Why Event Bookers Leave Your Site Without Enquiring

Event brief in hand, deadline looming among many other tasks on the to-do list, and 10 tabs open, an event organiser on average spends a maximum of 4 minutes on a page before deciding to shortlist or move on. Those 4 minutes are crucial to make a lasting impression. And sites are wasting 3 of those minutes forcing organisers to dig for information.

How Long Do Event Organisers Spend on a Venue Website?

A venue website’s job is not only to look good, but to be able to quickly and simply answer an event organiser’s questions in between their morning meetings. Information that drives shortlisting should live front and centre but is often missing or hidden through a series of menu drop downs.

Since online venue search has become the standard, most venue websites have not kept pace. Organisers are more pressed for time and media literate in an age of growing misinformation and AI. Those who have honed their skills will be able to recognise your AI generated venue photos, fake testimonials, event photos with five brides, and worse a response to their enquiry written using ChatGPT or the like.

Why do Event Organisers Leave a Venue Website Without Enquiring?

What causes an organiser to close your tab and move on? Missing pricing, no floor plan, capacity without layout context, no AV or other amenity disclosure. Venue listings that answer these questions clearly and quickly are the ones that make the shortlist. If your website has gaps, the organiser will fill them with assumptions leading to time wasting when venues receive poor-fit enquiries from organisers who don’t understand the full scope of the venue and its capabilities. VenueScanner listings presents all the key information front and centre in an easy to read and compare.

What Do Event Organisers Need to Decide on a Venue?

Organisers are looking for three things; will the space fit my group size (capacity), is this in budget, and what does the space look like? At least one of those three questions is hard to answer looking at most venue sites. This isn’t a design problem, most sites are often beautiful, it’s a problem with information architecture which is costing venues enquiries.

What Makes a Good Venue Website for Event Bookings?

Capacity 300 is a start but is this 300 standing? 300 theatre with a stage? Capacity without the context of layout does not give organisers the confidence that their event will fit or have the room look half-empty. Add capacity by layout, even better photos of different layouts in the room or floorplans with each layout.

Ensure your unique selling points are clear. For corporate events especially, key details like AV capabilities and accessibility are a shortlisting factor. Conferences and hybrid events will need to know specifications like screen size, wifi speeds, if there’s an AV tech onsite and if their delegates can get from point A to point B. If information is vague or omitted i.e. state of the art AV, this could preclude you from consideration. VenueScanner lets venues publish AV specifications, accessibility details, and amenity information directly on their listing to set your venue apart from your competitors.

Hiding your pricing is not protecting rates, it’s removing you from consideration from organisers who don’t have the time to dig deeper. Asking organisers to enquire or submit a form to find out if a venue is even within their budget is asking them to spend time to find information that should be transparent. A range or “price from £xx” will reduce time wasting and attract more quality enquiries.

How Can Venues Increase Enquiries From Their Website?

If an organiser has been able to find all of the necessary details on your website, the key to a lead is the call to action. Ensure that your intake form has enough prompts to allow you to respond with a comprehensive proposal, not a request for more information. Provide a direct dial or email address if they want to provide more information beyond the confines of the intake form and set expectations on a response time. Through VenueScanner, organisers can save venues to a shortlist, send their brief to multiple venues simultaneously, and manage all responses in one place, removing the friction from the enquiry process on both sides.

How to Audit Your Venue Website for Event Bookings

Offer transparency and clarity by auditing the information that organisers need in the chart below with what your site currently shares. How do you stack up? The fix isn’t rebuilding your website but highlighting key information and your unique selling points. VenueScanner gives organisers a single place to compare venue information side by side. Let our platform do the work for you.