Important Update: How We're Improving the Enquiry System for Halls

At Hallshire.com, we’ve always been committed to making it easy for people to find and hire village halls across the UK (and beyond). With thousands of halls listed, our goal is to connect people looking for a space with the right venue. But we’ve noticed an ongoing issue: some users aren’t getting replies when they make enquiries to halls. This is frustrating for both the enquirers and us, as we previously had no way of knowing whether halls were seeing these enquiries or responding to them.

What Was Happening?

Up until now, when someone made an enquiry through our website, it was sent directly to the hall’s registered email address. This meant that all communication happened through email, and we had no visibility into whether the hall was opening the email or responding. As a result, we couldn’t track which halls were active or if they were even aware they had an enquiry waiting for them.

We frequently heard from users who were disappointed because they hadn’t received a reply. And because we weren’t involved in the direct communication, we couldn’t help or improve the process.

What’s Changed?

To solve this problem, we’ve made some important updates to how enquiries are handled. Now, when a hall receives a new enquiry, they will get an email notification letting them know. However, instead of the enquiry being sent directly in the email, the hall will need to log in to the website to view the full details of the enquiry.

By making this small change, we can now track which halls are viewing their enquiries. While we still don’t know who is replying (since replies are sent directly to the enquirer, as we’ve always allowed), we can now get a better understanding of which halls are active and engaged.

To help give transparency to those people making enquiries we've also added an 'average time to view enquiries' stat to the top of the enquiry form. So you should start seeing this appear on your hall page (above the enquiry form) once you've had a few enquiries (and hopefully viewed them). Over time we might start ranking halls by these stats (although that might seem unfair to halls who don't receive many enquiries so that's up for discussion). At the least, we might have some kind of visual label or sticker for those halls who actively view their enquiries in a reasonable timeframe. We'll also start making a note of halls who never view enquiries and mark these as dormant, so users know they might not receive a reply if they leave a message. But that's all stuff to think about in the future.

Why Did We Make This Change?

1. Improved visibility: This change allows us to monitor which halls are logging in and checking their enquiries. This helps us identify which halls are active and which ones might need a nudge.

2. Better experience for enquirers: We know it’s frustrating when you send an enquiry and don’t hear back. This new system helps us take steps toward ensuring more enquiries are seen and (hopefully) responded to.

3. Keeping transparency: We’ve always wanted to make sure halls have full control over their enquiries and can communicate directly with potential customers. That hasn’t changed. Halls can still respond directly to enquirers using their own email, outside of our system.
   
   

Quick and Easy Access for Halls

We know that having to log in to view messages might seem like an extra step. We’ve made this as simple as possible! When you get a notification email, it contains a direct link that automatically logs you in and takes you straight to your message. No need to remember passwords or go through multiple steps—it’s quick, easy, and designed to save you time.

Looking Forward

We’re always working to improve the service for both halls and enquirers. This new system is just one way we’re trying to ensure a better experience for everyone involved. We encourage all halls to regularly check their accounts and make sure they’re not missing any important enquiries.

Thank you for being a part of our community, and we hope this new system will help you get more bookings and provide a better experience for those looking to hire your hall.