Welcome to Hostology - Getting Started

1. Hello and Welcome to Hostology
2. Signing up - The first steps
3. Step 1 - Create your "Venue"
4. Step 2 - Add your venue branding
5. Step 3 - Where next?

Hello and welcome to Hostology!

We are delighted you have signed up your business with Hostology and are here to help you get set up as quickly and easily as possible. If your venue hasn't signed up yet, head over here to subscribe: https://platform.hostology.co.uk/register

Make sure you book in your free onboarding consultation. You can chat to one of Hostology's consultants and understand the best way to set up for your business. Make sure to book in your appointment here.

Hostology is designed to be intuitive, but also allow for you to plan events in fine detail - allowing you to simply manage a vast and complex events calendar. Whether you are a new or established in events, big or small - Hostology can either save you time, or add value to your business.

Signing up - The first steps

When you sign up to Hostology you will be prompted to enter your business details, such as the name, address and more. Once entered, you simply need to add your bank details, to initiate the free trial (you will not be charged for the first 4 weeks and can cancel anytime).

Once done, you will receive 2 emails.

1. Welcome email! This should provide you with information on where to start (it might be why you are on this article!), how to book in a meeting with an onboarding consultant and some tips of where to get started if you just want to go for it.
   
   
2. A link to create your account - This is sent once you finalise payment details and finish your sign up. When you click this link, you will be prompted to create a password and then sign in for the first time.

NB - As you are creating the Hostology account, it is assumed you are responsible/managing the account, so you will default at the overall "Super-admin" of the team, with the ability to add team members, manage aspects of the venue and check billing information too. If this is an issue, chat with one of our team to change this.

Step 1 - Create your "Venue".

Now that you have logged in, it's time to set up your venue! This is actually a key step in the process that can be easy to want to ignore (we know you are excited to get started with event planning!).

On login for the first time you should see the following page, which will have pre-loaded some information from your sign up (you can change and edit all of this now if different!).

Add in your Venue's name, website and any other information you would like to (remember you can always come back and add more details - like the description or how to find us section!).

Once done, make sure you press "Save" in the bottom left of the screen (see above). This will then create your venue!

Step 2 - Add your Venue Logo/Branding

Once you have created your venue, there is one final step to make sure you have access to all features. This is adding your logo! As it will then change the branding of the site to your venue/Business, so all your team & customers can see it when they log in.

To do this:

1. Hover or click the "Venue" button on the left hand menu, your new venue you have created should pop up as an option - click on the name:

2. Click on your venue's name, this will then open up a dashboard for the Venue (NB - this is where you can do loads of cool things, like add templates, workflows, food and drink, documents, accommodation and more!). For set up though, you'll need to select "Venue Details" on the left hand menu:

3. Once in Venue Details, you'll notice your venue name, with an empty icon page above it (looks like a grey human). Click here and upload your venue logo from your files:

4 Once uploaded, hit the refresh button - you'll now see the icon appear in the top left of the screen. This is now in place and will be present anytime your customers login from now on too.

While here, remember you can add Venue images, Description, contact information and a how to find us section too! Simply click the "Edit Details" button in the top right to open up the editing screen. Make sure you hit save once you make your changes too! (This information will be visible to your customers & their guests - so worth making it look good!)

Step 3 - Where next?

As mentioned, it is always best to book in a meeting with a Hostology consultant, so we can guide you to the best and most efficient way to get started with your venue.

If you want to go for it though, you can also get started by following our Support Guidance, where we recommend that you first set up your Venue "data". To do this, Check out the first steps here:

Setting up your Venue - Departments, Users and Permissions

This article will explain how to add team members, some more information on "who can do what" and also how to set up your important venue details.

Once you have set up your Venue, you can follow the "Next Steps" articles at the end, to learn how to set up all areas, including key areas like:

Venue Management - Itinerary templates (All)

Venue Management - Food and drink (If you offer onsite catering, or Drinks packages)

Venue Management - Setting up Accommodation (if you offer accommodation to guests)

Venue Management - Creating Workflows (All)

Lastly, If you want to dive in straight at the deep end and create bespoke events and start from scratch each time, you can start adding events instantly. To learn more about how to create events, check out the following article:

Creating your first event - How to set it up