VenueHub Tries to be AirBnB for Venues
15-10-15
AirBnb revolutionized booking hotels for many travelers but what about changing the way we book venues as artists? It was an idea that the wonderful Tom Tiding suggested in his AoM earlier in this month. I was like... "Yes, there is already one... sorta." VenueHub tries to be the AirBnB for venues in Hong Kong. The site was started in 2013.
According to their site,
"VenueHub was created to make it much easier to find and book an event space in Hong Kong. Previously, identifying a suitable venue would involve a tedious, hugely time-consuming trawl through search engine listings and across multiple websites. Whilst booking a hotel room, restaurant table or flight could be done easily online - booking a suitable venue for an event would be a complete pain.
We solve that problem by bringing venues together in one place and in a format that makes it fast and simple to find somewhere that fits your exact needs. It's also our goal to unearth exciting and unusual new event spaces, giving venue bookers in Hong Kong a wider range of options to choose from."
VenueHub only handles alternative venues, not traditional theatre spaces but is good for art openings, weddings, dinner events and birthday parties. The main issue with the site? Most of venues posted on the site are outrageously overpriced and seems to cater for short bookings over long term/one week bookings. The whole point of a site like this is to find things you can afford, or that are easier to find than with a traditional venue search. I found that I couldn't use 90-95% of the venues because of price.
Is this the fault of the website? No.
It's the fault of the venue owners and the rental economy in Hong Kong. I can't see any theatre producer/event planner wanting to pay 10,000HKD for one day in a blank space in Aberdeen with no features or production assistance from the owner. If you were having a pop-up and had corporate sponsorship, some of these might work but other than that... VenueHub is an awesome idea that falls flat on its face because of price.
So, maybe someone needs to take the idea and improve upon it? Or Venuehub itself might need to do a venue hunt of their own and find a greater variety of venues to be placed on their site. Either way it's a good start to something... just not quite there yet.
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