Help & how-tos

SMOOTT is a marketplace for personal and business services, buy. sell. services online. SMOOTT itself doesn’t handle the money: sellers publish their own payment options, buyers settle with the seller directly, and SMOOTT charges a small commission from a pre-paid Recharge Balance held against each business.

For buyers For sellers

Quick start, book a service in 3 steps

Browse the marketplace. Hit Marketplace at the top, filter by category, location, price, or date range. The Categories filter is an expandable tree, you can tick a whole top-level group to include everything under it, or open it and pick individual sub-categories; ticking or un-ticking a group cascades to its children. Start typing in the search box and a predictive panel suggests matching categories, services and sellers as you go. Each tile shows the service photo, the business logo and name, the price, and a star rating once reviews exist.
Open a service and pick your slot(s). The right side of the service page has the slot picker. You can browse a full year of availability with Week / Month views and a jump-to-date input. Click any slot to add it to your selection; click again to remove.
Review & confirm. The Continue button takes you to a review page with per-slot pricing, optional add-ons (e.g. strings with a racquet stringing service), the seller’s T&Cs, and the running total. Tick the T&Cs and confirm. You’ll get a confirmation email immediately, with the seller’s logo, payment instructions and your booking number.

Example. You need a haircut next Saturday. Open Marketplace, filter to Hair & Beauty + your suburb, find “Men’s cut, 30 min” for $45 with 4.8★. Click Sat 10:00 in the slot picker, hit Continue, tick the T&Cs, confirm. Within seconds you get an email with the salon’s address, the bank details for payment, and booking number #T123. Total elapsed: about 90 seconds.

Finding your way around

The top of the page has a slim navigation bar that adapts to your screen:

Marketplace - the public catalogue. No account needed to browse.
Dashboard - your home screen once you’re signed in.
My SMOOTT dropdown, your Businesses (if you sell) and My bookings (everything you’ve booked). My bookings shows your most recent bookings first and loads older ones automatically as you scroll, so even a long history stays quick to open.
Avatar circle in the top-right, click it for your Profile and Log out. Upload a picture from the Profile page and it replaces the coloured initial here.

On phones the whole nav collapses into a hamburger menu so nothing slides off-screen. Help, Terms and (for signed-in users) Feedback live in the footer.

Example. You can’t remember when last month’s yoga class was. Click My SMOOTT → My bookings, scroll down to the past section, click the booking row. You’ll see the date/time, the studio’s address, your payment status, and your review (if you left one).

Multi-slot bookings & volume discount

You can put up to 100 slots from the same service into one booking. If the seller has set a volume discount, e.g. 10% off when you book 5 or more - the discount is applied automatically as soon as you hit the threshold.

Sticky footer always shows your running total and any discount you’ve already unlocked.
If you’re close to the threshold, the footer tells you exactly how many more slots will unlock the discount.
Add-ons are picked once for the whole booking, not per slot, so picking “1 string” on a 5-session court booking adds one string total, not five.

Example, volume discount. A tennis coach charges $90/lesson with 10% off at 5+ lessons. You book 6 lessons. Subtotal = 6 × $90 = $540. Discount = 10% × $540 = $54. Total = $486. The footer ticks over to “Discount unlocked!” the moment you add your 5th slot.

Example, capacity group class. A pilates class has capacity 8 per slot. You book 2 spots for you and a friend. The slot pill now shows 2/8 booked · 6 left; other buyers can still claim the remaining 6. Both spots share the same booking number on your side.

How to make your first booking

Book multiple slots & unlock the volume discount

How you pay the seller

SMOOTT does not process your payment. When you confirm a booking, the seller’s published payment options are shown on the booking page and the confirmation email. You settle with the seller directly, bank transfer, in-person card, cash, BNPL, whatever they’ve set up.

Quote your booking number (e.g. #T42) on the payment so the seller can reconcile.

Example. Your confirmation email says “Bank: ABC Bank · BSB 062-000 · Acc 12345678 · Ref: your booking number”. You send $45 from your bank app and put #T123 in the reference field. The seller sees the payment land overnight and marks it Paid in their dashboard the next morning.

