Online Venue Booking Engine

Products
1

Hello peeps (first time poster here),

We are looking for feedback from the house on an online hosted solution for event venues and planners.

Our platform is built for end-to-end events booking such that as a VENUE OWNER you can take the following actions:

  1. Manage venue availability through a calendar tool
  2. Set bidding or booking prices for your venue
  3. Accept or Reject bookings
  4. Receive electronic payments for your accepted bookings.

As a RENTER you can:

  1. Make one or multiple Bid for Venues or Just book them outright
  2. See your bookings accepted immediately with notifications
  3. Make online payments for the accepted bookings.
  4. Leave reviews of venues you have used or visited (update)

Kindly visit ariya to test the webapp particularly with regards to ease of use, concept and what can be done to make it better. You can use the test credentials at this link to sign in and play around.

Danke Schon

4 Likes
2

Lovely concept. Well done! This is a buisness sector similar to selling cars. The renter wants to test drive - I.e. see and touch before committing. Especially if it’s bride to be - I am assuming they are your target market - they want see where they will seat and how the hall will be arranged. So it’s not like shopping for a phone that I size fits all and you just click and buy. In short a process of booking is a long process in which most work is done offline.

My two cents - start a review website based on verified users that actually booked the hall or attended an event at the hall- where people can upload picture while using the hall. In summary an Expedia for Venues. Sell traffic to hall owners - commission per completed booking or CPC. Smile to bank but keep watching your back for clones as they will spring up quickly

All the best!

1 Like
3

I think you’re approaching this in a clever way but here are my thoughts:

Website & business model

  1. Your Homepage needs a ‘How does it work’ section or tab. This should be targeted to explain the platform for end users (similar to ‘How to publish my venue’ which is targeted at venue owners).

  2. The icons at the bottom representing ‘privacy’, ‘Terms & Conditions’, ‘FAQ’, ‘How does it work’, ‘Contact us’ are just too clever. They might appeal to your inner geeky child, but your potential customer wouldn’t even see them, not to talk of clicking. Just keep it simple

  3. Your pictures are far from adequate. If I wanted to book a venue, just seeing 2/3 pictures (like you have now) will not give me a sense of the venue. So I probably wouldn’t do so. Also think about making the images sharper.

  4. Why did you guys decide to go with the bidding approach? I think this is more favourable to a venue owner, as a minimum price provides a guarantee but not sure how the customer benefits. So is your proposition that a customer should over bid to get their dream venue for that birthday party?

Application:

  1. I created an account and it was smooth

  2. I couldn’t type in my bid amount instead had to keep pressing the cursor

  3. I had to type in the venue as the ‘Bidding/Booking Info’, even though I was on the page of the venue already.

  4. Minor UI/UX issues here and there but ok.

In all, your potential market is massive but probably worth starting with a small geographical location e.g Ikoyi/Victoria Island and sign up all the venues properly. Take a lot of pictures and hustle to get them booked by customers (even if it’s not done via your website). Good luck…

1 Like
4

Thanks Papa,

  1. regarding the how does it work for users. we will explore that, we want to keep the page flat and minimalist

  2. stemming from 1 above we went for logos that might resonate with users to represent those things. we will look into this too.

  3. this is a demo. You can upload up more high quality pix

  4. The bidding is to enable negotiations such that, if you were to book a venue without negotiations today, u pay the full booking price but when you negotiate you are given a “last price” which is where bid price starts from

application:

  1. feedback taken
  2. feedback taken and will be explored, we factored in increments
  3. what venue did you book or bid for? to bid for a venue you only need select an available date and click to bid or book. the event name is requested, not the venue name.
5

Hello!

So, here is my feedback on the concept!

I don’t think the market is big enough and the product does not add enough value to a process that is not that problematic. Basically, there isn’t enough pain to pay for this problem.

So the way venues are booked is that people or companies usually book venues close to their location. So if I am based in Victoria Island, I will not venture beyond the VI, Ikoyi, Lekki environs when venue hunting. The number of venues in these locations are very limited. And most people already know about these venues, so there is no - little value in terms of helping with discovery. This applies in Mushin, Apapa, Abuja, Port-Harcourt…everywhere.

With booking, well, bidding is not part of the Nigerian buying culture. When bidding, there have to be enough bidders so that the thought of loosing the venue makes people commit. Like I said earlier, the market is too small. Why bid, when I can just take a 10 min drive to the venue and make a payment.

