A lot goes into successfully running an event venue space. Whether it's a restaurant, a hotel, or a specialist event venue, your days will be filled with endless time-consuming tasks. From managing bookings to dealing with clients and sending out the right proposals, these tasks can slow your business right down. Using the best venue management software will simplify your life, enhance your operations, and help you grow your business faster.
Not only this, but venue management tools help you stay ahead of the competition in a highly competitive industry. You might struggle to maintain strong business growth if you’re not offering the best possible client experience.
In this guide, we’ll uncover some of the top venue management software solutions that should be on your radar.
What is Venue Management Software?
Venue management software refers to the various tools venue owners use to manage and run their businesses. Venues like restaurants, hotels, conference venues, or performing arts venues require a range of solutions to help them manage bookings, events, clients, communications, and more. Venue management software provides all of these tools in a single platform.
Many different venue management systems are available, each with unique features and functionalities for event professionals. However, they typically include features such as:
- a central events calendar
- booking management tools
- document templates
- automated email communications
- online payment and invoicing tools
- task automation software
- checklists
- analytics reports
- and more
Basically, you get everything you need to stay on top of your venue operations, save time, improve client relations, and boost revenue.
When choosing venue management software, try to look for a solution that covers the entire lifecycle of your venue and event management operations. This means a range of interconnected tools that work together to save time, boost efficiency, and improve the way you work with clients.
Seven Best Venue Management Software Solutions
1. Perfect Venue
Perfect Venue is an all-in-one event and venue management software platform. This easy-to-use platform provides tools to help restaurants, venues, and hospitality groups manage their venue more efficiently, save time, and improve client experiences.
A single dashboard organizes everything in one place. Teams can access team tasks, related documents (including a free BEO template), analytics, and guest communication here. At the center of it all is a venue management calendar that easily integrates with your Google Calendar and Gmail.
One of Perfect Venue’s top features is the library of commonly-used email templates. The templates can auto-fill event information into your emails, streamlining how you communicate with clients and suppliers.
You can also use the software to create and send stand-out digital proposals, invoices, and contracts that win you more business. Integrations with your regular automation tools mean you can reduce repetitive tasks involved in generating and sending these documents.
Finally, a detailed analytics feature helps you draw insights into the performance of your event venue. With real-time data, you can create up-to-date management reports that help you understand whether you’re running a viable business. Over time, you’ll be able to examine historical booking data to shape future business decisions.
As it offers a Free Plan, you can try PerfectVenue as free venue management software before committing to a subscription.
Main Features
- Central events calendar and dashboard
- Easy email threads with automatic templates
- Digital proposals and documents tool
- Real-time analytics
- Automation for repetitive tasks (BEOs, proposals, reminder emails, etc.)
- Integrations and payment processing
- Free trial, free plan, and demo available
- User-friendly and affordable
2. Planning Pod
Planning Pod is an all-in-one cloud-based software solution for venues and event organizers. It offers a comprehensive dashboard with 22 tools spread across three main products. The downside is the platform can be a bit complex for venues and event professionals to get used to - especially if your venue is relatively small.
Event planners and managers enjoy features such as the floor plan module, which you can use to customize event layouts. There is also a dedicated event management platform. However, we are interested in the venue management solution here.
In this feature, Planning Pod offers tools for invoicing, tools to manage bookings and appointments, task management reminders, and more. Basically, you get the necessary features to manage an entire event lifecycle for all kinds of hospitality and leisure venues.
The wide range of features comes at a price, though, with subscriptions starting at $1,000 per year - not including the extra fees for additional events and credit card processing. If you’re a large venue running big corporate events, Planning Pod makes sense. However, a more simplified solution might be a good idea if you just want to streamline time-consuming booking tasks in the hospitality industry.
Read our full Planning Pod review for more information on this platform.
Main Features
- Event management and planning
- Booking management
- Client management tools
- Floorplan design tool
- Collaboration and communication tools
3. Tripleseat
Tripleseat’s name is sure to crop up when looking for the best venue management software. Founded in 2008, it’s one of the more established venue and event management solutions.
Tripleseat sports various features and includes products designed for restaurants, hotels, event bookings, and event management. Many large hospitality businesses use the platform for event sales, managing bookings, accepting payments, requesting customer feedback, generating leads, and more.
