Notes for owners · Sales management
Running a tasting or site visit so the booking is made before the customer leaves
Fix the host, the date, the price sheet and a booking-hold window before the visit, run it in a set order, and follow up the same day. A run sheet for venues and caterers.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
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Many venue and catering bookings are lost in the days after the visit, not during it. The family goes home, talks to relatives, collects two more quotes and the date goes to whoever followed up. So decide four things before the visit: who hosts, which date is being discussed, what price sheet is on the table and how long you will hold the date. Run the visit in a fixed order. Send the summary that evening.
Fix four things before they arrive
The host. One person, with the authority to hold a date and to say what is included. Not the person who happens to be free. If the owner will be needed for the price, the owner is in the building.
The date. The family is visiting for a purpose: a wedding, a reception, a function. Ask when they book the visit, and check that date is free before they come. Arriving to be told it is gone wastes a morning for both.
The price sheet. One printed page with the tariff, what it includes, what costs extra, and how the payment is scheduled. Write the deposit and the cancellation terms in plain words. Rules and what is permissible vary, so check any legal wording with your adviser.
The hold window. How long will you keep the date for them without money? Decide it before the visit and say it. A hold with no end is a promise to a family who may never return.
The run sheet
| Order | What happens | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome at the gate, name of the host, tea or water | The family relaxes and the host is clear |
| 2 | Ask the occasion, the count, the date, who decides | You learn what to show |
| 3 | Walk the route a guest would take, from parking to the hall | They picture the day |
| 4 | Show the hall laid for their function, not the generic photo | It becomes theirs |
| 5 | Taste, for a caterer: the dishes they asked for, plus one you recommend | The decision is made on the plate |
| 6 | Sit down with the price sheet and go line by line | No surprise later |
| 7 | State the hold window and the deposit that confirms the date | They know the next step |
| 8 | Ask directly: "Shall we hold this date for you?" | A clear question gets a clear answer |
Do not rush step 8. Some hosts finish step 6, say "think about it" and open the door. The question at the end is the point of the visit.
What to say when they want time
Most families will want to think, and they are entitled to. Do not argue. Give them a clear way to do it.
"Of course. We can hold the 14th for you until [your own deadline], without anything paid. After that I will have to release it, because another family has asked. If you decide before then, the deposit confirms it."
That is true, kind and specific. It also depends on the date being really wanted by another family, which is why you must not invent a rival. If no one else has asked, say the window and nothing else.
For a peak date that several families want, do not hold it free at all. Say when the visit is booked that the date is held only against a deposit, and state the amount.
The same-day follow-up
Within the evening, send one message that carries everything they might otherwise write down: the date, the hall or menu discussed, the price, what is included, the hold deadline and the amount that confirms. Add three photographs from their walk.
Then diarise one call for the day before the hold ends, and make it. The call is not a push. It asks whether they need anything else to decide.
For example: a farmhouse lawn in Ludhiana
Take an invented lawn on the edge of Ludhiana that hosts weddings and receptions. A family comes on a Sunday to see it, with an uncle, a cousin and the bride's mother. The host is whoever is free. The date the family wants turns out to be taken, and nobody checked. The host shows a general photograph for the layout, and the family leaves with a brochure and no price. Two weeks later they have booked a venue in town that sent them prices the same evening.
The next family gets a different visit. An hour before, the host checks the date is free, prints the price sheet, and learns on arrival that the uncle controls the budget. At step 4 the host shows the lawn with a stage and seating for their number, taken from last month's function. At step 7 the hold window is stated, until Wednesday evening. The message goes out that night with the price and three photos.
On Wednesday the host rings. The family say the uncle wants to see one more venue, and ask for two more days. The host, with no rival family asking, agrees to the extra days without inventing a deadline. They book on Friday, but at a lower package than the host hoped for, because the uncle had already seen a cheaper menu elsewhere. A visit run well did not win the full price.
This works when the family is actually choosing between venues. If they are only collecting information a year early, a hold window means nothing, and a quick message with the sheet is the right amount. For where visits sit among a venue's other ways of winning events, see the hospitality sales and marketing hub.
Keep a note of what stopped them
After each visit, write one line: booked, held, or lost, and the reason as the family gave it. Over time the lines show whether the problem is price, date or the visit itself. Our post on choosing between a site visit, a demo or a sample covers when a visit is the right offer in the first place.
Before your next visit, do one thing: fix the hold window and write it on the price sheet. If your hosts need help with the closing question, see negotiation and closing support, or tell us what you need and we will start from your venue.
