The Hallmaster Online Venue Booking System is now being used by us and this brief guide will show you how to make the most of it as a customer.
We are sorry to move away from the more friendly telephone service that we have offered for many years but
a. It takes many precious hours of our volunteers time to currently handle the bookings and create the invoices
b. The involce production is slow and potentially unreliable and very repetitive work for our treasurer
Note that we are not able to accept credit card payments
You will be now able to browse our events calendar to find a suitable available time and then enter the request process. This involves registering on the Hallmaster system and then filling in a form with the details of your required booking. Your request is sent to the booking team who will check the details and will then confirm the booking and send you an invoice.
Below, there is a video demonstrating the booking process for first time users which lasts less than 5 minutes. You can use the “full screen” icon to get a detailed view of the process.
If you want more explanation, here is a detailed description of the steps you have to follow for your first booking. Having looked at the web site site and identified that the hall or meeting room could be suitable for your activity, go to the Calendar page and see if the facility is available at a time so suit you. You can choose which room(s) you see on the calendar. At the top of the screen is an place to select either the Main Hall, Meeting Room or Whole Building option.
To make a booking request for the selected room on the weekly calendar, click on the + symbol on the date you wish to book.
If you are making a booking request for the first time, you will be asked to enter your contact details and a password for security. This will enable you to later track your booking status, any changes that are made, plus view any invoices and payments linked to that booking, much in the same way you would with any online shopping website.
Once you have registered, you will need to fully complete the rest of the booking request form as follows:
Rooms: Tick the room(s) that you want to include for this booking. There is an option for the whole building.
Event Name: This is the name of the event you are booking. This can be hidden from public view (see Privacy below).
Number of People Attending: Here you must indicate how many people are expected to attend your event.
Start Date/Time: The start date and time of the event. If this is a recurring series of bookings, this is the start date and time of the first event in the series.
End Date/Time: The end date and time of the event. If this is a recurring booking, this is the end date and time of the first event in the series. (Tip: If you are trying to input midnight, then enter it as 00:00 on the following day.)
Recurring Booking: If this is a single event booking then just leave this field empty. If this is a recurring booking for multiple dates, tick this box and choose the booking frequency (eg Daily,Weekly etc), along with how many additional dates you want to add to this series. Individual dates in a series can be amended to a different date or time. To move an individual date in a series to a different room however, you will need to ask the Booking Team to do this for you once the booking has been created. Make sure to click on the green Check Availability button. If there is a clash of bookings at any date, time or room, a red error message will display saying ‘The dates of this booking clash with other dates in the calendar, or they don’t end after they begin’. You can then check the weekly calendar or scheduler at the top of the screen to see where the clash is and amend the booking accordingly.
Note: You cannot proceed with creating a booking request while there is a clash.
Activity: This is the general ‘type’ of booking you are making. Choose from the options the venue has setup to indicate what kind of booking this is.
Description: You can put as much or as little information about the event itself, including prices, what to bring and links to websites etc.
Privacy: There are 3 privacy settings for bookings:
- Private: The Weekly Diary and Scheduler will only show the time the event is booked for and whether the booking is Requested or Confirmed. The booking will display as ‘Private Event’ and not show your Event Name, description or your contact details.
- Public – Contact Details Hidden: The Weekly Diary and Scheduler will show the Event Name and a link to the description but will hide your contact details (eg name, email address, telephone number etc), once the booking
has been confirmed by an administrator. If the event is still to be confirmed, the calendar will continue to display as ‘Provisional Booking’ - Public: The Weekly Diary and Scheduler will show the Event Name and a link to the description and your contact details, once the booking has been confirmed by an administrator. If the event is still to be confirmed, the calendar will continue to display as ‘Provisional Booking’
Number of People Attending: Here you must indicate how many people are expected to attend your event.
Special Requirements: This can be a list of any specific requirements such as tables and chairs, use of kitchen etc.
Terms & Conditions: You really should check out Terms and Conditions document as you will need to agree to before proceeding with your booking.
Save Booking: Once completed press Save and the request will automatically be sent to the Booking Team for processing. You will also receive, very quickly, an email from us confirming that the request has been received – this is not confirmation of your booking. You can continue on Hallmaster to view your booking and, some time later, after being informed of the acceptance of your request, your invoice.
Additional Bookings: You can always make other booking requests from the Hall or Venue’s Calendar/Scheduler or by using the Request Booking button in the Bookings page of your Hallmaster Dashboard.
View your Bookings, Invoice and Payments: When you return to the site navigate to My Bookings then once logged in to your own account, you will be taken to a list of your bookings where you can see an overview of their dates, times and status, and any invoices that are due for payment.
Filtering and Searching: You can sort the columns in the booking grid by clicking on the column heading. Eg Booking Name sorts your bookings in ascending/descending order etc. You can also search for specific bookings using the search icon in each column heading. When a search is being applied, the icon will change colour to pink. To clear the filter and display all of your bookings, click on the Clear Filters button. To search for historical bookings, select the range you want to view from the drop-down menu. The older the items, the longer it will take to load them. If you wish to, you can print the list of your search results for your records.
Download and Print Invoices:
To view, download and print an invoice from your control panel, go to the Invoicing page or click on the blue Invoicing icon on the far right of the bookings in the Bookings page. You may have already received a copy of these invoices by email from the Venue.
View Payment History:
When in either of the above Invoicing pages, click on the blue Shopping Cart icon to see a list of payments against each invoice.