page. Enter tomorrow's jobs manually, assign them, and let drivers run them on the app while your existing process still runs in parallel.

• Add chauffeurs and send app invites; confirm each one logs in the same day.
• Run a real airport pickup end to end: assign, accept, on-way, on-location, POB, drop.
• Check that timestamps and any wait time land on the job record.
• Confirm the app behaves sensibly with poor signal in a terminal garage.
• Agree one rule with drivers: status changes happen in the app, not by text.

Days 5–6: how do you turn on online booking and payments?

Now publish the passenger-facing side. The booking page reuses the vehicle classes and rates you already validated, so this step is fast if days 1–2 were done properly.

Connect Stripe, decide whether you authorise or charge at booking, and send yourself three test reservations — an hourly charter, an airport pickup and a next-day point-to-point — paying with a real card and refunding it.

• Publish the branded booking page and embed the widget on your site.
• Connect Stripe and run one live card payment plus a refund.
• Set confirmation email and SMS wording, including your cancellation policy.
• Create corporate accounts for your top clients with PO reference fields.
• Add the booking link to Google Business Profile, email signatures and WhatsApp.

Day 7: what does cutover look like?

Cut over at the start of a week. Take one full trading day where every new booking — phone, email or web — is entered only in the new system, with the old process available read-only for lookups.

Brief the team in fifteen minutes: where today's board is, how to add a phone booking, and who to call if something looks wrong.

What usually goes wrong, and how do you avoid it?

Almost every delayed launch traces back to one of four things, and all four are avoidable with a decision rather than more software.

• Rate cards rebuilt from memory instead of from real invoices.
• Drivers who never installed the app because nobody checked on day 3.
• Waiting for a website redesign before embedding the booking widget.
• Cutting over on a Friday or before a holiday weekend.