Companies that guarantee bookings

What online ESL company guarantees good bookings?

Only a few online ESL companies guarantee bookings. Here are the top ESL companies that guarantee bookings.

Online ESL Companies that Guarantee Bookings

First Future advertises that it guarantees students and pay, for example.

Cambly is a good ESL company if you want to ensure bookings because you can always reserve Priority Hours and be mostly guaranteed student talk-time (as long as your rating is high enough).

Hujiang also has consistent classes and bookings. Class Booking Rate is usually 75%-90%.

Companies that are certainly not a good fit for someone who wants guaranteed bookings: Palfish or VIPKid. I have had great bookings on these platforms but there are dips during the holidays, for example. Also, it takes a few months to grow your student base to the point that you have a full schedule. Palfish, especially, takes patience or a lot of promoting yourself (posting moments and lives so students see you on their reading app.)

Download your VIPKid Classes — VIPKid bookings take a month or two to become guaranteed, and even then there are dips during holidays.

Guarantee Bookings: Work for Multiple Companies

To work for a company that has good consistent bookings, continue working for multiple companies. One way to ensure you have consistent bookings is to work for two or even three companies. Juggling two companies with staggered, different peak hours is a great way to maximize your bookings.

Tips to Get Good Consistent Bookings

The top tips to guarantee to teach online for a company that has good bookings actually have more to do with your actions than the company you choose:

Keep consistent hours.
Open your schedule far in advance
Work the holidays
Teach Peak Hours in your students’ country
Be persistent

Keep Consistent Hours to Increase Bookings

Students and parents like consistency. No one wants to change the day they have an online English class day today. They want it to be the same day each week, into eternity if possible. Parents and students like to open a teacher’s schedule and see that you are available on the same day and time for months. So, open your schedule far in advance and keep consistent hours.

Open your Schedule Far in Advance to Increase Bookings

This relates to the former point. Parents have enough stress in their lives. Adult students who want to improve their English likewise have their own career and family obligations. If they invest time in meeting a new teacher and feel comfortable with this teacher, they want to know they can book this teacher at the same time and date for the foreseeable future. So, open your schedule as far as possible in advance. If students see you are available at the same time and date for the next year, they will choose you over a teacher who has their schedule open for only a week in advance.

Work the Holidays to Increase Bookings

A great way to poach other teachers’ students is to work the holidays. Often, companies are desperate for teachers to work on Christmas day or Easter. Show up and wow a student who normally has a different teacher, and you might have just got yourself a new regular student!

Teach Peak Hours in your students’ country to Increase Bookings

Be sure to know the peak hours (most popular hours) of your student base. If you teach for companies that cater to Chinese students, your peak hours with likely be Being Peak Hours, which is Beijing Time evening times. If you work with students in Brazil, your peak hours will be quite different. Juggling two companies with staggered, different peak hours is a great way to maximize your bookings.

Be Persistent to Increase Bookings

Don’t give up. Just keep slogging at it. The best way to get good consistent bookings while teaching online is to just not stop. Palfish, for example, needs a lot of marketing if you want to have a full schedule quickly. I never did that. I just kept the same hours and just continued showing up. Eventually, I built up a full schedule too.

There are some online English teaching companies that do a better job guaranteeing students and pay, but all companies have ebbs and flow in their student base. Unfortunately, many companies hire constantly even though some teachers are not getting many students or classes. This is a perennial complaint of many online English teachers.

Bottom Line: Out of the many ESL companies that hire you to teach English online, only a few online ESL companies guarantee bookings. Even then, the best way to guarantee a student base and consistent classes is to work for two or even three companies.

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