I am not sure if you have spoken directly to the market, that is people who are hosting functions, both corporate and social and the people offering the venues to rent. Ask them very striaght forward questions like, "How much are you willing to pay for the services this website offers? Not many people will go, Wow, I this is awesome, why doesn’t it exist?

As for the planners aspect, thats even less viable. You should also test this concept by attempting to plan an event with the aid of a planner, then you will understand just how challenging it is to automate the process online, bid, auction, etc. Planners are personal and are chosen for a whole host factors that cannot be controlled online.

If this concept was strictly a directory with an advertising business model, I would have been more positive. But even that is a struggle. You will probably get better ROI by renting land and running your own events center or planning your own functions. But this sort of business cannot net you more than a a few 100ks (early hundreds), best case scenario after years of pain.

4 Likes
6

Thanks Tola,

with regards to reviews, our engine has a review system built in. we will explore the use of social media to boost activity in that regard.

Feedback appreciated.

7

Thanks for the feedback Sayo,

#Stay+ve :wink:

8

I booked jhalobia Recreational Park’. You might not agree with all of Sayo’s feedback but pay close attention to the bidding aspect. I think you need to test your assumptions to validate or change course (at least on the bidding).

9

Morning, I’ve seen your bid for december 13. My email was down so delayed notification.

After 48hrs, it will close and I’ll accept it. Try a booking.

@Sayo’s comment, the logic behind the bidding engine is different from what he said. we are trying to introduce an idea that hopefully will catch on. However, the feedback has been taken on board

10

I know how much work has been put into this and this might sting a little but this market already has a dozen competitors who are struggling.

The problem is not supply - its online demand.

I’m going with what @Sayo said. Nigerian is a very funny market and if there is anything years of experience has taught most of us, its simply that some ideas are just not built for this market. There is nothing wrong in giving this service a shot, but speak with your TA, competitors (Hotels.ng tried something similar but stopped), venue owners - this is key before you launch.

I’ve come to realize that there is a difference between what the customers want and what you think they want. This is a difficult market to crack due to accessibility of the venues to the renters. Case in point: using a web service to buy airtime as against going to the mallam in front of your house. That doesn’t mean there is no market for your service. There has to be a reason why I won’t go to Balmoral directly and come to you.

About marketing: offline will be your best et for acquisition not online. Very key!

All the best

11

Many thanks for the advise. Nigeria is a tough nut to crack. I really can’t defend the product or concept on here cos I’d be divulging too much conceptual info.

#OneMoreThing: do a full UAT. You’ll get more insight.

12

Went through ur site. Its okay well done.

13

Hard to reason along with this statement when discussing this is what we are supposed to be doing here. You didn’t come here primarily for customers, did you?

14

@xolubi you’re right. Here’s little thought on that, part of the concept is not to build a renting, booking solution for the individual, but an “enterprise” solution with the venues themselves as the end users (buyers). We are trying to solve a niche problem backwards.

15

Bid accepted. You should have a notification

16

I think TechCabal’s Radar is one of the best thing to happen to tech and startups in Nigeria. I really benefited from the house.

As per Ariya.ng, I think business model is a key aspect you guys should reevaluate. The concept will work but in a different way. Like @Sayo said and @Jimi said, there has to be a compelling reason for an average ‘booker’ to book on your site. Convenience? Yes but it is not enough afterall physical stores still sell more than eCommerce stores.

Price? Yes and No! but the approach determines the outcome. If for instance you have an auction model where the these halls/venues are auctioned out at lower prices for registered event organisers/celebrants and businesses, then I think it might work. Which then means your website will be a B2B product and you have to use offline recruitment to get users. Think about this. I will not comment on the UI because that to me is secondary. The business model is key for me. You get that right and you are good to go.

2 Likes
17

Hey buddy.

re: logos … you meant icons. it’s a very bad idea to go with icons. how people interpret them is subject to their existing mental model. which is based on their experience, background and context. Everybody is used to seeing privacy policy, tos e.t.c in plain text. so you’re wrong with thinking it would resonate.

if you must use an icon, add some text.

1 Like
18

Yeah, I got the notification. Your platform works…the real work is offline, so good luck with that!

20

Just a thought all,

Will it make sense to position it as an ERP for the venue owners with a subscription model?