While having such an extensive venue and event management solution can be useful, the wide range of features can be tricky to navigate. Tripleseat’s products also don’t come cheap - we’ve heard that prices can go up to $4,500 per year plus additional processing fees.
Want to know about other similar platforms? Check out our guide to Tripleseat alternatives.
Main Features
- Central booking calendar
- Automatic task management
- Hotel venue listing directory
- Restaurant sales and bookings tools
- Catering and event booking tools
- Reporting features
4. iVvy Venue Management
iVvy is a cloud-based venue management system designed for hotels, restaurants, and unique venues. The all-in-one platform includes venue management systems, event management systems, and a marketplace that lets you search for venues and compare prices.
This online venue management software provides a solid selection of tools to make running a venue easier. This includes tools for creating invoices, customizing your branding, processing payments, running customer surveys, and reporting. There are also tools for generating floor plans and helping marketers capture leads and manage inquiries about the venue.
As an event management platform, iVvvy is undoubtedly useful for streamlining time-consuming tasks. However, the venue management software falls short on certain features - like having a user-friendly calendar, offering task automation, or providing a quality venue booking system.
Main Features
- CRM
- Function diary
- Quotes and contracts
- Banquet event orders
- Invoices and payments
- Volume contracts
5. Event Temple
If you’re looking for a straightforward venue management platform, Event Temple might be a good choice. It features drag-and-drop functionality, making it easy to use and incorporate into your existing workflow.
Using Event Temple, hotels and venues get various tools to manage sales and events. This includes a pipeline, sales CRM, and events and catering solutions. There are also digital proposals and documents, invoicing and payments, automated workflows for venue management processes, and chain management.
Note that, at a base level, the platform doesn’t offer some of the key functionality found in other top venue management software solutions. You have to sign up for the higher paid plans to access features such as payment processing, integrations, and more than two users.
Get the full Event Temple review here.
Main Features
- Pipeline and customer relationship management
- Hotel group sales
- Event management
- Digital documents
- In-platform communication
- Digital invoicing
- Workflows
- Chain management
6. Function Tracker
Function Tracker is venue and event management software designed to help manage the event lifecycle. It might not be the most advanced platform, but it’s straightforward to use and includes essential features to simplify venue management and event planning.
Use Function Tracker to manage processes involved in bookings, contractors and staff, and pricing with automated calculators. You can also access a central calendar and receive online inquiries. Event planners will enjoy the invoicing and event costing tools. There is also a feature to track customer contact details and their history.
Function Tracker’s tools are suited to conference centers, arts venues, restaurants, and schools, among others. However, suppose you’re looking for a venue management solution that offers more extensive functionality - like automatic email templates, payment processing, and a range of document templates. In that case, it could be a good idea to look elsewhere.
Main Features
- Event booking management
- Pricing management tools
- Quotes, contracts, and running sheets
- Menu and catering equipment management
- Invoicing and payments
- Room management module
- Staff and customer management
7. Event Booking Engines
Event Booking Engines is a cloud-based platform that venues, hotels, restaurants, and hospitality groups use. As the name suggests, the software is focused on event bookings for venues. Although, the platform does provide a broader range of venue management functions beyond this.
The platform is essentially an event-based CRM that incorporates various features to save venue managers time. This includes a master calendar, proposal and contract templates, a room scheduling tool (for hotels), an online payments tool, task automation, staff scheduling, and public event ticketing.
While Event Booking Engines is a feature-rich platform, the tools and interface feel slightly dated compared to other, more modern solutions.
Main Features
- Event booking
- Master calendar
- Proposals and contracts
- Event-based CRM
- Room scheduling
- Online payments
- Staff scheduling
- Task automation
Conclusion
The platforms listed above are just a handful of the best venue management software solutions on the market. Each offers unique features and functionalities. Before committing to any software solution, make sure it offers the right tools for your business.
One of the best ways to achieve this is to sign up for the free versions and platform demos on offer. We recommend you try Perfect Venue for free to get a feel for the platform. No subscription is needed, and you can change your plan anytime.
In case you’re interested, we’ve also written a guide on the best event management systems. In it, you’ll find reviews on platforms that can help to simplify event ops for your venue.
