Struggles and Solutions When Booking and Managing Multiple Venues

Anyone who manages multiple venues knows that it can be hard to keep track of everything. Managing the books, booking the right talent, and coordinating with musicians, all while running your business can be tricky. The struggle is real!

Luckily, there are some ways that will help you manage these issues. From finding the perfect venue that meets your needs and budget, to booking an event planner who can take care of everything for you, these tips will make this process easier than ever before.

Overspending on event budgets.

When you’re managing multiple venue bookings, accounting can become a real nightmare. It’s hard enough to track event budgets for a single event, but multiple venues? You’re asking for trouble and unaccounted expenses.

Venue management software will help you a lot in this department, such as easy budget tracking, simplified billing processes, and easy-to-read data. Event planners don’t typically require a lot of software – many get by on spreadsheets alone, if they’re a small business. But managing multiple venue bookings? Software tracking becomes critical.

If you’re able to track every cent of your event budgets, and multiple venue costs, you’ll be in a much better place to know where overspending is hurting you, and what can be done to avoid it.

Not preparing for unexpected popularity.

It’s probably a good thing if your event is wildly popular, and a lot of attendees show up – but what if too many attendees show up? What if the venue is over capacity, and you run out of refreshments a lot sooner than anticipated?

Being prepared for this starts with keeping an ear to the street, and knowing how much buzz your event is generating. Monitor this information through social media posts, Google Analytics, and any third party tools you use to measure interest.

When you’re managing multiple venues, this becomes a little more difficult, as you’ll likely need to set up some alerts for when people are mentioning your venues and events across social media. Once you have that data in front of you, you can much better predict your attendance sizes.

Securing permits and abiding local laws

Laws and permits always come up as issues when managing multiple venue bookings. You’ll be dealing with different noise level regulations, venue capacities, fire hazard inspections, and handicap accessibility requirements all at once – and that’s just the bare minimum.

You absolutely need to be diligent in complying with the local ordinances and regulations to help ensure you are not hurting your chances of obtaining a permit to operate, and this is also why I recommend that you get in the good graces of local officials, and do what you can to help them in their community.

Being in the good graces of local officials magically clears a lot of tape. That’s a fact of the world, like it or not.

Not budgeting for dealing with a variety of venue owners and hidden fees.

Different venues are going to have different associated costs – be it for cleaning fees, fire extinguishers, venue owners insisting you use their venue security, and so on. Part of smart budgeting while managing multiple venues is being aware of these things.

It reminds me of a line from the movie Almost Famous, when the band was approached by a band manager who asked them, “Do you know how to keep from getting charged for the ice below the floorboards of Chicago Stadium?“

And that’s a pretty gosh darn good question for someone in the event planning business, isn’t it? (Hint: The real answer, of course, is that the Chicago Stadium was demolished in 1995 – but the movie took place in the ‘70s.)

Just pushing the envelope when it comes to event space utilization.

Here’s another problem, when you are getting permits, there are some requirements you are required to fulfill. But it also depends on what your event needs, and whether a venue is appropriate or not for that event.

It’s important to talk to your clients on exactly how they plan to use the venue space. What will be used for and how will it be used? Because there are a lot of restrictions and some things that are good for some events but not for others. So it’s important to be creative and find creative ways to use the space.

Knowing what is – and isn’t – allowed at specific venues, while working within the boundaries of those limitations, can help you to meet the event space needs for your event and also ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.