Introduction
Football New South Wales in Greenwood, Sydney is located at the Valentine Sports Park and is the proud home of football for the whole of New South Wales.
As part of a recent re-development and refurbishment, the Park boasts some excellent facilities including quality fields with three grass pitches and two all-weather synthetic grounds, plus the extension of its futsal courts together with the facilities around it including accommodation and catering on site. Valentine Sports Park is also the ideal place for events, conferences and meetings and its many rooms support a range of functions including dinners & lunches, seminars, Christmas parties, corporate training sessions, tuition lessons, social groups & meetings, networking events, cocktail parties and conferences.
Key Challenge
Refurbished facility required new booking system for all events
Venue Coordinator at Football NSW, Kate Stephenson explains, “The park recently underwent a complete refurbishment of all its facilities, so when that was completed we knew that we needed to find a system that could manage and book between 15-20 events every day, plus cope with the expansion of our multi-purpose facilities for both football and non-football related hospitality. For example on top of all our sports areas we also have several function spaces that cater for up to 350 guests.”
“Overall the system streamlines all our events and makes us more efficient. We can also eliminate the possibility of double bookings as this is detected automatically by the system.”
Kate Stephenson
Venue Coordinator
Football New South Wales
Football New South Wales
The Solution
A cost-effective, cloud-based booking and event management system
“We looked at a few different solutions” says Kate, “but Priava gave us what we needed, was in budget and we liked the fact that it was cloud-based.” The solution has been up and running since December 2013 and according to Kate the team find it easy to use and they like the clear listings and dashboard of events.
The Results
Streamlining of tasks and elimination of double bookings
“Overall the system streamlines all our events and makes us more efficient. We can also eliminate the possibility of double bookings as this is detected automatically by the system. “
‘Bulk Editing’ saves time on repeat bookings
Efficiencies are also realised in the form of administrative time-savings, “Over half of our events are repeat bookings, so Priava’s ‘bulk edit’ facility definitely saves us a lot of time, and because we have a relatively small team and such a vast number of repeat bookings, we can save time for every entry.”
‘Notes’ tab functionality is very popular – updates are visible on-screen
Kate is particularly impressed with Priava’s ‘Notes’ tab, which enables staff to enter details and attach them to a particular event. “We really like the Notes tab as it’s really visual and we can add in any special requirements or instructions for other colleagues to view. For example, certain venues might request particular equipment like ball bags or portable goals, so this type of information can be logged with the event.”
The Notes tab also helps if a member of staff is away, as they can catch up with what’s happening just by reading the latest update.
External suppliers benefit from controlled access to system
Priava also allows third parties such as external suppliers like caterers to access the system too, so they can review information such as weekly reports, what accommodation is booked and so on. “It’s really useful for our caterers to be able to view all the bookings themselves, because they can see at a glance what accommodation or events are confirmed and they can then check whether catering is required, it certainly helps to keep us on our feet.”
Quick reporting reveals occupancy rates and supplies key marketing intelligence
According to Kate, the quick reporting capabilities of Priava help the events team to keep everybody informed whether it’s the client, support staff, housekeeper or groundskeeper. Kate says, “You can create a report in seconds and email it directly from the system which is much easier and less time-consuming than typing out multiple emails and sending out to multiple people.” So not only can all parties be kept abreast of what’s happening with an event, the venue can also benefit from additional business intelligence. “We use reports for occupancy and duration which is essential for insurance purposes, so we can pinpoint the exact hours of use. We can also see what spaces are popular and at what times of the year. We can then feed the information back into our overall marketing, so we can identify when and where to offer discounts or promotions when we are less busy.”
Summary
The benefits that Football New South Wales has achieved through the use of the Priava cloud-based venue management solution so far include:
- Comprehensive booking system for multi-purpose events;
- Cost-effective and within budget;
- Saves significant administrative time e.g. bulk editing feature saves a couple of minutes per event;
- Cloud-based system can be accessed anytime, anywhere;
- Quick and easy built-in reporting;
- Occupancy reports provide hours of use for insurance purposes;
- Organised and smooth events e.g. easy to access all information on what each event requires such as equipment/catering;
- Marketing intelligence – reveals peaks and troughs/levels of occupancy;
- Supports controlled login for external suppliers e.g. caterers;
- Elimination of double bookings;
- Dashboard provides ‘at a glance’ view of daily events;
- More effective cover for staff holidays/absenteeism – ‘Notes’ section provides detailed log of what’s been happening;
- Emailing detailed reports directly from the system makes it easier to share information and ensure all departments have access to the information that they need.
Final comment
“Priava takes care of all our bookings across our multi-purpose facilities and spaces, and professionally communicates the information we need to offer our clients.”
Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about how you can introduce live availability and instant bookings at your venue using Priava.
