Running a venue management company means juggling a whole range of tasks: from reaching out to new clients to planning an event to tracking the work of your staff.

Venue management software can help you effectively manage all your business operations streamline your processes—from registering attendees to managing various event activities.

However, selecting a venue management solution can be time-consuming. You'll have to compare hundreds of solutions, understand their features, differences in pricing, deployment options, and several other aspects to find the right tool for your business.

To make the selection process easier, we've put together this venue management software buyers guide. It includes necessary information you need to know to avoid purchasing the wrong venue management software.

Here's what we'll cover:

What is venue management software?
Common features of venue management software
What type of buyer are you?
Key considerations

What is venue management software?

Venue management software is a tool used for planning and organizing event operations. The tool helps users handle customers, schedule events, create proposals, organize documents, track staff tasks, generate invoices, and more.

Event planning overview in Planning Pod

Event planning overview in Planning Pod

Common features of venue management software

Venue management solutions come with functionalities that help businesses streamline venue planning, acquire attendees for events, and set up payments and billing. Let's look at the features in detail.

Client management	Store and track information about and communication with clients in a central location. This information could include contact data, proposals, contractual agreements, and email communications.
Booking calendar	Schedule and book events on an electronic calendar with drag-and-drop editing capabilities; sort events using filters such as time and date.
Floor plan builder	Design floor layouts for events from scratch or using prebuilt templates. Drag and drop elements, such as chairs and tables, to visualize seating arrangements based on meal choices, RSVP status, etc.
On-site management	Check in attendees by scanning bar code in invitations, or integrate self-service kiosks for self check-in.
Task management	Track the ongoing, in-progress, and completed tasks of your employees. Allow team members to track their task schedules on shared calendars and collaborate with other members by sharing notes and files.
Invoices and payments	Collect payments from event attendees via integration with payment gateways; generate invoices and send them to clients via email.

What type of buyer are you?

The right software for you depends on your business size and software budget. Let's look at the two common types of buyers for this software and the differences in their requirements.

Small and midsize businesses (less than $50 million in annual revenue): These businesses are primarily concerned about the cost of software. Therefore, cloud-based solutions are the right option for them. Unlike on-premise solutions, cloud-based tools don't require large upfront investments and are available under monthly/annual paid subscription plans.

However, these businesses should exercise caution in examining a solution's pricing literature. For instance, cloud-based venue management solutions can come with per location/event-based pricing, per ticket/seat pricing, and custom pricing. If a tool's pricing is based on a "per user" model, these buyers should ask if event attendees are counted as users. In this case, there might be an extra charge for adding new attendees to the system.

Large enterprises (more than $50 million in annual revenue): These companies want solutions with a wide-set of capabilities that can cater to the complexities of their venue management processes. For instance, they are more likely to have a large number of attendees and will therefore benefit from software that supports QR code scanning to efficiently check in attendees.

They want tools with advanced capabilities, such as the ability to create discount coupons, access detailed financial reports, and run email marketing campaigns to reach out to more clients.

To get more details on which software could be right for your business, call our experts for a free, no-obligation consultation at (844) 687-6771.

Key considerations

When selecting venue management software, there are some additional factors, besides features and pricing, that you must take into consideration.

Mobile apps: As a venue manager, your job will likely take you away from your desk to the actual event sites as you go about executing on tasks. This means you'll need to access the system on-the-go and not just from a desktop or laptop. Look for solutions that offer native iOS and/or Android apps so you can access the system for your smartphone. Additionally, make sure the mobile app allows you to execute all the important functions of the desktop version, such as sharing files with teams, receiving event notifications, and accessing team calendars.
Integrations: Today's fast-paced businesses need to tie traditionally disparate functions together. This is difficult if the software solutions you use don't easily allow data transfer between them. Ask vendors about what other tools their software integrates with.

Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.

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