Is your community centre too complicated for a booking system?

Imagine sitting at your desk on a Friday afternoon, staring at a calendar full of pencilled‑in bookings, invoices to chase, and handwritten notes reminding you of who paid what deposit. You know that moving to an online booking system would make life easier, yet every time you investigate, you conclude: “Our centre is too complicated for a website booking system to handle.” Does this sound familiar?

If you’ve ever felt that introducing a venue management software will force you to compromise the way you run your community centre or create even more manual workarounds, you’re not alone. Busy halls, sports complexes and community hubs often have unique processes, pricing models and policies that generic booking tools just can’t handle.

What makes it difficult to find an online booking solution that really works for community venues in the UK?

From speaking to community centre managers across the UK, Australia and New Zealand, we know  what makes complex centres hard to serve with off‑the‑shelf systems. These include:

• Complex space set‑ups: rooms that can be divided or combined, spaces that depend on one another, or multi‑sports halls
• Variable pricing: peak and off‑peak rates, regular vs casual hire, seasonal charges, concessionary rates and historic arrangements all need to be reflected accurately.
• Additional items and services: catering, equipment hire, security, cleaning and other extras
• Bespoke policies: every venue has its own rules on cancellations, access restrictions and deposits.
• Data collection and vetting: collecting specific forms, risk assessments or insurance docs
• Need to vet hirers: managers often need to confirm the suitability of the hirer before committing to a booking.
  
  

Most venue booking software on the market is designed either for hospitality or corporate environments. For instance,  iVvy’s venue management software is great for large hospitality venues and Skedda’s platform is great for modern workplaces but not built to handle community‑specific policies, variable rates or hall partitions. Basic hall booking tools like Hallmaster can be easier on the budget but often lack the flexibility to handle multi‑room dependencies, complex fee structures or automated vetting.

When systems don’t match your needs, you end up relying on spreadsheets and email. That drains time, creates errors and makes financial oversight difficult. 

Built for centres like yours

SpacetoCo was created specifically for community centres and spaces. Our online venue booking system was co‑designed with community centre managers to offer the flexibility and control busy venues need. You get the automation of a modern system booking online—complete with live availability, payment processing and automated notifications—while retaining the ability to:

• Configure rooms that split or merge,
• Set variable pricing tiers, discounts and concessions,
• Offer add‑ons such as equipment or catering,
• Enforce bespoke policies and collect required documents,
• Check hirers before approving their bookings.

Unlike hospitality‑first tools, SpacetoCo focuses on community needs: capturing social value data, enabling self‑service for hirers and integrating with your existing website or accounting system.

“What you've shown us gives us hope that we really can start to make things easier.”

Our case studies show the difference a purpose‑built venue booking system makes. Blockhouse Bay Community Centre transitioned from Outlook and paper bookings to SpacetoCo at the start of 2021. Within six months they were handling 100 % of bookings through the platform and achieved a 100 % payment collection rate. Revenue for January was 40 % higher than the previous year. As manager Miriam admitted, she had been sceptical: “We were convinced that whatever you were going to try and sell us wouldn't work… we have so many nuances to our spaces and customers.” After seeing the system in action, “what you've shown us gives us hope that we really can start to make things easier.”

Blockhouse Bay Community Centre

For busy managers, these numbers translate into real savings. Less time chasing payments or juggling spreadsheets means more time to support community programming, engage with hirers and develop new initiatives. In Blockhouse Bay’s case, staff could finally focus on running creative programmes for local children rather than being tied to the office.

Freedom to focus on your community

Introducing an online booking system isn’t just about moving your bookings online. The real benefit is time. Most centres operate with stretched resources; automating repetitive admin frees your team to focus on what matters—engaging your community, developing programmes and ensuring the facility remains a vibrant hub.

Curious to see if it could work for your community venue?

If you’ve been searching for a venue management system that can handle complex room configurations, variable pricing and community‑specific policies without breaking the bank, SpacetoCo may be what you’ve been looking for. Our local team can show you how online venue booking software can be tailored to your centre’s unique processes and start delivering results like those seen at Blockhouse Bay.

Ready to explore? Book a demo with our team to discover how SpacetoCo can help your community centre reclaim time, boost revenue and keep control of your operations. Let’s make your venue easier to manage so you can focus on what really matters—serving your community.