All-in-one venue management software that streamlines event bookings

Event Scheduling and Booking

The number one feature most venues are looking for in a venue management platform is an event booking software system that lets them take care of all their event scheduling, including creating event reservations, tracking booked events and viewing current availability - all in real time in a centralized booking calendar - for every event space in the facility. This includes ballrooms, corporate meeting rooms, event halls, breakout rooms, boardrooms, exposition halls and the like.

Typically most venue booking systems let users view by date, week and month and drill down to a client’s desired date to see if the time and space are both available. Such room and space management tools also alert users to if a time or space is already booked so as to avoid double booking. A big plus is the ability to integrate with other electronic calendars like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook so you can view your event bookings on other calendars your venue might be using.

Event Sales, Invoicing and Billing

Keeping a handle on your leads, proposals, invoices and payments is pretty much a full-time job itself, but most venues also need for multiple people to be able to view and manage venue-wide information for group sales and banquet sales. And some venue managers also need to track this data across multiple venues.

Top event management software applications offer, for starters, CRM and lead management functions to give your business development staff the sales management tools they need. Included in this are the ability to generate proposals / quotes as well as contracts and collect electronic signatures for both. Invoicing capabilities are also part of the package, as are the ability to collect online credit card payments and schedule future payments. Any solid sales CRM should provide the functionality to manage a wide variety of current event sales best practices as detailed here .

Finally, it’s useful to have pricing automation features like templates for line items, menu items and food-and-beverage packages and settings for creating standard tax rates, markups, discounts, service fees and the like.

Catering and Food-and-Beverage Management

While not all venues offer full-service catering, many of them do, and many others will offer discrete food-and-beverage options or work with external food service providers. As such, venue software often includes food and beverage software tools for tracking on-premise or offsite catering orders; collecting online bookings, orders and requests; building banquet event orders (BEOs) and custom event menus on-the-fly; and managing recipes and portion sizes. It can also include proposal and invoicing features that streamline how you bill for catered items and F&B packages as well as for tracking packing lists and delivery instructions.

Event Design and Layout

Most venues use some type of room layout or event floorplan design software tool, and usually for two reasons:

• To help prospects and clients visualize what they can expect regarding their proposed event, including how their event would be laid out and where their attendees would sit, dine and interact.
• To guide staff members as to how to set up the event (tables, chairs, floors, stages, A/V equipment, etc.), how to direct attendees during the event and what meals to serve to guests for plated dinner style seating.

Many event management software solutions for venues include an event design tool as part of their product offerings to help venue staff create layouts for meeting spaces, banquets, exhibit halls, auditoriums and even restaurant setups. Often this tool integrates with guest list and registration / RSVP tools for things like assigned seating.

Event Planning

Typically, event planning software programs fall into their own category of tools reserved for professional event organizers and corporate planners. However, for venues that offer event management services, these features are vital for tracking client details for parties, weddings, galas, performances, seminars, workshops, small meetings or larger meetings, and they include functionality for managing budgets, tasks, timelines/schedules, checklists, files, forms and even event marketing tools for event websites and social media sharing.

Resource and Inventory Management

Many venues offer rental items like tables, chairs, plateware/glassware, silverware and linens as well as audio/visual and other equipment as another service to their clients. With that said, some event venue software platforms provide inventory management options to track rental items allocated to events as well as any breakage and items out for cleaning or repair.

Staff and Operations Management

A key need of many event venue professionals is to be able to manage their staff members and keep all employees on the same page regarding their responsibilities as well as overall specifics and requirements for each event. Conveniently, most software programs for venues offer features such as collaborative/shared staff calendars, internal messaging, email communications, task management and tools for sharing files and important data such as contracts, proposals, invoices, BEOs and timelines.

Contracts and Electronic Signatures

Nothing can be more frustrating than having to ask a client repeatedly to sign the proposal or contract for their event. Without such signoffs, this leaves special event venues open for potential liability as well as for disagreement regarding the terms and pricing verbally agreed upon by the venue and the client. So the top event management software includes a contract management module with the ability to create and email online contracts to clients as well as collect e-signatures to documents that require signoff.

Reporting, Dashboards and KPIs

Having all your data in an all-in-one tool does you no good if that data isn’t presented in a way that lets you know the status of all your events at-a-glance and helps you make quick decisions. This is where dashboards and comprehensive reports are a huge asset, and you should certainly look for event management systems that include these features for reviewing and assessing key performance indicators and aggregate data points.

Attendee Management and Ticketing

Although not all venues manage event attendees, some do plan and promote their own for-profit events (like wine tastings, multi-course dinners, concerts, sporting events for sports venues, and the like). For these in-house events, it is necessary to have some sort of attendee management system that collects online event registrations or event RSVPs, sells tickets, processes credit card payments and allows for day-of-event attendee check in or sign in. Check to see if the venue management system you are reviewing includes such features as well as extras like event mobile apps and virtual event tools like video conferencing.

Client and Event Communications

Most venues have multiple staff members who regularly communicate with clients and prospects via email. However, tracking these communications and determining who said what to whom and when can be frustrating when lead and client emails are spread across the inboxes of multiple staff members. As such, it is critical to have a platform that offers a single, consolidated inbox for all event, client and prospect communications and lets you and your team integrate your existing email addresses into that tool for sending/receiving emails.