Website reviews

[Excalibur]

Methinks part of the problem is not a lack of demand, but folks not being able to secure their venue - which, let's face it, is usually the first thing to get booked before other services get a look-in.

Hence, so many enquiries for the vague " Scunthorpe, Hull, Nottingham, Leeds..........................". Who knows whether we're quoting for a five star hotel, where you can reverse the van into the function room, or a truly grotty boozer, parked half a mile away, and five flights of stairs to ascend.

Thanks Martin, that makes sense of what we've been seeing lately. Perhaps it isn't just the customers being lazy or inconsiderate.

[Imagine]

That explains an awful lot - thanks for the info Martin.
Something else I learned today, Cambs registrars aren't booking ANYBODY in until 1st September, which explains why the two I booked over the weekend are for September

Roll on normality

[Vectis]

To add a bit more meat, I looked back at enquiries received in the last 7 days to midnight Tuesday and compared to the same week in 2019:

Overall number of enquiries were UP almost 30%
34% of all enquiries were for VENUE ONLY compared to less than 10%
62% of all enquiries were for services PLUS venue recommendations, compared to less than 15%
56% of all disco/services enquiries were for 'venue not specified' or 'venue not confirmed', compared to around 25%
92% of all disco/services enquiries were for dates at least 90 days in the future, compared to around 60% (not surprising)

But perhaps most importantly, average suggested budget is up 46% on 2019 (we've not raised the suggested defaults in this time period).

Slightly more than HALF of all venue enquiries met with either an autoresponder about being closed / slow due to covid or a mailbox full error. I don't have stats for 2019 but from experience these used to be few and far between, perhaps 1 in 50 would bounce.

Window shoppers on the website are significantly up, way more than the +30% who are enquiring. Difficult to put an exact finger on it but it looks to be about DOUBLE 2019 rates.

There's a deluge waiting to happen folks. I also suspect there's going to be a deluge of existing bookings that have a change of venue once their preferred place lets them book. I base this assumption on the number of enquiries that specify a venue but also ask for venue recommendations!