Making a good business decision for your community venue
Making the decision to invest in an online booking system is a big decision. In this video, we hear from Richard Green, Executive Director of He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust (home of Kete Aronui), and Dave Williams, Manager of Grey Lynn Community Centre, on why they made the leap to SpacetoCo, and what the return on investment has actually looked like.
The problem with doing it manually
Before switching to SpacetoCo, both venues were running bookings by hand, and both had hit the same wall from different directions. As Kete Aronui became more popular, Richard explains, bookings became more frequent and harder to track, to the point where they almost needed someone dedicated 20 hours a week just to manage them.
At Grey Lynn Community Centre, Dave describes a similarly manual setup: bookings taken and held in an Outlook diary, with bonds, reimbursements, and refunds all managed by hand. The time that took, just to engage with the community around booking a space, is what eventually forced the centre to look for a more agile way of working.
For Richard, the tipping point was volume. With over a hundred bookings some months, processing and invoicing all of that manually simply wasn't sustainable. "That's just, nobody wants to do that," he says.
What to actually look for before switching
Dave's advice for any venue considering the move is to have the conversation early, and to be clear on what you actually want out of it. For Grey Lynn, that meant two things: making sure customers were empowered to self-serve as much as possible, and figuring out how much time the team could realistically redirect elsewhere.
What changed after switching
Richard describes the shift in practical terms: a platform like SpacetoCo frees up the team to focus on the core work of running a venue, instead of spending their time on the phone taking bookings, readjusting them, chasing payments, or writing invoices. In effect, it functions like an extra staff member at the front desk. For Kete Aronui, that translated into an 80% reduction in time spent on booking admin.
For Dave, the biggest shift was in the customer conversation itself. Customers can now browse spaces and make decisions on their own, through their own browser, without needing to call or email. Behind the scenes, the financial reporting, fund management, and bond returns have all been cleaned up, something Dave says has been a genuine benefit both in terms of process and the monthly reports it now produces.
Was it worth the fee?
Richard is upfront that the platform fee gave him pause when he first signed up. After running the numbers, he came to see it as a standard, workable business cost, an investment in the venue and in the people using it. As he puts it, He Waka Eke Noa is a charitable arts trust, but it still has to run as a business, and it's the discipline of making sound financial decisions that's kept the trust going for nearly 20 years. That reasoning is also what got the board on board with the move.
For Richard, the process now couldn't be simpler: invoices and payments arrive together at the end of each month, already done. His verdict: "Highly recommended."
FAQ: How to get ROI from an online booking system
How do you calculate ROI from an online booking system for a community venue?
ROI comes from two places: time saved on manual admin like phone bookings, invoicing, and chasing payments, and the platform fees paid in return for that time. Richard Green, Executive Director of He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust, treats the fee as a standard business cost, weighed against the staff time and hassle it replaces.
How much time can a venue save by switching to an online booking system?
Kete Aronui, run by He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust, cut its booking admin time by 80% after switching to SpacetoCo.
What should a venue consider before moving to an online booking system?
Dave Williams, Manager of Grey Lynn Community Centre, recommends having the conversation early and being clear on priorities, specifically, how much a system can empower customers to self-serve, and how much staff time it can free up.
Is an online booking system worth the fees for a charitable or non-profit venue?
For He Waka Eke Noa, yes. Richard Green describes the platform fee as a workable business cost and an investment in the venue and its users, noting that running the trust like a business is what's kept it operating for nearly 20 years.
What changes for customers when a venue moves to online booking?
Customers can browse available spaces and make booking decisions themselves through their own browser, without needing to call or email the venue directly.
Does an online booking system help with financial reporting?
Yes. Dave Williams says moving to SpacetoCo cleaned up financial reporting, fund management, and bond returns, with monthly reports he describes as a genuine benefit to the venue.
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