Entering Data in Your Sales & Catering System

It's critical that SmartSpace data accurately reflects your business. Follow these best practices for entering data in your Sales and Catering system The system that you use to manage the bookings for your function rooms. Also known as a diary management, or meetings and events reservation system. Examples include Delphi and Opera.. These practices enable SmartSpace to give you the best possible forecasting and business intelligence.

Ensure Shared Understanding of Key Categories

SmartSpace receives quality data only if everyone enters bookings consistently. For example, does everyone use the same criteria for when a booking status is Prospect The booking status of an unconfirmed event. You have no verbal or written confirmation, but you might hold space provisionally., Tentative The booking status of an event that the client has verbally confirmed. You have sent them a contract., Definite The booking status of an event for which you have received the signed contract from the client., Lost/Cxl Lost: the client decides not to hold a prospect or tentative event at your venue. and Turn Down Also known as denials. It’s the booking status of events for which you decide not to offer availability. This can be because you don't have the space available, or because you believe it is not the right piece of business.? Or how each Market Segment and Booking Type are defined? If necessary, create or update standards to ensure consistency.

View this video to learn how to ensure valid data:

Enter Correct Dates

Enter Bookings When You Receive them

Enter new enquiries into your Sales and Catering system on the day of the enquiry. This way, SmartSpace gets accurate lead-time data. That means the system understands the time between when a booking is taken and when the event happens. This impacts the Conversion Metrics by Create Date, the Enquiries by Lead Time, and the Daily Demand by Status reports. You use all of them to create your Demand Forecast.

Create Event Lines for the Appropriate Space and for Each Event Day

Enter separate event lines for each day of the event. For example, you have an event for Monday through Friday, with meetings from 8 am to 4 pm. Enter 5 meetings from 8 am to 4 pm for each day, instead of entering one meeting from Monday 8 am to Friday 4 pm. Use an overnight hold on space only when the client is paying to keep the room overnight.

Create Individual Bookings for Events with Non-consecutive Days

Event lines on one booking should always be for consecutive days. If a booking is for multiple, non-consecutive dates, create individual bookings for each set of dates. For example, a booking is for three dates: 15 - 16 Feb, 22 - 23 Feb, and 8 - 9 March. In that case, create three separate bookings. If you enter one booking, SmartSpace reads the booking as beginning on 15 Feb and ending on 9 March. The system counts the demand for all days in between.

Use Approximate Values if Needed

Estimate Uncertain Values

• If you don't know the exact number of attendees when you enter the booking, don't enter "1" just to block the space. Instead, enter an approximate but realistic value. That helps SmartSpace measure attendee numbers and revenue by attendees.
• Enter the approximate revenue value of a booking, not zero, when you don't know the final value. For example, for public events that require registration. Or, for social events organised on property that various clients can book to attend. Estimating the revenue helps your sales teams prioritize high-value business. Adding zero revenue also invalidates your conversion by revenue metrics.

Always Enter a Function Room

Enter the room that you expect a booking to take. If you don't designate a room, SmartSpace assigns the business to a default or "null" room. The system records "null" rooms information, but the data isn't included in demand and occupancy forecasting.

Enter Bookings that Have No Definite Arrival Date

You might have enquiries for events without a definite arrival date. For example, you receive a general request for a wedding in June. Log these requests in the Sales and Catering system under the first day of that month. Knowing the actual demand for a period helps you plan your strategy, calendar, and pricing. If these events don't go ahead, change their status to Lost/Cxl Lost: the client decides not to hold a prospect or tentative event at your venue. or Turn Down Also known as denials. It’s the booking status of events for which you decide not to offer availability. This can be because you don't have the space available, or because you believe it is not the right piece of business..

Collect All Available Data

Enter Correct Market Segment, Booking Type, Meeting Class, and Source Information

Your sales team might not have used or paid much attention to these data types. But using these fields correctly enables you to understand, and then forecast your demand better. For example, by using the Source field, you can filter your demand by where it's coming from.

Note Meeting Class is only available in some Sales and Catering systems, for example, Delphi.

Enter Second and Third Option Bookings

Enter second and third option bookings in the Sales and Catering system, with booking details. Second and third options are potential bookings, wait listed for a specific date. Or, you hold space in case the room opens up. By recording these opportunities, you capture the full amount of demand for your market. Having that data in SmartSpace helps you make better pricing decisions.

Split Revenue Values between Revenue Streams

Correctly split revenue between food, beverage, room rental, and other items, so SmartSpace correctly considers tax adjustments. This is very important in markets where the VAT or local tax differs by revenue stream. SmartSpace uses revenue values net of tax. During your implementation, we configure the system to deduct tax. Deductions are based on your specific tax information by revenue stream. Splitting the revenue streams ensures that the system deducts the correct tax amount from each revenue stream.

Add a Reason for Lost or Turned Down Business

Add a reason for every booking that you lose or turn down. That helps you and your sales team evaluate your business better and then make proactive decisions. For example, losing business because the price is too high or above budget might indicate that you need to review pricing. Or you might be turning down events for 100+ people because you don't have a large enough room. Knowing this could lead to strategic business decisions about building or changing space configuration.

Booking Event Line Maintenance in Sales and Catering

We recommend that you do not delete all events lines from an event booking. Deleting all event lines in certain Sales and Catering systems will prevent SmartSpace from updating the data. Updates are made through the use of booking event line information.

Updates are made using booking event line information. If event lines are deleted in certain Sales and Catering systems, SmartSpace can lose the ability to update the data. When the system cannot retrieve an event line, SmartSpace will not reflect the change. If an event is lost or canceled, set the attendees and revenues to zero.

Special Characters

In free-type fields, don't use characters like " and *. These characters cause the daily extract file to fail with some Sales and Catering systems, for example, in Delphi.