Made with care for the volunteers who keep Britain's halls running.
Product updates
Everything we have changed, and when
Most of what is on this page started as an email from a village hall. We write these in the same words we send our
halls, so you can see for yourself how often this thing actually moves.
If your hall has Inspire Home Automation heating, it can now heat each room for each booking, at the right temperature, with nobody touching a thermostat. First go to Bookings, then Booking Settings, open Heating and name the kinds of activity you host with the temperature each wants - say Seated at 21 degrees and Active at 17. When you take a booking, pick its heating level on the last step, Anything else?; a repeating booking passes it to every date. Then go to Settings, then Heating, press Create my heating link, and copy your Inspire link into Inspire. Their thermostats check it every hour. Cancelled bookings are dropped, so the heating does not come on for an event that is not happening. The Heating page lists every heating system we work with, and more are on the way. More at villagehallhub.co.uk/heating/inspire.
New feature
Thank hirers automatically when they pay
Go to Finance, then Payment Settings, and under Chasing Unpaid Invoices turn on Thank hirers when a payment is recorded. From then on, whenever a payment goes against an invoice - typed in by you, recorded in the app, or paid by card - the hirer gets an email from your hall thanking them for their payment of that amount, saying how they paid and what, if anything, is still to pay. When you record a payment by hand there is a tick box to skip the thank-you for that one, say for a regular group's weekly cash. It is off until you turn it on. Thanks to Sarah Peacey at Binfield Memorial Hall for asking.
New feature
Your bookings in your phone's calendar
Go to Settings, then Calendar Feed, and press Create my calendar link. Copy the link into Google Calendar, your iPhone or Outlook and every booking appears alongside your own appointments, keeping itself up to date. There is a link for the whole hall and one for each room, and provisional bookings are marked as provisional. Anybody with the link can see your bookings, so keep it to your committee - and if a phone is lost or a volunteer leaves, press Make a new link and the old one stops working.
New feature
You can stop these update emails
At the bottom of every "What's new" email there is now a link: Stop the what's new emails. Click it, press Yes, stop them, and we will not send you news about new features again. Emails about your own hall carry on as normal: booking requests, invoices, payments and anything about your account. Changed your mind? The same page has a button to start them again. And if you are waiting for an email from us, such as the link to confirm your address, the page now tells you to check your junk folder and who it comes from.
New feature
App
The app now tells us when it crashes, so we can fix it
If the Village Hall Hub app crashes on your phone, it now sends us a crash report so we can find the fault and fix it, rather than hoping somebody mentions it. A report says what went wrong in the app's code and what sort of phone it was on. It never includes your name, email address, your hall or anything you have typed in, and nothing is sent until the app has actually crashed. It uses Google's Firebase Crashlytics; the details are on our privacy page at villagehallhub.co.uk/privacy. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Add the type of event, numbers, privacy and notes when booking from the app
Making a booking in the Village Hall Hub app now asks the same optional questions the website does. Tap Diary, then New booking, and under Anything else you can put the type of event, how many people are coming, whether it is a private booking, notes for the committee, and notes for the hirer. Private bookings show as Private booking on your public calendar, without the name, and a hirer you have marked as always private is ticked private for you. Committee notes stay with the committee; notes for the hirer appear on the booking in their app and portal. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Hirers can see which times are already booked before they ask
Hirers asking for a booking in the Village Hall Hub app were choosing a time without knowing whether the room was free, and you found out first. Now, on the Book tab, once they pick a room and a day, the app lists the times already taken that day, and warns them if the times they have chosen overlap one. They can still send the request - you may be able to move something round - so nothing is refused on their behalf. Days the hall is shut, set under Bookings, then Holidays & Closures, show as closed, and if you leave a gap between bookings under Bookings, then Booking Settings, Changeover Buffer, the times shown include it. Hirers only ever see that a time is taken, never whose booking it is. They will need to update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Ring or email a hirer or a committee member with one tap
In the Village Hall Hub app, tap More, then Hirers or Committee. Telephone numbers and email addresses are now links: tap a number to ring it, or an email address to start an email. Press and hold instead to copy it, for when it is going into a text. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Switch between your halls from the top of the app
If you are on the committee at more than one hall, you no longer have to sign out and back in to move between them. In the Village Hall Hub app, tap the hall's name at the top of the Today, Diary or Money screen - it has a small arrow beside it when you have more than one hall - and choose the other hall from the list. The whole app changes over to that hall. Going back to a hall you have opened on that phone before is instant, and works even with no signal. Anybody on one committee sees the hall's name as before, with nothing to tap. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Your hirers can be told on their phone when a booking is confirmed or an invoice arrives
Hirers who use the Village Hall Hub app can now get notifications on their phone as well as email: when you confirm a booking they asked for, when you send them an invoice, when an invoice is due or overdue, the morning of their booking to say their door code is waiting in the app, and, if you ask hirers how it went, the day after. The door code itself is never shown on the phone's lock screen - it is one tap away inside the app. Each hirer chooses which ones they get by tapping the settings cog at the top of the app. Nothing changes about the emails they get, and there is nothing for you to set up. Your hirers will need to update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
The app can now tell you straight away when something needs the hall
The Village Hall Hub app can now send notifications to your phone, as well as the emails you already get. The first time you open the app after updating, it explains what it would tell you and asks whether you want them; you can say Not now. You can be told when somebody asks to book, when a hirer confirms or lets go of their pencilled-in dates, when a hirer reports something broken, when a hirer pays an invoice by card, when an email to a hirer bounces, and when a safety check, maintenance job or compliance item comes due. Each one goes to the same people who get that email today; if your hall's emails go to a shared address like bookings@, they go to the committee members who look after that part of the hall. Tapping one opens the right place in the app, and switches hall first if it is about another hall you sit on. To choose which ones you get, tap More, then Settings, and use the switches under Notifications. Emails carry on exactly as before. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
A week at a glance in the app's diary
Tap Diary in the Village Hall Hub app and the week is now along the top: seven days with a dot under each for its bookings, and the day you are looking at filled in. Tap a day to see what is on, swipe across the week or use the arrows to move a week at a time, and tap the calendar button at the top right to jump to any date. Back to today appears whenever you are looking at another day. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
Most of this came from a village hall asking
If your hall needs something this does not do yet, say so. That is how nearly everything above got built.