How Hostology helped Llantilio House scale from 7 to 58 events a year with the same team of three

A Welsh farm transformed into a thriving wedding venue, with Hostology providing one central place to manage enquiries, event planning, accommodation and payments.

The challenge

Llantilio House is a Welsh farm that Lottie and George converted into a beautiful wedding venue. They had fallen in love with the property, but neither had run a wedding venue before. As George puts it, they were initially “going in blind”.

In the early days, bookings and event information were scattered across spreadsheets, diaries, Google Calendar, several large wall planners and handwritten invoices. The biggest challenge was making sure everyone was working from the same information, or, as the team described it, “singing from the same hymn sheet”.

With the same details recorded in multiple places, updates were easily missed. A guest might extend their stay, for example, but only one of several lists would be updated. Their constant concern was the risk of a double booking. Although they never double-booked a wedding, there were several close calls, and a few yurts were double-booked during their first summer because different people were checking different calendars.

Lottie and George knew these cracks would only become more difficult to manage as the venue grew. They needed one reliable system before increasing the number and complexity of their events.

The solution

What attracted Lottie and George to Hostology was the sense that it had been built by people who understood how wedding venues actually operate. Rather than learning every lesson through trial and error, they could build on established processes and introduce a system designed around the realities of venue management.

They began by creating a planning checklist for their couples. This was particularly important for dry-hire weddings, where couples were often unfamiliar with the venue and needed more guidance than the team had initially expected.

From there, Llantilio House gradually expanded its use of Hostology to cover enquiry management, event planning and itineraries, accommodation bookings and payments, hire items such as tables and chairs, invoices, deposits and payment schedules, and reusable templates and repeatable event processes. This gradual approach allowed the team to introduce structure without trying to change everything at once.

Accommodation was an early priority. Llantilio House offers nine bedrooms across three properties: a cottage, six yurts, glamping and campervan pitches. Through Hostology, couples can allocate accommodation to their guests, while guests can book and pay for their own stay online. This reduces administration for the venue and allows couples to share part of the overall cost of the wedding with their guests.

The venue is now preparing to bring catering in-house from 2027. Ahead of the change, the team is using Hostology’s templates and Xero integration to streamline contracts, invoices, deposits and payments before the operation becomes more complex.

The result

Llantilio House has grown from seven events in 2023, the year it joined Hostology, to around 58 events a year. Hostology has helped the team put the structure in place to manage that growth without increasing its core full-time team beyond three people.

Part-time and seasonal staff are brought in during busier periods, but the team can now plan those requirements against a reliable event schedule. Because key information is held in one platform, new team members can quickly understand each event and how the wider venue operation works.

Enquiries, accommodation bookings, guest payments, planning information and event schedules are managed centrally, reducing the risk of missed updates or conflicting information. The system has also given Lottie and George greater confidence to keep developing the business. As they prepare to bring catering in-house, they are targeting a saving of two to three administrative days each month by automating more of their invoicing, deposits and payment processes.

Rather than expanding the permanent team as the venue has grown, Llantilio House has been able to create repeatable processes that help the existing team manage more events.