For kart tracks and entertainment venues.Written beside a track that was open at the time.
Every default in here came off a real Saturday. The twelve minute interval, the grid check, the manager override with a reason attached: somebody needed each of them on a floor before it got built. Below is the kind of business that fits, and the kind that does not.
The kart track
Heats on a twelve minute turn, a decoder under the tarmac and a race that cannot sit waiting for a page to load. Race control runs on your own machine, the grid is checked before it arms, and the result prints at the counter on its own. A driver with no waiver, an unpaid seat or a kart in the workshop is held by name before the lights, rather than found on the dummy grid.
- /Grid clearance before the lights
- /Timing that carries on through an outage
- /Points, series and the board on the wall
- /Kart hours and maintenance in the same place
The track with a venue around it
The karting pays the rent and the laser arena, the lanes, the party rooms and the cafe fill the gaps between heats. You need all of it on one board, because the money is in the group that does two things instead of one. A birthday with two races, a laser game and an hour in the party room is one booking with one itinerary, and the party food can wait on the kitchen screen until the group comes off the track.
- /Combos that walk a group from the track to the arena
- /Party rooms held for the minutes they are used
- /Kitchen tickets held until the party is ready
- /One cash up at the end of the night
The centre without a track
A laser tag arena, a bowling centre or a mini golf course with a cafe and a party room. Every arena, lane and course carries its own capacity, run time and reset, and they all sit on the same day board as the counter, so a party booked online and a walk in at the till are counting from the same places. Extra arenas, lanes and courses cost nothing more, because only a karting track counts towards the subscription.
- /A run sheet for each arena
- /Briefing and reset inside every session
- /Waivers for every activity, or only some
- /More lanes without a bigger bill
The group with several sites
Three centres with different activity mixes and one owner who wants to get between them without three logins. Each site is its own account with its own resources, staff, prices and merchant account. The owner signs in once and switches between sites from the top bar, even when one is in Australia and another is overseas.
- /One sign in, a switch between sites
- /Resources and prices set per site
- /Staff and roles that stop at their own site
- /Each venue settling into its own bank account
A track operator will want karting software for go kart tracks, with the grid, the timing and the result sheet in full. A centre with several activities under one roof should read family entertainment centre software, and booking software for each activity covers laser tag, bowling, mini golf and the rest one at a time.
Around the activities
The cafe runs off the same booking.
Most venues we talk to make real money in the cafe and the party room, and lose it in the handover between the counter and the kitchen. Food rung up at the counter, ordered from a table or bought at the kiosk goes to the kitchen screen as a ticket, with the guest's name on it and any allergy note where the cook will see it. A party's food can be held as a course, so the kitchen sees it coming and the clock only starts when it is fired. Each item is bumped on its own, so the chips are not waiting on the burger.
At close, the cash up comes from one ledger of every payment taken that day, grouped by how it was paid, with refunds taken off. Race entries, laser games, coffee and arcade credit are in the same figures.
Straight answer
Where we are not the right fit.
Better now than three weeks into an onboarding. Venuboost schedules bookable activities against physical resources. If that is not the shape of your business, something else will serve you better and we will say so on the first call.
- xA restaurant or bar with no bookable activities
- xA gym or studio selling recurring memberships as the main product
- xA ticketed events business running one off shows in hired rooms
- xA hotel or accommodation provider
The test is simple. If what you sell is time on something with a fixed number of places, a track, an arena, a lane or a room, it fits. If what you sell is a seat at a show or a night in a bed, it does not.
Moving across
Changing systems on a live venue.
Nobody changes a booking system for fun. The plan is built so you never run two of them on a busy day, and so the bookings already in your diary are here before the old system goes off.
We run the move with you rather than handing you an import screen. Before we read anything in your old system, we record your authority to share your own data with us. Your records are mapped field by field, with names tidied and amounts converted on the way in, and running the same import twice updates a record rather than making a second copy of it.
- 01Your venue built firstTracks, arenas, lanes and party rooms are set up in Venuboost with their capacities, intervals and pricing, because old systems rarely export them in a form worth keeping.
- 02Customers matched, never merged by guessworkCustomers arrive with contact details, dates of birth and marketing consent, each matched to their old record. Two people with the same name are flagged and kept apart until somebody at your venue decides.
- 03Products and vouchers in, switched offExperiences and shop items come in turned off, so each price is checked before it goes on sale. Gift vouchers keep the exact value left on them.
- 04Karts and timing numbersFor a track, each kart comes across with its kart type and transponder number, and anything that does not line up is listed for a person to check.
- 05Team trained on a weekdayYour staff learn the counter, the board and race control on your own data, on a quiet day, before a guest ever sees it.
- 06Future bookings lastForward bookings come in just before you switch, so the diary is complete on the day the old system goes off. Money already taken comes in as paid, not as new takings.
- 07The first weekendYou run your first busy weekend with us reachable the whole time.
Questions
What operators ask before they switch.
Is Venuboost only for kart tracks?
No. Karting is the deepest part of it, with race control and live timing, but laser tag arenas, bowling centres, mini golf courses, escape rooms and trampoline parks book through the same engine. Race control is an add on, so a venue without a track does not pay for it.
Can we run several venues under one login?
Yes. Each venue is its own account with its own resources, staff, prices and merchant account, and an owner signs in once and switches between them from the top bar. That works even when one venue is in Australia and another is in North America or the UK.
What comes across from our current system?
Customers with their contact details, dates of birth and marketing consent, staff, experiences, shop and cafe items, gift vouchers with their remaining value, karts with their timing numbers, and your future bookings. For some systems, past race history and lap times can come across too.
Do we have to run two booking systems side by side?
Not on a busy day. Everything else is brought across and checked first, and your future bookings come in last, just before you switch over. Payments already taken in the old system arrive as paid, so they are not counted as new money in Venuboost.
Can we try it before talking to anyone?
Yes. You can sign up and set up your own venue, and your first month is free from the day you sign up. Adding a card during that month does not start billing any earlier.
Which countries do you work with?
Venuboost runs regional sites for Australia and New Zealand, for the United States and Canada, and for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Your venue's information is kept in the data region you choose when you sign up.
Bring us your busiest Saturday and we will build it on the screen.
Half an hour, your own activities and your own prices on the board. You will see where the day has gaps in it before we say a word about what this costs.