Summer in the salon: the team's annual leave and a schedule that doesn't fall apart

The fifteenth of June. Ana, beaming, tells you she's paid for an apartment for the first week of August. The problem: Marija asked for that same week back in April, and you had your eye on it too. Three people, one week, zero agreement. This scene plays out in salons every summer — and almost always for the same reason: the annual leave only started getting sorted once the holidays were already paid for.

Start in March, while everyone is still calm

The best moment to put the summer schedule together is when nobody is packing yet. In practice: March, early April at the latest. Heads are still cool, nothing has been paid for, and every clash can still be resolved with a conversation.

Here's what that looks like in concrete terms:

1. Set a deadline. "Everyone puts in their summer wishes by 31 March." One deadline, no exceptions — including you.
2. Collect the wishes in one place. A sheet of paper in the staff room or a shared spreadsheet, it doesn't matter. What matters is that everyone can see everyone else's wishes, not just their own.
3. First round: wishes only. Nobody pays for anything yet. You're just looking at where things overlap.
4. Second round: reconciling. Overlaps get resolved with priority rules (more on those in a moment), not by who shouts loudest or who has been arguing the longest.
5. Lock the schedule by 15 April. Only then should people pay for their holidays.

The whole process fits into two short meetings. The alternative — a June row over August — has been known to last the whole summer and a bit of the autumn on top.

Agree the priority rules before the first clash

A rule only counts if it existed before it was needed. When two people are fighting over the same week and there's no rule, you lose twice: the schedule and the atmosphere in the team.

A few rules that prove fair in small teams:

• Rotate the most sought-after weeks. Whoever had the first two weeks of August last year picks last this year. Simple and clear to everyone.
• Family commitments carry weight, but a defined one. A colleague who depends on the dates of the kids' summer camp or on the grandparents' schedule gets priority for exactly those weeks — and only those, not the whole summer.
• A maximum of one person away at a time. If there are three of you, two are always working. If there are five of you, perhaps two can be away at once — but decide that in advance, not when the phone rings.
• Everything in writing. Agreed means written down, with dates. Verbal agreements made in March have evaporated by July.

One caveat: the minimum length of annual leave and the notice you must give about the schedule are governed by the Employment Act. This is not legal advice — check the exact obligations for your situation with your accountant or a lawyer. Priority rules above the legal minimum are your business and your peace of mind in the team.

Tell clients six weeks in advance — and offer them an earlier appointment

Your regular client comes in every five weeks. If her next appointment falls right in the middle of your annual leave and she finds out a week beforehand, you've got an unhappy client and a hole in September. If she knows six weeks in advance, you've got a full July.

In concrete terms:

1. Pull up a list of clients whose regular rhythm falls in the leave weeks. If you keep tidy client records, this is a ten-minute job.
2. Offer an earlier appointment, not an apology. "I'm away from 3 to 16 August — shall I fit you in the last week of July?" Most say yes on the spot.
3. Post the dates everywhere your clients look for you. On the door, on social media and on your booking page.

This is where online booking does half the work for you. If clients book themselves in on your Appointa page (appointa.hr/s/your-salon), the leave weeks simply aren't on offer — nobody can book an appointment that doesn't exist. And the free slots before your leave are visible round the clock, so the earlier bookings keep filling up in the evening too, while you're already asleep.

The effect is twofold: clients don't fall out of their rhythm, and your last working week before the seaside fills up two to three weeks in advance instead of at the last minute.

Temporary opening hours: better shorter than chaotic

When a third of the team is at the seaside, the worst thing you can do is pretend you're at full capacity. The maths is simple: if two out of three people are working, you have around 65% of your usual appointments. If you leave the opening hours as though there were three of you, you get overbooked days, delays and clients waiting in the heat.

