How Lapstone Barn opened its accommodation as part of the event, rather than alongside it

An eighteenth century barn in the Cotswolds with in-house catering, accommodation for fourteen and a team of more than ten, where rooms are booked, paid for and managed inside the same event everybody else is working on.

The challenge

Lapstone Barn is a traditional eighteenth century barn in the Cotswolds. It offers exclusive use, in-house catering and events all year round, for up to 200 guests, run by a team of more than ten with five event coordinators between them.

When the venue added on-site accommodation, it added a second business to run alongside the first.

Rooms have their own booking process, their own payments and their own set of guest details. Left on its own, that sits apart from the event it belongs to. The venue ends up holding the same event in two places, hosts have no clear view of what they have actually booked, and every question about a room has to come back to the team to answer.

Lapstone Barn wanted the rooms to be part of the event from the start, not a separate thing bolted onto it.

“We have started using Hostology specifically for our new accommodation. This is a new process for us, but we are hoping it is going to drive bookings for our accommodation and also boost our sales as couples see the ease of booking and paying for their accommodation.”

Lapstone Barn

The solution

The venue opened its accommodation inside Hostology, using the accommodation booking module.

Rooms sit against the event they belong to. Hosts can see what is available, book it, pay for it and see what they have booked, all from the same place they are planning everything else. They can also allocate their own guests to those rooms.

That last part matters as much as the booking. Guest rooms are the detail hosts are asked about most and know least about, so handing them the list rather than fielding the questions takes work off the venue and gives hosts something they actually want.

Inside the venue, the same event record is shared. All five event coordinators work in Hostology, so an event does not belong to whoever happened to take the enquiry.

“Collaboration is one of Hostology’s best features. We have five Event Coordinators and they are all on Hostology.”

Lapstone Barn

The result

Lapstone Barn launched its accommodation with the selling, the paying and the guest management already handled.

There was no separate system to set up and no second process for the team to learn, because the rooms went live inside the event planning the venue was already doing. Hosts book and pay for rooms themselves and manage their own guest list against them.

For the venue, that means the accommodation and an event for up to 200 guests are planned as one thing, by five coordinators looking at the same record.

The venue is now looking at what else the same information can do, including using Hostology’s reporting to tell the housekeeping team what needs setting up in the accommodation and when.