What goes on it
Almost all of it is already here. A small website of its own, with a Home page, What's on, Hire the hall, Find us and About, filled in from what the committee keeps up to date anyway.
Your rooms
Each room with its size, how many people it holds, its prices and its photographs, straight from your room settings. Add any extras you hire out, like the kitchen or the projector.
What's on
The regular groups and the coming events you have chosen to advertise, taken from the diary. When the quiz night is over it drops off by itself.
The booking calendar
When each room is free, so people can check a date before they get in touch. Private bookings show only as taken.
Hire the hall
Prices, what is included and the documents you tick to show, such as the hire agreement or the hall's policies, ready to download.
Find us
How to get here, where to park and what access there is, with the booking contact beside it.
About the hall
A paragraph or two about the hall and its history, with your own photographs.
On your own address, with the calendar built in
Your hall gets its own address, such as elmswell.villagehallhub.co.uk, to put on posters, the parish magazine and the noticeboard by the door.
The booking calendar and the enquiry form work right there on it. Somebody planning a party can see the Saturday is free and ask for it without leaving your website, and the enquiry lands in your diary for the committee to accept.
- Take a booking and the calendar shows the time as taken
- Change a price in your room settings and the website changes too
- Hirers' names and private bookings never appear
- Every page works on a phone
Setting it up, step by step
An afternoon at most, and most of that is choosing the photograph.
-
1
Open Your Website
Sign in and go to Settings, then Your Website. Everything for the website is on that one page.
-
2
Choose a look
Pick one of the four looks under Choose a look. You can change it later and nothing is lost.
-
3
Say a little about the hall
Under About your hall, write one line about the hall and a paragraph or two, and add a main photograph. A wide picture of the building in daylight works best.
-
4
Publish and Save
Under Publish, turn on Show my website to the public and click Save at the bottom of the page. Your website is live at its own address straight away.
Four looks to choose from
Each one is built around a different kind of building, so the website feels like the place people will walk into.
Stone & Slate
Quiet and traditional, with a wide photograph and a printed feel. For an old stone or brick hall with some history to it.
Village Green
Bright and open, led by big photographs of the building and the rooms. For a modern or rebuilt hall.
Parish Notice
Laid out like a well kept noticeboard, with this week's activities first. For a church hall, or any hall without many photographs.
Pavilion
Bold and sporty, with the week's sessions set out like a fixtures board. For a sports pavilion or a centre busy every night.
Adding your own bits
The rooms, prices and what's on look after themselves. The things only you know are yours to add, and you can add them whenever you have a spare half hour.
- Getting here, parking and access, so nobody rings to ask where the car park is
- The booking contact, so people know who to ask about hiring the hall
- The hall's history, from the year it was built to the new roof
- Your own photographs of the hall and each room
- A notice for the front page, such as the kitchen being closed for a refit in March
Already have a website?
Keep it. On any plan you can put the live booking calendar and the enquiry form on the website you already have. Go to Settings, then Embed on Your Website, copy the line it gives you and paste it into your page. If your website runs on WordPress there is a plugin that does it for you.
See how the village hall booking system works behind it, or watch the short guides in our tutorials.
What it costs
The website is part of every plan, with nothing extra to pay. Free for 30 days, no card needed.
For every kind of community building
The website works the same way for anywhere with rooms to hire and volunteers running it.
Questions halls ask
Is the website really included?
Yes. It comes with every plan, Community at £12.99 a month included, and during the 30-day free trial too. There is nothing extra to pay for the website or for the address it lives at.
Can we use our own .org.uk address?
Not yet. Your website lives at your own address on ours, such as elmswell.villagehallhub.co.uk. Using a name you own, like a .org.uk, is something we want to offer, and we will tell every hall when it is ready.
Do we need to know anything about websites?
No. If you can fill in a form you can do this. Go to Settings, then Your Website, choose a look, write a line and a paragraph about the hall, add a photograph, turn on Show my website to the public and click Save. Everything else comes from what you already keep with us.
Will it show up on Google?
It is made of proper pages that Google can read, with your hall name, your rooms and where to find you written out plainly. Nobody can honestly promise where Google will place a page, so we will not.
What if we change our minds?
Go to Settings, then Your Website, turn off Show my website to the public and click Save, and the site comes down straight away. Turn it back on whenever you like and it comes back as it was. Your bookings are not affected either way.
Can hirers book straight from it?
They can see when each room is free and send an enquiry from the website. It arrives in your diary, and nothing is booked until somebody on the committee accepts it. There is no card payment on the website itself.
Does it work on phones?
Yes. Every page fits a phone screen, which matters because that is where most people will look up the hall.
Will people see who has booked the hall?
No. Private bookings and hirers' names never appear. The website only shows the regular groups and events you have chosen to advertise, and shows other times simply as taken.