Outdoor

It’s best to start with your budget. This rings true whether you’re looking to arrange a corporate away day at work or a much smaller and informal gathering with your friends. It’s worth noting that plenty of venues will operate on a minimum spend basis, which ultimately means that the venue hire is free - so long as your group meets a pre-agreed spend on food and drink at the bar.

Once you’ve figured out how much money you have to play with, it’s well worth getting a general consensus on a date that your group could all make. Anyone who is part of a group chat on WhatsApp will know this can be a nightmare, but ensuring that as many people as possible can attend your event is an important part of the process.

Now you have a budget and preferred date in mind, using a website like VenueScanner can help to compare different venues with outside space. On our website you can look at pricing, capacity and layout, facilities, amenities and extra details - like the venue’s policy in the event of bad weather.

Once you’ve found a venue (or two) that you like, consider heading down to your chosen space for a site visit. These can be invaluable in giving you an insight into the venue’s layout, food and drink and equipment that you might want to use on the day of your event. If you’d rather not travel in these covid-times, many of the venues on our platform have 3D Virtual Tours instead.