Short answer. The Planity of Algeria in 2027 is not first a salon directory: it is the salon's tool, a calendar per employee with the real length of each service, a deposit that holds the slot, reminders that release places in time, and a private client card. Planity won in France by selling that software to salons; the directory came on top. In Algeria, directories already exist in Algiers; what is missing is the deposit, a true calendar, and a product nobody does well yet: the package for the bride who lives in France and marries in Algeria. To be ready, the tool must run before Ramadan, so start in November.
This guide is the ninth in the series "Seen in France, to build in Algeria", after car rental and the Booking equivalent. It is written for the diaspora founder who wants to launch the platform, and for the manager of a salon, beauty institute or hammam who wants bookings to happen without her on the phone.
Why an Algerian salon loses its appointments
Every manager knows the scenario. Requests arrive as Instagram messages, on WhatsApp, by phone while her hands are in a colour. The appointment goes into a notebook with a rough length. On Saturday two clients do not come and do not warn; at 3 pm a colour planned for one hour takes two and a half, and the next three appointments wait. None of this is a lack of seriousness: it is what happens when the calendar lives in a notebook and the slot costs nothing to the client who does not come.
There is no public measure of no-show rates in Algerian salons. Booking software vendors quote, for other markets, ranges of 15 to 30% of appointments missed without a deposit or reminder; those are vendor figures, to be read as an order of magnitude. The right number is the salon's own: count, for two weeks, the notebook appointments where nobody came.
What Planity really built, and what already exists in Algeria
Planity, founded in Paris in 2017, claimed in February 2024 about 37,000 of France's 140,000 beauty establishments, after a EUR 45 million round that took its total raised to 100 million, according to Maddyness. The trade press describes it as a beauty software company as much as a booking site: salons pay for the calendar, the till and the reminders, and the consumer site fills up because the salons are already on it. The same article noted that at the time only 22% of French beauty establishments, and 7% in Europe, had adopted online booking. The lesson is not "build a directory": it is equip the salon, and the directory almost follows by itself.
In Algeria the field is no longer empty. ZinLook lets clients book salons and beauty institutes in Algiers, with 73 partner establishments since September according to Maghreb Emergent, and a tool for professionals; payment is made on site, at the salon. Beautify presents itself on the app stores as a beauty booking platform in Algeria. We do not know their volumes or plans, and they may move fast. But at the end of October 2026, as far as we know, the online deposit, the calendar per employee with real lengths, and bridal packages booked from France remain open ground, in Algiers and in the other wilayas.
«The lesson is not "build a directory": it is equip the salon, and the directory almost follows by itself.»
A salon appointment, in six moments
The platform must hold each of these six moments. The first four happen on the client's phone, the last two at the salon.
The service is chosen with its real length, set by the salon, not the client: a blow-dry, a colour with treatment, a straightening, an evening make-up do not take the same time, and an underestimated colour shifts the whole afternoon. The right person: the slot is taken on the calendar of the hairdresser, the beautician or the room, with breaks and days off; a client who wants "her" stylist chooses her. The deposit holds the slot: CIB and Edahabia online when the salon has a web-merchant contract, a recorded BaridiMob transfer receipt otherwise, and euros for the client booking from France, with the two-country stack we described for the Booking equivalent.
Reminders go out two days and then three hours before, on WhatsApp or by SMS, with two buttons: I am coming, or I release my slot. On the day, the client card opens: the formula of the last colour, an allergy, the preference noted last time; the deposit is deducted and the balance paid. Next time: the next date is offered before the client leaves, and a last-minute cancellation is offered to the waiting list. That last moment fills the calendar without advertising.
The calculation that justifies a deposit
The manager rightly asks what the tool brings her. Here is the calculation we do with her, on her own numbers.
Take a salon with four stylists, six appointments a day each, twenty-six working days: 624 appointments a month. If 15% of clients do not come, that is 94 empty chairs, booked for nothing and often refused to another client on the phone. If the deposit and reminders bring no-shows down to 5%, 31 remain. Sixty-three more kept appointments every month; at DA 3,000 for the average appointment, about DA 189,000 of monthly revenue coming back, without a single new client.
It is an example on assumptions, not a market measure: the 15% before and 5% after should be replaced by what the salon observes. Two settings matter more than the deposit amount. First, do not ask everyone for a deposit: the loyal client who comes every month does not need one; the new client, the long service, Saturday, the eve of Eid and the bride do. Second, a cancellation rule written before payment: until when the deposit is refunded, and what happens to it after. A clear rule avoids the argument; a rule discovered at cancellation starts it.
What to build: the salon's tool first
The temptation is to start with the beautiful consumer app. It is the mistake that sinks most projects of this kind.
Client side, a booking page in Arabic and French, fast on an entry-level phone, with no account required, and the deposit. The platform holds a calendar per employee and per room, with real lengths; deposit rules per service, per new client and per season; reminders and a waiting list. Salon side, the client card, the till that deducts the deposit and closes the day, and the team: schedule, commissions, and role-based access, because an employee does not need to see the revenue or every client's number.
Confidentiality is not a detail in a women's salon. Many clients do not want their photo to circulate; a before-and-after photo is published only with recorded consent, and the client card stays at the salon. Personal data is governed in Algeria by law 18-07: a server in your name, logged access and daily backups are the base. Once the calendar is true, an AI agent can answer Instagram and WhatsApp messages in Arabic, Darija or French, offer free slots and send the deposit link; before that, it would answer as fast as it answers wrong.
