Venue Enquiry Forms That Do Not Ask the Date

Interested in your venue

In the first weeks of January, couples who got engaged over the holidays start writing to golf clubs, wineries and banquet halls. Most messages say much the same: we are interested in your venue, please send information.

The venue's form has three boxes: name, email, message. That is all it receives, and the coordinator cannot answer anything useful yet.

Her reply asks for the date, the number of guests and the kind of event. The couple answers the next evening, and a second day is gone before the venue can say whether it is free.

Every reply starts with questions

Availability depends on the date. The price depends on the day of the week, the season and the number of guests. Without those, the first reply can only ask.

Each round of questions costs a day, because couples write in the evening and the venue answers in office hours. Two rounds and a weekend can turn a fresh enquiry into a week-old one.

Meanwhile the couple wrote to five other venues the same evening. The first to answer with a yes and a price sets the standard the others are measured against.

What the form should ask

A good venue form asks for the few facts the first reply depends on, and nothing more:

• The date, or two or three possible dates, or the month if nothing is set.
• Guest numbers, as a rough range rather than an exact count.
• The kind of event: ceremony, reception or both, or a family or corporate event.
• Flexibility: whether another date or day of the week would work.
• Name, email and phone, with how they prefer to be contacted.
• A message box for anything else, left optional.

Six fields take a minute to fill in. They save a day for every question the venue no longer has to send back.

Short, in order and easy on a phone

Put the date first, because it decides everything else. Offer a choice for couples who have not set a date, with a month or season instead, so they can still write.

Many enquiries are written on a phone in the evening. Fields should be large enough to tap, the date easy to enter, and the whole form short enough to finish in one go.

Ask only what the first reply needs. Menus, music and decorations belong in the conversation that follows, not on the form.

Reply with availability and a price range

With the date and the numbers in hand, the first reply can say what the couple needs to hear: whether the date is free, and if not, the nearest dates that are.

Add a price range for that day and size, what it includes, and one next step, such as a visit on a named afternoon.

Prepare a reply for each kind of event in advance, then fill in the specifics. A complete answer can then go out within a working day, often within hours.

Who answers, and when

Name the person who answers enquiries, and someone to cover their days off. An enquiry that waits for one person's return waits too long.

An automatic reply can confirm the message arrived and say when a full answer will come. It cannot replace that answer, but it tells the couple they were heard.

Showing which dates are already taken

A short list of dates already booked this season answers the first question before it is asked. A couple whose Saturday is gone learns it at once, without writing.

Keep it as a plain dated list, updated whenever a booking is confirmed. A list that falls out of date is worse than none, because couples act on it.

Prices as a range, not a secret

A range on the site, with what changes it, answers the second question before it is asked. A Saturday in July costs more than a Friday in April, and couples understand that.

Couples who know the range write with the right expectations, and the conversation starts from a real figure rather than a guess.

If prices are given only on request, say why, such as packages built to order, so the silence does not read as a warning.

A worked example

A sign language interpreter in the Okanagan, booked by date like any venue, works meetings, conferences, courses and family events. Couples planning a summer wedding with Deaf family members begin writing to her in January.

Her website's form had the same three boxes: name, email, message. Almost every wedding enquiry needed two or three replies before she could say yes or no.

She needed the date, the start and finish times, the setting, and whether the Deaf guests use ASL. Long events need two interpreters working in turns, so the length changes both availability and the fee.

The form now asks for exactly those details, with the date first and an option for couples still choosing between two dates.

Her prepared reply states whether she is free, whether a second interpreter will be needed and a fee range. A short page lists the dates already booked this summer.

The first reply can now give a yes or no and a range. A couple can decide the same day, and those whose date is taken find out before they write.

The counter-case

A venue that books almost entirely through planners, or a small one that hosts a handful of events a year, may prefer a phone conversation from the first contact.

Some couples also have no date yet and are only looking. For them the date field must be optional, and the reply can offer availability by month.

But asking costs a couple a few seconds, and most know at least the season. A form that asks the right questions earns every enquiry a useful first answer.

A form built around the date

1. Put the date first on the enquiry form.
2. Ask for guest numbers as a range.
3. Ask the kind of event and whether the date is flexible.
4. Prepare a reply for each kind of event.
5. Answer within a working day with availability and a price range.
6. List the dates already booked this season.
7. Try the form on a phone.

Step one turns the first reply from a question into an answer. Every other step builds on knowing the date.

For showing which dates are taken, an events calendar showing an empty month explains why a dated list reads better on a phone than a month grid.

Frequently asked questions

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