Banquet and events
Hotel & Rooms is an add-on. See What's included, and what's an add-on.
What this is for
Function business — weddings, conferences, private dinners, meetings. A venue is a space you hire out; an event is a booking in it.
It's separate from table reservations because a function isn't a table for two. It has a space, a date range, a customer who may not be a hotel guest, and charges that build over weeks.
Venues
Hotel › Banquet & Events › Add Venue:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | The room as you sell it — "Garden Room", "Conference Suite". |
| Capacity | How many it holds. |
| Base Rate | Standard hire charge. |
| Status | Active or not. |
Set capacity to a realistic seated number, not the fire-safety maximum. It's what you'll quote from, and promising a hundred covers in a room that seats eighty is a problem discovered on the day.
Where a room runs in different configurations — theatre style versus banquet rounds — either take the lower figure or list them as separate venues.
Events
New Event creates a booking against a venue: the event name, the customer, the venue, the date and time, and the expected numbers.
Each event gets an event number. Search by number, name or customer; filter by venue and status.
Charges
Events carry event charges — the lines that make up what the customer pays: venue hire, catering per head, drinks, equipment, staffing, decoration.
Itemise properly. A single figure invites negotiation on the whole thing; an itemised quote lets a customer take out the flowers rather than argue about the total.
Running function business
- Confirm numbers in writing, with a deadline. Final numbers a week out is the usual arrangement, and it's what your kitchen orders against.
- Take a deposit. Functions are booked far ahead, and a cancelled Saturday is a Saturday you could have sold twice over.
- Block the venue as soon as it's provisional. A double-booked function room is the one mistake you can't fix on the day.
- Write everything down. Timings, dietary requirements, room layout, who's giving speeches. Notes on the event beat a conversation nobody wrote down.
- Walk the room the day before, against the layout you agreed.
How it joins the rest
- Food for a function goes through your kitchen like any other order, so it appears in your restaurant reports.
- Accommodation for guests attending is booked as ordinary reservations.
- Charges for a hotel guest attending can go on their folio.
A wedding is typically all three at once: a venue, a room block, and a kitchen working to a set menu.
Good to know
- Venues and events are per branch.
- Hotel Venue and Hotel Event are separate permissions. See What each role can do.
- Setting a venue inactive takes it out of use and keeps its history.
- For longer arrangements, an agreement can be generated and printed.