Tracking your payment status

Once you've paid the seller, they mark it received in their own dashboard. The next time you open My bookings, you'll see a payment pill on each booking next to the booking status. The colours are:

UNPAID - nothing recorded yet.
PARTIAL - the seller has logged a portion. An extra line under the total reads “Paid AUD 50.00 of AUD 150.00” so you can see exactly what's left.
PAID - fully settled.
REFUNDED - the seller has returned the money.
WAIVED - the seller has forgiven the debt.

If you've paid and the pill still shows Unpaid, give the seller a day to update their books. After that, reply to your booking confirmation email or contact the seller directly, SMOOTT can't see who's paid whom.

Friendly reminder emails. If the seller hasn't recorded payment within a few days of the slot ending, you may get a polite reminder email from them with the outstanding amount and a copy of their payment options. If you've already paid, just reply so they can update their records.

Example, partial payment. Your $150 yoga course is half-paid: you transferred $50 to lock the spot, the studio marked it Partial, AUD 50.00 of AUD 150.00. Two weeks later you pay the remaining $100. The studio updates the record, the pill flips to Paid, and the “outstanding” line disappears from your My bookings page.

Reviewing your booking

You can leave a 1–5 star review with optional text any time after the service date. There’s no deadline.

Reviews publish immediately and are visible to everyone on the service page.
Other buyers see your first name and last initial, not your full name.
The seller can post a public reply but can’t edit your text.
The seller can’t hide or edit your review. If they think it breaks our review guidelines, they can report it and SMOOTT decides. We don’t remove a genuine review just because it’s negative, and we’ll email you if we remove yours.

Example. A month after your tennis lesson you remember the coach was great. Open My bookings, click the booking, click Leave a review, give 5★ with a one-paragraph note about how patient she was. It publishes immediately on her service page as “Diana S., 5★, ‘Patient and clear…’” - visible to everyone browsing that lesson.

Leaving reviews and cancelling bookings

Review guidelines

Reviews help buyers choose and help good sellers stand out, so they need to be honest. Only the buyer of a confirmed booking can review it, once the service has happened. A seller can’t hide or edit a review. If a seller thinks a review breaks these guidelines, they can report it, and SMOOTT decides.

We remove a review if it:

is abusive or offensive: threats, harassment, slurs, discriminatory or obscene content;
is defamatory: presents as fact something false that damages someone’s reputation;
is fake or not from a real customer: for example written by a competitor, by someone else on the buyer’s account, or in exchange for payment or a reward;
contains private information: phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, or other people’s personal details;
is not about this service: about a different business or booking, advertising, or unrelated to the service;
otherwise breaks the law or the User Agreement.

We don’t remove a genuine review just because it’s negative, critical or unfavourable, or because the seller disagrees with it. A seller can always post a public reply to give their side.

How a report is handled. The review stays public while we look at it. If we remove it, it’s no longer shown or counted in the rating, and we email both the seller and the buyer. If we keep it, we email the seller. Removed reviews stay on record for audit and disputes. If you think we got a decision wrong, contact us using the form in the footer and we’ll take another look.

Cancellations

You can cancel a slot any time before it starts, subject to the seller’s cancellation policy. The slot reopens for someone else to book and the seller is notified.

Cancellation policy: each service can set a minimum-notice window (e.g. “at least 2 hours before”). The window is shown on the service detail page and on the review page before you confirm, and it’s locked in at booking time so the seller can’t tighten it after you’ve booked. Inside that window you can’t cancel through SMOOTT, contact the seller directly.

SMOOTT doesn’t hold any of your money, so there’s nothing for us to refund. If you’d already paid the seller off-platform, you arrange the refund directly with them.

To cancel an entire multi-slot booking in one click, use the “Cancel all upcoming slots” button on the booking page. Past slots and slots inside the cancellation window are skipped automatically.

Example, inside the cancellation window. A massage with a 24-hour cancellation policy is booked for tomorrow at 14:00. It’s now 18:00 today, only 20 hours away, so inside the window. If you click Cancel, SMOOTT tells you the seller’s policy requires at least 24 hours’ notice and doesn’t cancel the booking. Phone or email the masseur instead.

