How to add a booking link to your Instagram story and bio

Where a link works on Instagram

A story goes up, people reply in DMs, someone copies the names into a spreadsheet. A booking link skips the middle part. But Instagram lets a link be tapped in only three places.

The bio holds up to five links, and only the first shows on your profile. A story takes a link sticker and is gone after 24 hours unless you save it to a highlight. A link pasted into a DM can be tapped. A link in a caption, a reel or a comment is plain text, which is why "link in bio" exists.

Use one link

Give guests one link and use it everywhere: the bio, every story, every DM reply. One link that opens on your upcoming events means you change the bio once, an old story still leads somewhere useful, and you paste the same reply every time. If the bio holds several links, the booking link goes first. That is the one people see without opening anything.

Add it to your bio

1. Open your profile and tap Edit profile.
2. Tap Links, then Add external link.
3. Paste the booking link and give it a short title, such as "Book a seat".
4. Save. If you have several links, drag the booking link to the top.
5. Open your profile as a guest would and tap the link once.

Then give the bio text one line that says what the link is for:

Cuppings every Thursday at 18:00. Book a seat at the link below.

Name the format and the day. "Book here" says nothing about what guests are booking.

Add a link sticker to a story

1. Make the story: a photo of last week's table, the menu, the beans you will open.
2. Tap the sticker icon at the top and choose Link.
3. Paste the booking link.
4. Tap Customize sticker text and write what the tap does, such as "Book a seat". Otherwise the sticker shows the web address.
5. Place it where a thumb finds it, clear of the reply bar at the bottom.
6. Share, then save the story to a highlight called "Book" or "Events". The sticker stays on it, so the link is on your profile after the 24 hours run out.

Guests decide from the story alone, so write the facts next to the sticker: what and when, how many seats (only if it is true), the price and when it is paid, and "Tap the link to book, no need to message us." Without that last line, people write to you anyway and you are back to answering DMs one by one.

Reply to DMs with the same link

Some people message anyway. Keep one reply ready and paste it:

Hi, thanks for writing. You can book a seat here: [your link]. You'll get a confirmation by email right away.

The booking lands with the others instead of in your inbox.

Tag the link so Instagram bookings count as Instagram

A link tapped inside Instagram opens in Instagram's own browser, which often does not tell the page where the visitor came from. Without a tag, those visits look like someone typed the address by hand. Put a short tag at the end of the link, such as ?ref=instagram, check that your booking tool reads it, and use the tagged link on Instagram only.

Where STOL fits

Your STOL page is the link. It opens on your upcoming events and your tables, and guests book without an account. The Copy link for Instagram button, on the page you see after setup and in Statistics, copies the link with ?ref=instagram on it, and each event has its own, which opens on that event.

The guest gets a confirmation at once and, on the morning of the event, a reminder with a link to change or cancel. On Plus, Statistics shows opens and bookings by channel, so Instagram sits next to your website, your QR code and direct visits. If STOL is connected to ChatGPT or Claude (how that works), you can ask the chat for the Instagram link or for last month's bookings from Instagram.

STOL does not post to Instagram or read your DMs. The story, the sticker and the reply stay yours.

If you want a booking page to put behind the link, create one on STOL. The first 7 days are free, no card. Questions go to support.