Photo and video studios

An hourly rate with a peak and off-peak split, a minimum booking length, and a buffer either side for setting up and clearing down. A half-day and a full-day are a minimum plus a rate, not a separate product.

Different rates for different uses of the same stage — a stills shoot against a video day — are modelled as activities with their own rate plans attached to the room.

Lighting, modifiers, backdrops, a cyclorama clean-up, a second stand: anything with a count is a stocked rental item that goes out with the booking and comes back afterwards. Anything without a count — a service, a fee — is an add-on priced on the booking.

Because the hire rides on the booking, the client pays once and you reconcile once.

Photo bookings are larger and further out than rehearsal ones, which makes both a deposit and a firm cancellation ladder more valuable. Take a percentage at booking, keep the balance due later, and let the ladder decide what a late cancellation returns.

For a first booking from an unknown client, an approval room takes an authorisation rather than a payment: the card is held when they book and charged only when you confirm.

Nobody books a stage from a text description. The storefront themes are image-led, each room has its own page with photographs, and the whole thing runs on your own domain under your own name.

If you already have a portfolio site you would not replace, keep it and point its booking button at your Soundslot checkout.

There is no gallery delivery, no client proofing, no image licensing and no model release handling. This books and charges for the space; the production side of a photo business is untouched.

There is also no crew marketplace or per-crew-member pricing. An assistant who costs extra is an add-on or a different room, not a rate on a person.