Booking Management Software That Handles More Than Just Tables
Pottery studios, games cafes, karaoke clubs, soft play centres, private function rooms, you may serve food, you all take bookings, and you all have different service styles that could change depending on the requirements.
Most venue management software was built for restaurants. It assumes a fixed layout, standard party sizes and a two-hour turn time. Your venue doesn't work like that. A birthday group of 15 needs a different setup to a couple having dinner before a show. Tuesday afternoon looks nothing like Saturday night.
simpleERB doesn't care what happens around the table. It manages the booking, the table and the customer.
Your venue has areas that work differently. The restaurant floor takes bookings. The bar is walk-in. The function room is hired out for private events. The outdoor terrace opens and closes depending on the season.
simpleERB can let you manage an area's booking availability. Turn off online booking, set a minimum booking size, and offer different availability timeslots. During the week you may take bookings every half hour but on the weekends you may work on a 2 hour sitting.
Staff see everything in one view. Customers only see what you've made available. No double bookings, no phone tag, no scribbled notes on a pad behind the bar.
Groups are your bread and butter - birthday parties, tribute party nights, Christmas office parties and team outings. They're also the bookings that create the most admin. Dietary requirements for 18 people. A deposit to collect. A table layout that needs to be different from your usual setup.
simpleERB handles group bookings the same way it handles a table for 2; through the diary. Set maximum online booking sizes and a minimum size to book in a certain area. Require credit card holds or deposits above a certain group size. Add notes for dietary needs, special requests, cake deliveries. Your team sees it all when they open the booking.
For a venue doing 10 group bookings a week, that's 10 phone calls you don't need to make to confirm details. The booking system already has them.
Your karaoke or game rooms don't work like your standard tables. Your function room isn't the same as your bar. But they all need to be managed, and your team needs to see the full picture without flicking between systems.
Build a separate table plan for each area. 90 minutes for a table of 2-4, 3 hours for the function room party of 15, walk-in only for the bar. Open and close areas depending on the day. Saturday night might have everything running; Tuesday might just be the restaurant and bar.
When a customer books online, they see the areas and times you've made available. When your team opens the diary, they see every area on one screen. That's how event space management software should work - one system, configured to match the way your venue actually runs.
A no-show on a regular table costs you a couple of covers. A no-show on a private event booking for 20 people costs you hundreds - the table setup, the staff, the food you've already ordered.
simpleERB lets you take deposits or full prepayments at the point of booking. Set a threshold - deposits required for parties over 6, full prepayment for private hire. Outline your booking & cancellation policy, so customers know the terms before they confirm.
Automatic SMS and email reminders go out before the booking. Customers are far less likely to ghost you when they've already paid. When they do cancel, your waitlist is right there.
Your team is running activities, serving food, managing the floor. They're not sitting by the phone waiting for bookings. Customers decide to book at 10pm on a Wednesday - after a quick search, during a group chat about weekend plans. If your only booking channel is a phone call during opening hours, you're losing those bookings.
Embed simpleERB's booking widget on your website. Connect Facebook and Instagram. Customers can pick an area on your widget, a date, a time , a party size or special booking option. The booking lands in your diary. No phone call, no email chain, no manual entry.
The widget sits on your website with custom branding to match. No redirect to a third-party platform. No commission on bookings. No marketplace listing your competitors on the same page.
Your venue doesn't run the same way every day. Quiz night on Tuesday has a different setup to bottomless brunch on Saturday. Your Christmas programme looks nothing like a normal week. The schedule changes - your booking system needs to keep up.
Set different table configurations for special dates. Create sittings for specific dates. Block out areas for private hire. Adjust capacity when you know it's going to be busy - or when you're running a skeleton crew on a Monday.
simpleERB can help manage an event that doesn't lock you into one configuration. Change the setup in seconds. No phone call to a support team, no waiting for someone to push a button on their end.
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