Example, cancel a multi-slot booking. You booked 6 yoga classes but realised week 3 clashes with a trip. Open the booking, click Cancel all upcoming slots. The 4 future classes are released; the 2 already attended stay on your record. The studio gets a cancellation email for each released class.

No-show policy

When you don’t show up for a slot you didn’t cancel, the seller can mark your booking as a no-show. This is what keeps the marketplace working for everyone, sellers commit real time and resources to your booking.

No-shows are tracked over a rolling 180-day window. Older no-shows fall off and stop counting.
If you reach 3 no-shows in that window, new bookings are paused for 30 days from your most recent no-show.
You can always see your current count on your My bookings page. We’ll warn you when you’re one strike away from a pause.
If a seller marked you incorrectly, contact them first, then SMOOTT support if it can’t be resolved.

Example. You forgot a 7:00 AM personal-training session in February. The coach marks it a no-show. In April you miss another one. In June, with a 3-no-show / 6-month threshold + 30-day pause set, you miss a third, bookings are paused for 30 days. The pause ends; the February no-show drops off the 6-month window in August, restoring your buffer.

Your timezone when booking

On any service page the slot picker has a “Show in” timezone dropdown (top-right of the calendar). It defaults to your device’s timezone, and you can switch it to any zone. Whatever you choose is the timezone your booking is recorded against, so the review screen, your confirmation email, and the booking page all show the times in that same zone — each clearly labelled (e.g. “Time in Europe/London (BST)”). The seller always sees the booking in their business’s local time, so you’re both looking at the same moment from your own clocks.

Example. You’re in London booking a Sydney coach. Set “Show in” to London and pick 9 am — your confirmation reads 9 am London time, while the coach’s calendar shows the matching Sydney time.

Closing your account

You can permanently close your own account from Profile → Close your account. To protect everyone, the close button only appears once you have no upcoming bookings of your own and every business you own is closed — the page lists anything still outstanding, with links to deal with it first. Closing asks for your current password to confirm, signs you out, and hides your profile, businesses and services. Past bookings are kept intact for the other party’s records.

FAQ

Do I need to register to browse?

No. Anyone can browse the catalogue and see availability. You only need an account when you click your first slot to book.

Can I message the seller before booking?

Yes, each service shows the seller’s contact email and phone, but only when you’re signed in. Anonymous browsers see a blurred preview with a sign-in prompt. Once signed in, the email + phone are clickable so you can reach out directly before committing.

What happens if I forget my password?

Use the Forgotten password link on the login page. You’ll get a single-use reset link by email.

How do I change my email address?

Open the avatar circle → Profile, and use the Change email card. For your security we verify before switching: enter your current password and the new address, and we email a confirmation link to the new address. Your sign-in email only changes once you click that link, and a heads-up notice goes to your old address too. You can cancel a pending change any time before it’s confirmed. Tip: if the confirmation email doesn’t arrive, check your Promotions/Newsletter tab and mark it “not promotions”.

How do I change my profile picture?

Open the avatar circle in the top-right, click Profile, then use the Avatar card at the top of the page. Pick a JPEG, PNG or WebP within the platform’s image limit (5 MB by default), we crop to a square and resample automatically. The new picture replaces the coloured initial across SMOOTT.

Why is one slot more expensive than another?

Some sellers apply a premium uplift to peak times (weekends, evenings). The picker shows the uplift % on those slots in amber.

Can I leave a review without booking?

No. Only the buyer of a confirmed booking can leave a review for that specific booking.

Can I edit my review after posting?

No, this prevents pressure from sellers to revise reviews. If you genuinely need to correct something, contact SMOOTT via the Contact link in the footer.

I've been given a smoott.com/b/… link, what is it?

That's the seller's branded storefront on SMOOTT, a page showing only their services, with their logo and name as the header. It's the same booking flow as the main marketplace, just filtered to one business.

Still stuck? Send us a message and we’ll get back to you.