Getting started with Kowbi
A complete walkthrough — from account creation to taking your first paid booking.
Welcome to Kowbi. This guide walks you through everything from your first signup to your first paid booking. Plan on 60–90 minutes total if you follow every step; most of it is one-time configuration you'll never touch again.
If you only have 30 minutes and want the condensed version, read Quick start instead.
What Kowbi does
Kowbi is a booking and operations platform for photo, video, podcast, and content studios. The core idea: your clients book themselves, pay themselves, and let themselves in — you get your time back without giving up control.
The three pieces that work together:
- Booking page. A hosted page clients visit to pick a time, pay, and sign your agreements.
- Admin dashboard. Where you manage rooms, rates, policies, and see every booking.
- Kiosk (Starter+). A tablet-based check-in flow for guests, with PIN access, rules acknowledgment, and before/after photos.
Everything flows through Stripe — money goes directly to your Stripe account. Kowbi never holds your funds.
1. Create your account
Sign up at kowbi.io/register.
Which plan should I pick at signup? Free is a safe starting point — you can test everything except the kiosk and automated no-show handling. Upgrading later keeps all your data intact. If you already know you need the kiosk, Starter ($29/mo) unlocks it immediately.
After signup, you'll land on an onboarding wizard. Alongside that, Kowbi sends you a verification email. Click the link in it. You can keep setting up your studio in the meantime, but you'll need to verify before you can connect Stripe.
2. Finish onboarding
The wizard asks for:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Studio name | Shown on your booking page and all client emails. |
| Slug | Becomes part of your public URL (e.g. yourstudio.kowbi.io). Pick carefully — this is how clients reach you. |
| Timezone | Every time shown to clients + used for cron windows. Get this right or your 10am booking might show as 7am. |
| Business hours | Earliest booking start and latest end time. You can override per-room later. |
| Address | Appears on booking pages so clients know they're booking the right space. |
All of this is editable later in Admin → Settings → General.
3. Add your rooms
Go to Admin → Settings → Rooms → Add Room. For each room:
- Name — "Studio A", "Podcast Booth", "Cyc Wall." Keep it short; it appears in dropdowns.
- Hourly rate — the base price. If you want half-hour increments, set hourly to 2× the half-hour rate and set min duration to 30 minutes.
- Capacity — number of people the room comfortably holds. Shown on the booking page.
- Description + photo — optional but worth it. Clients browse rooms visually.
Multi-room setups (linked rooms)
If you offer rooms individually AND as a combined unit (e.g. "Studio A", "Studio B", "Studio A + B"), use the "When this room is booked, also block" checkbox when creating each room:
- Studio A → also blocks → Studio A+B
- Studio B → also blocks → Studio A+B
- Studio A+B → also blocks → Studio A, Studio B
This makes availability share correctly across all three options. Deep dive: Setting up rooms.
4. Connect Stripe
Admin → Settings → Integrations → Connect Stripe.
Kowbi uses Stripe Connect. You create your own Stripe account (free), connect it to Kowbi, and from then on every booking payment goes directly to you. Kowbi never touches the money — we only take an application fee (0% on paid plans).
You must verify your email before this works.
Walkthrough + what to do when Stripe asks for business verification docs: Connecting Stripe.
5. Set your pricing, deposits, and policies
Admin → Settings → Bookings is where the finance side lives:
- Deposit amount — authorized at booking, released after your damage review window
- Cancellation policy — the text clients see and agree to
- Buffers — setup/breakdown time between back-to-back bookings
- Video surcharge, overtime rate, cleaning fee — optional add-ons
- Add-ons (Starter+) — equipment rentals, extra services, backdrop color choices, etc.
- Promo codes (Starter+) — one-off discount codes
Deeper reading: Deposits & pricing.
6. Google Calendar sync (Starter+)
If you also take bookings on Peerspace, Giggster, or another platform, sync both calendars so Kowbi doesn't double-book you.
Admin → Settings → Integrations → Google Calendar. Point it at the calendar that Peerspace/Giggster write to, and Kowbi will treat those events as busy time.
Setup walkthrough: Google Calendar sync.
7. Studio rules + agreement
Admin → Settings → Rules is where you write the house rules every client has to acknowledge. Common things to cover:
- What's included vs extra (equipment, cyc, backdrops)
- What's prohibited (smoke machines, drilling, open flame)
- Overtime policy (automatically charged after grace period)
- Damage policy
- Noise / neighbor considerations
Clients e-sign this at check-in. If you've never written one, start with the template language we provide and edit from there.
8. Kiosk setup (Starter+)
If you're going staffless or semi-staffless, set up the kiosk now.
Admin → Settings → Kiosk gives you a kiosk URL. Load it on an iPad, lock the tablet to that URL via Guided Access, and leave it in your studio. Guests check in by entering the PIN from their booking email, acknowledging rules, and (Pro+) taking before-session photos.
Full setup: Kiosk setup.
9. Email branding (optional)
Admin → Settings → Branding lets you upload your logo and set your primary color so booking confirmation emails match your brand instead of looking generic. Totally optional but makes a difference for first impressions.
More: Email branding.
10. Test a booking yourself
This is the single most important step. Open your booking page (yourstudio.kowbi.io) in an incognito window and book a session as if you were a customer. Walk through the whole flow:
- Pick a room, date, duration
- Fill out your info
- Pay (use a real card on a paid plan — you can refund it to yourself; use a Stripe test card on Free)
- Receive the confirmation email
- Check in via the kiosk (if applicable)
- Mark the booking complete in admin
You'll catch 90% of config problems in this one dry run — before a real client does.
11. Go live
Once your test booking works end-to-end, update your public links:
- Instagram bio — replace existing booking link with your Kowbi URL
- Google Business Profile — add Kowbi as your booking link
- Website — link to your booking page or embed the booking widget
- Peerspace / Giggster — leave as-is; those marketplaces still send clients. Direct bookers now have a better path.
Week 1: what to watch
For the first few days, check your admin dashboard once a day:
- Bookings coming in? Confirm each confirmation email actually went out.
- Any booking stuck in weird state? The first few can expose edge cases — reply to the client personally if anything is off.
- Stripe payouts hitting your bank? Confirm your bank got the first payout.
- Any client confusion? Save their emails — those tell you where to improve your booking page copy.
Where to get help
- Help Center: kowbi.io/help — guides for every feature
- Email: hello@kowbi.io — I read every one personally. Usually reply within a few hours during business hours.
- Chat bubble on the marketing site — same inbox, slightly faster for quick questions
Welcome to Kowbi. Now go book something.