Guide
Online Booking for Your Taxi Website: Embedded Form or Hosted Booking Link?
BookTaxiService gives a taxi operator two ways to take bookings online: a booking form embedded in your own website, or a hosted booking link you share wherever customers find you. The embedded form suits operators whose website already brings in work; the hosted link suits operators with no website, a site that is hard to edit, or customers who arrive through Google, social media, text messages and email.
A small taxi, chauffeur or airport-transfer website often still ends in a phone number or an enquiry form. Neither one takes a booking. As of October 2026, BookTaxiService lets you run both options side by side from one account, so you do not have to pick one forever.
Below: why an enquiry form falls short, how each option works, a comparison table, what happens after a customer books, and a seven-step checklist for going live.
If you already know what you need, see the plans and sign up.
Why an Enquiry Form Is Not an Online Booking
An enquiry form is a message, not a booking. A customer types a pickup, a destination and a time into a contact form, and the form emails your office. Nothing else happens until someone reads it.
Four things go missing along the way:
- No booking record. Someone in the office re-keys every job into whatever system you run, which is where typos in addresses and times creep in.
- No price. The customer waits for a reply to find out what the trip costs, and some book elsewhere while they wait.
- No payment. A general contact form cannot take a card for the fare, so payment is chased later or collected in the car.
- No confirmation. The customer does not know if the job is booked until you call or email back.
A WordPress contact form plugin has the same gap. The form looks like a booking form, but it ends in your inbox. A taxi booking system puts the request straight into your booking workflow instead.
Option A: Embed the Booking Form on Your Website
An embedded booking form is the BookTaxiService booking form placed inside a page on your own website. You copy the widget embed snippet from your BookTaxiService settings and paste it into your website; a direct iframe snippet is also available. Both load your BookTaxiService booking page inside your site, so customers stay on your website while they book.
What the Customer Sees on the Embedded Form
The customer enters the route and picks from the service and vehicle options you have set up. What comes next depends on the journey and your plan:
- Where automatic pricing can work out the journey, the fare is calculated from your configured rates, fees and extras.
- Where the journey cannot be priced automatically, the request becomes a quote request for you to price.
- Before a direct booking is submitted, the customer verifies a one-time code sent by email or SMS.
- Where you have enabled online card payment, the customer can pay by card on supported booking paths, through the Stripe account you configure with your own keys.
Customers book in the browser on a phone or a computer. Nobody installs an app.
What You Do to Add the Embedded Form
Adding the embedded booking form is a copy-and-paste job:
- In your BookTaxiService settings, open the booking widget section and copy the widget embed snippet (or the direct iframe snippet).
- Paste it into the page on your website where you want customers to book, such as a “Book Now” page.
- Publish the page and make a test booking.
Who the Embedded Form Suits
The embedded form suits an operator who:
- Already gets customers through their own website, from search or from repeat customers who know the address
- Can edit their website, or has someone who can
- Wants customers to book without leaving the site they landed on
Option B: Share Your Hosted Booking Link
A hosted booking link is a web address for your own operator booking page, hosted by BookTaxiService. The booking page uses your branding, and customers book on it the same way they would on an embedded form. You do not need a website to use one.
The operator booking page is also where customers sign in later to view their bookings. Read more about the customer booking page and customer sign-in.
Where the Hosted Booking Link Works
Anywhere you can put a web address, the hosted booking link can go:
- Your Google Business Profile
- Facebook, Instagram and other social profiles
- Text messages to regular customers
- Your email signature
- A QR code printed on business cards, flyers or in-car signage
A QR code is just the link in another form. Any free QR generator turns your booking link into one.
Who the Hosted Link Suits
The hosted booking link suits an operator who:
- Has no website yet, or has one that is slow or hard to change
- Gets most customers from Google Maps, social media or word of mouth
- Wants to send a booking link straight to a customer in a text or an email
You can also use both: the embedded form on your website, and the hosted link everywhere else.
Embedded Form vs Hosted Booking Link
The embedded form and the hosted link put the same BookTaxiService booking system in front of your customer. The difference is where the customer books and what you need in place first.
| Embedded booking form | Hosted booking link | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the customer books | A page on your own website | Your operator booking page, hosted by BookTaxiService |
| What you need first | A website you can edit | Nothing beyond your BookTaxiService account |
| How you add it | Paste the widget embed snippet or the direct iframe snippet into a page | Copy the link and share it |
| Branding | Your website’s header, footer and menus stay around the form | The booking page uses your branding |
| Works without a website | No | Yes |
| Customer sign-in to view bookings | On your operator booking page | On your operator booking page |
| Instant booking or quote request | Set by your plan and settings | Set by your plan and settings |
| Online card payment | Supported booking paths, when you enable it, through your own Stripe account | Supported booking paths, when you enable it, through your own Stripe account |
| Good for | Operators whose website already brings in customers | Google Business Profile, social media, SMS, email signatures and QR codes |
Instant Booking or Quote Request: What Your Plan Decides
Instant booking means the customer sees a fare and books on the spot; a quote request means the customer asks and you reply with a price. BookTaxiService supports both, and your plan decides the default:
- Starter: public booking widgets are quote-only by default. Every request comes to you to price.