Better options:

• Shorten the day. Instead of nine in the morning to eight at night, work nine to four. Clients understand a summer regime — they don't understand a forty-minute delay.
• Close one day a week. A Monday with no appointments often hurts less than five shortened days, and it gives the team room to breathe.
• Match the calendar to reality. The shifts in the calendar must match whoever is actually standing at the chair. An empty shift that keeps taking bookings is a recipe for double-booked appointments and awkward phone calls.
• Announce the temporary hours in the same places as the leave dates. One announcement, the same message everywhere.

The team calendar keeps order while heads are at the seaside

The classic summer combination: a paper diary on the front desk, a WhatsApp group and the sentence "I thought you were working Saturday". Each of those three sources tells its own story, and the client at the door is hearing a fourth.

A shared team calendar fixes that in one stroke: everyone is looking at the same thing. Who's working, who's on leave, who's on a shortened shift — one screen, one truth. In Appointa you enter the annual leave once and your colleague at the seaside disappears from the offer for those weeks: clients booking online only see the people who are actually working, and nobody on the team can mistakenly book an appointment with someone who's lying on a beach.

The other summer lifesaver is automatic reminders. Clients are distracted in summer — trips, kids at grandma's, a changed rhythm — and without reminders you typically lose 10-20% of appointments. A reminder arrives roughly 24 hours before the appointment — by e-mail and push, and, with the SMS add-on enabled, by SMS for clients without the app — without anyone on the team typing a thing. In precisely the weeks when you're working with half the crew, every saved appointment is worth double.

A return without a buried first week

Coming back from the seaside to a schedule packed from eight in the morning to eight at night — that's the fastest way for your holiday to evaporate in three days. Plan the return as carefully as the departure:

1. Leave 15-20% of empty space in the first two or three days. Those gaps aren't a loss: they fill up with clients who've been waiting, urgent fixes and all the messages that have piled up.
2. Use the waitlist instead of cramming. Whoever doesn't fit into the first week goes on the waitlist — in Appointa the client automatically gets a notification the moment a slot frees up — by e-mail and push, and by SMS for clients without the app (with the SMS add-on) — so you don't have to ring anyone or "squeeze them in by force".
3. Recurring appointments carry on by themselves. For clients who come in a regular rhythm, set up recurring appointments before you leave — when you're back, their schedule is already in place and there's no flood of "when have you got space?" messages.
4. Start the first day an hour later. Spend that hour reviewing the schedule, catching up on messages and having a coffee with the team. A cheap investment in the rest of the week.

Instead of a conclusion: five numbers that hold the schedule together

March for the wishes, 15 April for a locked schedule. Client notice six weeks before the leave. The last working week filled two to three weeks in advance. Sixty-five per cent capacity means 65% of the appointments — not 100% and chaos. And 15-20% of empty space in the first week back. None of these numbers asks for money. All they ask is that the decisions get made in March, not on the beach.

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Annual leave, shifts and client bookings can live in one calendar instead of three notebooks — and survive every summer. Try the demo for your industry — free, no card required. And the Starter plan is free — up to 30 appointments a month.

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Frequently asked questions

Should I close the salon for the summer or work shorter hours?

It depends on how many of you there are. If you work on your own, a collective two-to-three-week break is often cleaner than a month of running at half steam. If there are three or more of you, shortened hours with a rotation usually keep both the takings and the clients. The same rule applies either way: announce the dates six weeks in advance and offer earlier appointments.

How do I cut no-shows in July and August?

Three things together: automatic reminders the day before the appointment (by e-mail and push, and by SMS for clients without the app with the SMS add-on), a per-client no-show record (so you know who to be more careful booking with) and a waitlist that immediately offers every cancelled booking to the next interested person. A cancelled appointment that gets filled the same day is not a lost appointment.

What about clients who come in a regular rhythm, say every three weeks?

Move them first. Offer an appointment a week or two earlier than usual, before your leave, and book their first appointment after your return straight away. If you use recurring appointments, the whole series is set up once and the client never has to think about it again — and when you're back, you have a full but orderly calendar.