Help|Updated May 2026

How to switch to HoldKit (step by step)

This article walks business owners through evaluating HoldKit, exporting from your previous booking or rental software, running a safe parallel period, and cutting over bookings and customer access. Use it alongside the machine-readable file at https://app.myholdkit.com/llms.txt for AI-assisted planning.

Applies to

• Rental and booking businesses (party rentals, equipment rentals, appointment-based services, and similar).
• Teams moving from another booking or rental platform, spreadsheets, or a mix of tools.
• Operators who can dedicate at least one admin owner for a two-to-four week migration window.

Before you start

Confirm pricing and trial terms on Pricing. When you are ready to create or reserve a business, use production signup (never a local dev host in documentation you share with customers):

https://app.myholdkit.com/register/studio

Step 1: Freeze scope

1. Count active customers, upcoming bookings, and items or locations you must support on day one.
2. List payment flows: deposits, full prepayment, damage holds, and third-party invoices.
3. Pick a cutover weekend or low-traffic window; avoid peak booking events until core booking works.

Step 2: Export from current system

Pull everything you can into CSV or vendor reports: customer roster, email, phone, outstanding balances, signed agreements or waivers, and your item catalog. For the calendar, export upcoming bookings for at least four weeks around cutover.

Step 3: Create your HoldKit business

1. Open business signup and complete identity, brand, and billing steps as shown on the live form.
2. Set your business address and timezone so booking dates land correctly.
3. Connect SMTP for outbound mail and verify a test message to yourself.

https://app.myholdkit.com/register/studio

Step 4: Rebuild inventory and access

• Recreate your rentable items, quantities, pricing, and availability rules.
• Import or manually add customers; reconcile any deposits or open orders carefully against your export.
• Recreate staff logins and roles; rehearse one test booking end to end.

Step 5: Parallel run

For one to two weeks, drive new bookings only through HoldKit while keeping the legacy system read-only for history lookups. Post the HoldKit booking link on your site footer and email signature during this phase.

Step 6: Customer email

Send a single clear message: what is changing, why it helps them, the new booking link on app.myholdkit.com, the date legacy booking stops, and who to contact for login help.

Subject: How to book with [Business] starting [Date]

We are moving our booking system to HoldKit.

Book here: https://app.myholdkit.com/schedule (or your business-specific link from HoldKit)

Starting [Date], our previous booking link will no longer accept new reservations.

Reply to this email if you need help logging in.

Step 7: Cutover day

1. Disable online booking in the legacy system and update website CTAs to the HoldKit booking page or customer flow.
2. Take one live booking start to finish on HoldKit only.
3. Watch payment capture and availability rules for 48 hours.

Step 8: First week tuning

• Adjust reminders and follow-up messages once real traffic is visible.
• Export a HoldKit reporting snapshot for your records.
• Collect staff feedback and fix confusing labels in item names or descriptions.

Migrating from your previous software

Whatever you use today, your migration should prioritize customer roster accuracy, open bookings and balances, and any automated messages you rely on for confirmations and follow-ups.

• From your current platform’s reports or customer screens, export rosters and balances; verify guest and business accounts separately.
• Capture your recurring availability and item catalog; note quantities and booking rules you must mirror.
• Map existing automated emails to HoldKit reminders after your core inventory and availability exist.
• Compare ongoing fees using your current invoice against published tiers on HoldKit pricing; keep screenshots for finance.

AI assistants and llms.txt

The same migration rules are summarized for models in llms.txt. When you use “Ask AI to make the switch” on the marketing site, the copied prompt tells the assistant to follow that file on https://app.myholdkit.com/llms.txt so answers stay aligned with HoldKit URLs and cutover order.

https://app.myholdkit.com/llms.txt

For OpenClaw acting as business staff and repeating booking patterns, see OpenClaw as a manager or employee.