- Growth and above: instant booking is available when your plan includes it, the widget’s direct-booking setting is on and quote-only mode is off, for journeys automatic pricing can resolve. Journeys it cannot price still arrive as quote requests.
Quote requests are not a dead end for the customer. You can reply with a price or offer options, and the customer can accept the quote online. Compare what each plan includes.
What Happens After a Customer Books
A booking or quote request from the embedded form or the hosted link lands in your BookTaxiService operator workflow, not in an email inbox. From there:
- You see the request in your dashboard. No re-keying from an email.
- Quote requests get your price. You price the job or offer options, and the customer accepts online.
- Payment goes to you. Where online card payment is enabled, eligible card payments use the Stripe account you configure with your own keys. Depending on the booking and your payment policy, payment can be taken or authorised at different points. Read how BookTaxiService payments work.
- You allocate a driver. Confirmed bookings can be allocated to a driver.
- The job is tracked to completion. Drivers work from a web portal on their phone, with nothing to install, and the booking moves through its statuses until the trip is done.
- The customer can check in. Customers sign in on your operator booking page to view their bookings.
The Seven-Step Booking Form Checklist
Going live with a BookTaxiService booking form takes seven steps. Your dashboard also has a readiness checklist for the booking widget, rates, payment methods and instant-booking setup.
- Choose a plan and create your operator account at the BookTaxiService signup page. Self-serve signup is open to Australian operators.
- Set your vehicle types and rates. These are the options customers choose from and the rates automatic pricing uses.
- Add your Stripe keys if you want to take card payments online. Stripe explains where to find them in its guide to API keys.
- Add your drivers, so confirmed bookings can be allocated.
- Embed the booking form by pasting the widget embed snippet into your website.
- Share your hosted booking link on your Google Business Profile, social profiles, SMS and email signature.
- Check the readiness checklist in your dashboard for widget, rate and payment settings still outstanding.
You need step 5 or step 6 before anyone can book online, and you can do both.
How Premium Taxi Service Takes Bookings Online
Premium Taxi Service is an Australian taxi operator in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane that takes bookings through its own branded BookTaxiService booking page. Premium Taxi Service uses both options in this guide: the booking form is embedded in its own website as an iframe, and the same booking page is reachable directly by link. Premium Taxi Service has run on BookTaxiService since March 2026.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add a booking form to my taxi website?
To add a BookTaxiService booking form to a taxi website, copy the widget embed snippet from your BookTaxiService settings and paste it into the page where you want customers to book. A direct iframe snippet is also available. Customers then book on your website without leaving it.
Do I need a website to take taxi bookings online?
No. A taxi operator without a website can take online bookings with the BookTaxiService hosted booking link, a branded operator booking page you share on your Google Business Profile, social profiles, text messages, email signature or a QR code.
Should I embed the booking form or share the booking link?
Embed the BookTaxiService booking form if your website already brings in customers and you can edit it. Share the hosted booking link if you have no website, or if customers mostly find you through Google, social media or messages. An operator can use both from the same BookTaxiService account.
Can customers pay online through the taxi booking form?
Yes, where you enable it. BookTaxiService supports online card payment on supported booking paths, and eligible card payments use the Stripe account the operator configures with their own Stripe keys. Depending on the booking and the payment policy, payment can be taken or authorised at different points.
Does the booking form show customers a price straight away?
The BookTaxiService booking form shows an instant fare from the Growth plan when the widget’s direct-booking setting is on, quote-only mode is off and automatic pricing can resolve the journey. On Starter, public booking widgets are quote-only by default, so customers send a quote request and you reply with a price they can accept online.
Do my customers need to download an app to book?
No. Customers book a BookTaxiService operator’s trips in the browser on a phone or computer, with no app to install. Before a direct booking is submitted, the customer verifies a one-time code sent by email or SMS, and customers can sign in on the operator booking page later to view their bookings.
Does the embedded booking form work on a WordPress website?
Yes. A WordPress website can show the BookTaxiService booking form by pasting the widget embed snippet into a page, the same way as any other website. BookTaxiService does not need a separate WordPress plugin for this.
Put Your Booking Form Live
Choose your plan, set your vehicles and rates, then paste the embed snippet into your website or share your booking link.
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