Creating an Event

1. Events on Hostology
2. How to create an Event
3. Where can you see your events
4. Editing & Deleting Events
5. Additional thoughts when Editing & Deleting Events
6. The Event Dashboard / Navigating the Event
7. Next Steps

Events on Hostology

This article is for when you are ready to start planning and managing events on Hostology. Hostology is an event management platform that makes planning events simple, collaborative and fun!

Adding an event allows you to manage and plan everything specific to the event with your customer, suppliers and guests. In short - it's the reason you are using Hostology and the central part of planning!

When you begin adding events to Hostology, there are some considerations for you to make. If you want to discuss these with one of our experts, please feel free to contact one of our team at [e-mail].

When creating an event, you will be given multiple options. The following are all the considerations you can make when creating your event. We have highlighted in BOLD, the key ones you need to consider:

• The Venue - This allows you to select which venue the booking is for (See here for more info)
• Status -These can be: Opportunity, Pencil Booking, Confirmed, Completed, Cancelled, Closed lost. (More info on these below)
• Event Category - These are useful for categorising your events.
• Event Name - The name you give your event - NB Your customers and their guests can see this
• Event Days - Event days are a key consideration. These are the "Actual Event days" where your event is taking place. This can affect itinerary templates (see here for more info)
• Event Duration -The other key consideration. Duration also effects the whole timeframe of the event. The event duration can be used for additional days, like set up, or if your guests are arriving that day (and other guests are leaving in the morning).
• Show round date - Here you can add in the date and time that you show your customers around your venue.
• Account manager
• Hold date
• Confirmed Date - This is the day you confirm the event. This links to Workflows (See here for more info)
• Event Manager -The manager of the event is the team member responsible - who will then receive all notifications for the event.
• Back-up Manager - These are additional managers that can be added to the event and also receive notifications for the event.
• Reference - This can be a unique reference for your booking.
• Source 
• Guest Numbers - Here you can add the estimated numbers of Day/Evening Guests for the event.
• Notes - This section is where you can add event specific information for the booking. This information is not visible to your customers.

Finally, once you create an event, you will then be able to plan and collaborate "within the event". This allows you to make sure that the event information is bespoke to that event. You can always add in your templates and general items. But can also make sure the event has a specific name, information and all of the finer small details - in order to plan properly.

How to create an Event

To create an event, click the "+ Add New Event" button. This will then open a pop-up window with all the possible options available to create the event (listed above).

Fill out the information for each field. Please note the "Required fields" are:

• Venue
• Event status
• Event category
• Event name
• Event days
• Event duration (Arrival + departure)

All other fields are optional - but we do highly recommend using them for your venue!

Once you have filled out the information for the event, you can then press the "Add event" button at the bottom of the box. This will then close the box and create the event in the view you are in, which you will be able to see in the calendar and list view.

Click on the event and you will now be "In" the event, where you will land on the events dashboard (Image below right). This is the key area in Hostology, which allows you to manage and edit specific details for the event you have created. Check out the next steps for advice on what you can now do (All articles called "Planning the event")

Where can you see your events

There are two places in Hostology you can currently see your list of events and some of the details and information that go with them. These are:

• The Calendar View

• The Event List view

Editing and deleting

It is always possible to Edit & Delete an event once you have created it. To Edit an event, you have two options:

• From the Event list view, you can select the 3 dots at the end of the menu and select "Edit" which will open the same menu as before to change any details for the event you have created.

• Or, you can go into the event. Then, on the left hand navigation bar select 'Event Overview' then 'Event Details'. This will take you to the event details section, where you can then update and edit details for the event: 

To delete an event, go to the event list view, select the 3 dots and then choose the delete option. This will completely remove the event from Hostology, it will also delete the event from any supplier, host or guest accounts linked to the event - so make sure you are ready to do this! (there are other options like changing the status to cancelled if you want to retain the data).

Additional thoughts when Editing & Deleting Events

There are some considerations to make when editing or deleting an event.

If you have already added an itinerary to the event, and then change the duration of the event, this will cause a pop-up warning. The warning will explain that the itinerary will be moved to match the new first day and will delete any "Excess days" that are longer than the new duration.

Similarly, if you make the event duration longer, the itinerary will shift to match the new first day, so please be aware that this will happen. You can easily move the days of your itinerary though, check out this article for more information on how.

Also, please be aware that if you have allocated accommodation and assigned rooms to the event, these will remain assigned to the original days. You can update these - check out this article for how to update room bookings

If you Delete an event, all rooms will automatically be unassigned from the event and available to book for any other events

Finally, when you delete an event, it will be completely removed from the database, so if you want to keep the information on the event (say you have added customer details etc), you can instead change the status of the event to "Cancelled" or "Closed Lost" and it will remain on Hostology for reference only.

Welcome to your Event! The Event dashboard & navigating events

Now that you have created your event, you will want to begin the planning process. So once you have clicked into the event you will notice that you land on a new page, with a different left hand menu too. The event name should appear at the top of the page. This is what we call the "Event Dashboard" which you can also see is a new option on the side menu.

When you are in this view, you will notice that the left hand menu has the name of the event at the top. This means that these options are now specific to the event, so if you change any details here, it will only be for this event.

To navigate the event, this left hand side menu is important to change between the key areas. Please note that within areas you can sometimes also flick between different tabs. In the example below we have the food and drink - where you can choose between each day at the top of the screen.

Lastly on the dashboard, there is the option to see notifications and message within this event. Check out this article for more information on how to do this.

Now that you know how to navigate, it's time to move on to the next steps! We have multiple articles explaining in more details how to add itineraries, workflows, suppliers, customers, Food & Drink, accommodation, notes... and even more! Check out the next steps below for a guide on how to start planning your event and adding in the key details.

Next Steps

Check out how to create and add to the itinerary here

Check out how to add timelines and tasks to the event here

How to add a customer to the event and start collaborating