Effectively managing venue bookings is more difficult than it may seem, and with ever-changing Covid restrictions, it has become that little bit harder. However, with the right knowledge and tools, you can ensure venue booking management is a success. So, check out the following helpful advice.
Use Venue Management Software
The worst problem a venue can face with bookings is overbooking or double-booking. For instance, if you book two weddings on the same day, it will lead to catastrophe and could ruin your business's reputation. Even restaurant double-bookings can have the same effect.
Overbooking and double-booking are always caused by human error at some point along the management system trail. You can ensure the problem doesn't happen, though, by using venue management software. The software does a lot more besides helping you to avoid overbooking.
For instance, the venue management software from planning Pod provides more than twenty easy-to-use online booking management tools that allow you and your team to track your booking calendar, assignments, usage, and availability; helping you to create workflows and processes to ensure the booking process always runs smoothly. The software also allows you to centralize how you manage events, floor plans, communications, client details, sales, and billings.
Ensure Your Internal Processes Run Smoothly
Even though your venue management software will help your booking process run smoothly, you still need to align the software with your internal processes and ensure your personnel are all on the same page.
Therefore, it can be helpful to do several things. Firstly, create a prospect-to-client onboarding diagram that clearly spells out the steps that each member of staff must follow when moving prospects through the onboarding process. Each staff member must know what is supposed to happen at every stage of the process. If you're using contractors in addition to regular members of staff, it's even more important to ensure that they know and understand your internal processes.
Next, set up rules regarding the changing or cancellation of bookings, so that each member of staff knows the correct protocol. That could include things like always checking the booking calendar to confirm the next available slot and checking whether equipment is available on the new selected date. Also, staff members must know what your policy is concerning deposits. You may have a policy in which late cancellations must forfeit their security deposits, for instance.
Managing Venue Bookings with Changing Covid Restrictions
With rules changing frequently due to the Covid-19 pandemic, venue managers and members of staff face even more challenges. However, problems can always be overcome.
Firstly, the number of people who are allowed to attend your venue could change often with new governmental rules. You must therefore make sure your software and your staff are always updated with the latest information as soon as you know it. If you don't update capacity limits, you could run into overbooking issues.
You also need to know what the official guidance is on how to keep your venue Covid-safe, such as cleaning measures, introducing screens, and requiring attendees to wear masks. You need to let anyone attending your venue know the new rules before they arrive. If someone should then cancel due to the new rules, you have the opportunity to take another booking.
Lastly, venues the world over have been seeing a massive rise in cancellations from people who were supposed to attend venues, and often, those people aren't letting the venues know that they're not coming. With the hospitality and entertainment industries in dire straits because of the pandemic and lockdowns, venues need to make certain that people who have booked actually turn up. So, if you don't have a security deposit policy, you should seriously consider implementing one.
