Te Puna Hall: How a community venue made the jump to an online booking system

Highlights

How the hall committee moved to an online booking system.

About Te Puna Hall

The Te Puna Hall is the heart of the local community in The Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. It is an old and historical landmark for the community as they celebrated 100 years in 2022. In 2019, Te Puna Hall was briefly removed to make way for a roundabout which the community needed. Two years later, the community received the newly built Te Puna Hall we see now with state of the art kitchen facilities and various spaces for the local community members to enjoy for their events, meetings, classes and groups. Te Puna Hall is the community's beloved hall and one which generations remember as a joyful place they have celebrated and hosted in.

Previously, the Te Puna Hall was operating in a manual booking system until they moved to SpacetoCo to help them with the efficiency and ease of managing their bookings. Here's what they've achieved since moving to SpacetoCo:

• Efficiency in bookings management which saves them more time.
• Less hassle with calls on information about the hall as everything is communicated in their SpacetoCo space listing.
• Eliminate errors in bookings (double bookings, erased data, etc).
• Communicate clearly on prices, rules, instructions and expectations on hall.
• Hassle free management of the bonds and invoices (which the treasurer is absolutely stoked about).

Of course, the process to move from a familiar tool to a different would prove to be challenging. We hear more from Sue, a volunteer who manages the bookings at Te Puna Hall, about the process of moving not only the old system, but the local community over to SpacetoCo. Here were some of the things Sue did to successfully move to an online booking system:

• She did the SpacetoCo demo online and did her research before pitching it to the committee members.
• She reassured community members that were a bit more reluctant that she would still be there to help with their bookings if they were struggling with booking online.
• The committee set prices and rules so that Te Puna can still pay bills (insurance, etc) while still upholding their mission of making it affordable and accessible to the community.

Let's hear more from Sue...

Can you tell us more about your role in the committee?

"I was volunteered to be on the committee. When the old hall disappeared the committee disappeared as well because two years had lapsed, which meant we also got a brand new committee when the new hall was built. My role was [based off] "Can I please help with the bookings?" because the poor person [who was] doing the bookings was overwhelmed. I said "Yes, I'll help you as long as we can make some changes." Which we did. My role was to source a new booking system that was effective and efficient."

What was your process for doing that? How did you go about finding a new booking system?

"[SpacetoCo] was recommended to us by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council from a person I know there. I googled [SpacetoCo], as you do. I watched the online demo and contacted you. It was simple. I then spoke to our committee to listen to [SpacetoCo], and you presented what it involved and included in the booking system because they were a little bit skeptical. A bit old school."

Why were they skeptical? What were some of the concerns that the committee had?

"They thought "We're a little bit older and we might not be able to book online." And our customers won't like the fixed pricing. Prior to me taking over, the pricing was all over the place. "We can't afford it" so whatever! We didn't have a set pricing and we didn't have set areas. There were no rules, basically. So, I decided that we needed to change that. They were also a bit skeptical that some of our customers weren't going to like that it was online and wouldn't be able to make the bookings, but most people can now book a motel room and hire a car! So I thought "Okay, well for those people who can't do that, I am still available to make manual bookings for [them]." So it wasn't excluding them but it was encouraging people to do it online. It took quite a while for some of [our customers] to accept that they can do it online. They always knew that they could call me if they had issues like, "I'm having trouble. What have I done wrong?" It's taken two years but we've worked through the process and everyone loves it."

How did you come up with your new pricing model, and how did that go down with the hirers?

"We decided we would try and keep it fair. Our mission statement is to keep it available to everyone in the community. We knew we didn't want it to be expensive, but we need to cover our costs because we do still need to pay our insurance and our power, etc. We tried to keep our pricing really really fair and sometimes it was less than what we could possibly get in revenue, but we also want to be available for everybody. Therefore, we just set fees and that's it. This is what each space is worth. We don't vary it for our casual bookings unless it's a charity, which is a completely different scenario."

Before moving into an online booking system, what were some of the challenges the previous booking officer had?

"[In the past], she would receive a phone call and she would meet them at the hall. She would then have large calendar, a pencil and an eraser. Everything would be put on that. When the booking was confirmed, an email would be sent to our treasurer who will send the hirer an invoice with the bond. Once the booking was completed they would send the invoice for the booking. Then once everything would be considered to be fine another email would be sent to that person saying "The booking is great. Please refund the bond." It was just so cumbersome. It also lent itself to huge error. That was my biggest concern that we could double book or we could erase other bookings. A pen and a paper is just not efficient in my view. That was my biggest concern and my biggest challenge. I looked at the calendar and said "Oh my god... I can't get my head around this because we just scratch things out and add it in and ugh..." We need to find a better way. Overall, it was just cumbersome and not efficient and my biggest concern was that we could have errors and have nightmares in double booking."

Now that you're set up with SpacetoCo, how does that work with Te Puna?

"I do everything. I will receive an email from SpacetoCo saying you have a message. I'll go into SpacetoCo and have a look at the question and answer the questions, and accept the booking. It's so simple. It's really, really simple. I'll accept bookings, I'll take people to the hall if they want to see the facility and see what's available. But most of our questions are now answered online in our space. So it's very very easy. My job is simple."

What feedback have you had from the community?

"I think the main feedback has been that it's been easy, and the communication's been easy. That's the biggest thing for me, which is that the communication's been easy. [The questions are] in the SpacetoCo website. So as you said before it's all in one place. The communication's all there and questions are answered."

What kind of new users have you found the hall for?

"We have a lot of weddings, first birthdays and funerals. We don't allow 21st's unless I can guarantee them, which doesn't always meant that I have. We have 60th birthdays and more! It's just ongoing! We have so many bookings. I think it's through word of mouth, and we have people saying "We went to a first birthday party here three months ago and we want to book the space because we had such a fun time." It's just been happening. I had five bookings just last Thursday! It was just incredible."

What's your advice for others who are looking to increase their venue usage and what do you recommend they do?

"I think for us, the most important thing is that we have really good information in our website and that we have photos to showcase the space well. The facilities and rules are stated quite clearly and people know what they're getting for their money. They know how much exactly it's going to cost them. There is no confusion. And because we have tried to cover every base, they don't have to come back to us with all the different questions like "Do you have tables? Do you have chairs? How many chairs do you have? How many carparks do you have?" For us it makes it really important and easy. When people search for somewhere and they send a quick email, I try and respond within a few hours of every email I receive. I say it's just snowballed, but it's the communication and the ease of booking. It's simple."

Anything else you'd like to share?