The market Planity does not serve: diaspora brides
Algeria has recorded around 280,000 marriages a year recently: 278,000 in 2023 according to the ONS demographic bulletin, and about 282,000 in 2024 according to ONS figures reported by the press, down over ten years. Part of them are celebrated in summer, when the diaspora comes home. A bride who lives in Lyon and marries in Tlemcen in August must book from France a hairdresser, a make-up artist, often a machta for the tesdira and its outfit changes, the henna, the hammam, sometimes outfit rental: five providers, five dates, and today as many WhatsApp conversations and transfers made by a cousin.
The product is a coordinated package: the bride chooses the services, pays one deposit, and the platform places the slots in each provider's calendar. Choices are made on photos and by video in the months before; each provider confirms date, time and place in the tool; the balance is settled provider by provider. On the day, the running order is written and shared, and everyone knows at what time the bride changes outfit.
It is the largest basket in the trade, booked months ahead, and also the most fragile: one provider drops out and the whole package falls. So the platform must plan a substitute per service, a written rule for what happens on withdrawal, and tracking of the deposits each provider has received. It is not a module added at the end: it is designed from the scoping stage, because it requires the calendars of several salons to talk to each other.
«Five providers, five dates, one deposit: it is a coordination problem.»
Which model to build
Six models come up in the projects presented to us. They do not pay the same way and do not break in the same place.
The salon or chain with its own booking is the soundest starting point: clients direct, deposit, no commission, and data that stays with the salon. Subscription software for salons is Planity's real model, the one we detailed in launching a SaaS in Algeria in 2027: recurring revenue, but selling and training salon by salon, on site. The directory brings visibility and commissions, and is worth nothing if the slots it shows are false.
Bridal packages are the largest basket and the most demanding in coordination. Home services serve brides, mothers and distant neighbourhoods, and join the logic of delivery and rounds. Hammams and spas sell slots and rooms, with women's and men's hours; their interest is filling the quiet hours of the week. We advise starting with the first row, opening the software to other salons once the first one runs, and keeping the directory for last.
The calendar for 2027
Two dates matter in 2027. Ramadan, expected around 8 February, then Eid al-Fitr around 9 March depending on the sighting of the crescent, with the rush in salons on the eves of Eid. And the summer wedding season, which the diaspora prepares in spring.
November: written scoping, and the web-merchant application for CIB and Edahabia payment, filed in the first week, because the bank's timing depends neither on you nor on us. December-January: the salon's tool, calendar, client card, till, deposit and reminders. End of January: the pilot in two or three salons, alongside the notebook for two weeks, so it runs during Ramadan and takes the pre-Eid rush. March-April: bridal packages open for the summer, when the diaspora books its flights. This is consistent with the timelines we give in how long it takes to build an app in 2027. Starting in March means missing Eid and arriving after summer bookings.
What makes this kind of project fail
- Starting with the consumer app. Without a calendar on the salon side, the page sells slots already taken by phone, and the first client who comes for nothing tells the whole neighbourhood.
- Wrong service lengths. A colour set to one hour takes two and a half; the calendar is wrong from 3 pm. The salon sets lengths, per service and per employee.
- A deposit for everyone. Loyal clients leave. Deposits for new clients, long services, peak days and brides.
- A cancellation rule discovered when cancelling. It is written before payment: until when the deposit is refunded, and what happens to it after.
- Photos published without consent. In a women's salon, the trust of the whole clientele goes with it. Recorded consent, photo by photo.
- A bridal package without a substitute. One provider drops out in July and everything falls. A substitute per service and a written withdrawal rule.
- Opening after Eid. The pilot must run before Ramadan; summer packages open in March-April.
- Accounts in the provider's name. Server, domain, data and web-merchant account in your name, from the first week.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Planity operate in Algeria?
- Not as far as we know: Planity operates in France and a few European countries. In Algeria, local beauty booking platforms exist, such as ZinLook in Algiers or Beautify; at the end of October 2026, payment there is made at the salon. Online deposits, calendars per employee and bridal packages remain little covered.
- How can a salon take a deposit from a client in Algeria?
- Online by CIB or Edahabia when the salon has a web-merchant contract with its bank; otherwise by a BaridiMob transfer whose receipt is recorded in the tool and matched by hand. For a client booking from France, the deposit can be collected in euros, with a two-country setup to validate before development.
- How much deposit should a salon ask for?
- There is no universal figure. What matters: do not ask loyal clients, ask new clients, long services, peak days and brides, and write the cancellation rule before payment. The amount should cover what an empty chair costs, no more.
- Is an off-the-shelf salon software not enough?
- Sometimes. If existing software handles a calendar per employee, reminders and the till, and accepts a deposit with your clients' payment methods, we will tell you. Custom work is justified for deposits in CIB, Edahabia and euros, multi-provider bridal packages, a chain of several salons, or a platform that sells its software to other salons.
- Is a mobile app needed or is a page enough?
- For the client, a fast booking page in Arabic and French is enough at launch; the app comes when clients return and loyalty matters. For the salon, the calendar and till tool comes first.
- How long does it take to be ready?
- About three months from scoping to a pilot in two or three salons, with deposit and reminders. For the pilot to run before Ramadan 2027 and take the pre-Eid rush, start in November 2026; bridal packages are added next, to open in March-April.