For in-home music teachers
You’re mid-lesson. The parent is messaging three other teachers.
Teaching is a first-reply business. A family looking for a cello teacher messages everyone they can find and books whoever answers — and you answer at nine that night, when the slot is gone. Cartoply replies for you, takes payment for the trial before you drive, and only offers times inside the area you actually cover.
- A booking link that answers enquiries while both hands are on an instrument
- Trial lessons paid at booking — the family that pays is the family that is home
- Instrument, age, level, and whether there is an instrument at the house, asked upfront
- A travel radius, so a 30-minute lesson never becomes a two-hour round trip
Built for teachers who travel to students — piano, strings, guitar, drums, and voice. Solo teachers and small studios alike.
Reply first without stopping the lesson
Your booking link is the reply. A parent who finds you in a school Facebook group at four in the afternoon sees your real openings and books one, instead of leaving a message you answer after your last student. Confirmations and reminders go out on their own, so the enquiry is finished before you have put the instrument down.
A paid trial is a different appointment
Put a price on your trial or assessment lesson and the card is authorised before the slot confirms, then captured only once the slot is genuinely secured — so if two families race for the same time, the one who loses is never charged. A family that has paid has stopped comparing teachers and is home when you knock. Prices live on organisation booking pages, so a solo teacher creates an organisation with only themselves in it.
The drive is the cost nobody counts
A 30-minute lesson forty minutes away is a two-hour commitment for one lesson fee. Set the area you are genuinely willing to drive — a radius from home, a list of ZIP codes, or a shape drawn around the school catchments you already serve — and families outside it see no availability at all. Drive-time buffers between lessons keep the rest of the evening honest.
Turn up knowing what you are walking into
Up to ten intake questions per lesson type: instrument, student age, how long they have played, current method book or grade, whether there is a suitable instrument at the house, whether a parent will be present, parking and access notes. You arrive knowing whether this is a first-year beginner on a rented half-size violin or a grade-six student two months from an exam.
How it works
Set your lesson types
A paid trial lesson plus any one-offs you teach — make-up, exam prep, a summer intensive. Each gets its own length, price, and drive-time buffer.
Draw the area you will drive
A radius from home, the ZIP codes you serve, or a shape around the schools you already teach at. Outside it, no times are offered.
Share one link
Facebook group posts, your school noticeboard listing, your email signature. Families book, pay, and answer your questions; you get the booking with everything attached.
Frequently asked questions
Can a family book a recurring weekly lesson slot?
No — this is the honest limit of the product for teaching. Cartoply books one appointment at a time, with no series, repeat, or way to reserve "every Tuesday at four" in a single action. Setting your weekly availability is a different thing: it says when you can be booked, it does not create bookings. Most travelling teachers arrange the standing weekly slot with the family directly anyway, because it involves term dates and fees. Cartoply covers everything around it — the enquiry, the paid trial, the make-up, the holiday intensive.
Can I charge for a trial lesson?
Yes, through Stripe or PayPal, and the money goes straight to your own connected account. One setup note: prices are attached to organisation booking pages, so a solo teacher creates an organisation and stays the only member — one member is one seat. The charge is the full price of that one lesson: Cartoply has no deposits, part-payments, lesson packages, or prepaid credits, so a term sold upfront still gets invoiced separately.
How do I stop being booked forty minutes away?
Set a travel radius and addresses outside it never see availability, so the conversation never happens. You can define it as a distance from home, a list of ZIP codes, or a shape you draw on a map — usually the most accurate, because the area a teacher will really drive follows catchments and main roads, not a neat circle. Drawing a travel area runs on an organisation booking page, the same one-member setup that unlocks prices.
What happens when a family needs to move a lesson?
Every confirmation email carries a reschedule link, and they pick from times you are actually free instead of opening a six-message negotiation mid-lesson. You set a cancellation cutoff per lesson type — inside it, they are told to contact you directly, so a last-minute change still gets a human decision rather than an automatic one.
Does it work with the calendar I already use?
Cartoply syncs live with Google Calendar and Outlook. Your standing students, your own rehearsals, and the school run all block those times automatically, and every confirmed lesson lands on the same calendar. A slot that is taken is taken, even if two parents are looking at it at once.
Answer every enquiry at the moment it arrives
Set your trial lesson price, draw the area you will actually drive, and let families book the slots you genuinely have free.
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