For Bickham Barn & Farm
17 hirers looked for a hall near Exeter since 9 September.
Your page was in front of every one of them. Claim Bickham Barn & Farm and it is you who answers — from a diary that shows which dates are free before anyone has to write.
Free, and free for good. We check you are who you say you are before handing anything over.
Near Exeter
Since 9 September · searches on HallMatch
177 halls are listed within 10 miles and 5 of them are run from here.
One · The diary
Run your week where the hirers already are.
A week, a month and a list. Click a Saturday, type a name, save — the price comes off your rate card and the hall can never be let twice. Type your regular hirers in once and every Wednesday to next summer blocks itself.
The slot is being held for Priya until Friday. Accepting writes the booking and emails her the details.
Two · The enquiries
An enquiry that knows the date is a booking one tap away.
Hirers ask through a form that already carries the date, the room and the guest count. When your diary is open they can only ask for slots you can actually take — and the slot is held for them while you decide.
Halls near Guildford, Sat 24 Oct
The third hall is not doing anything wrong. It just cannot answer until someone reads the email on Monday.
Three · The listing
Be the hall that can answer “are you free on the 17th?”
Around 10,000 people a month reach us from Google looking for somewhere to hold something, and most of them have a date in mind. A hall with its diary open is shown as free on that date. A hall without one is told to wait for an email.
Shalford Village Hall · the 12 weeks to 6 September
Print for the meetingNever let this term
Four · The numbers for the trustees
The slide for the committee meeting, without making it.
The diary knows how much of the hall was let, which hirers fill it, and the slots that sit empty every week. One page, printed, for the AGM — built from the diary you already keep, with nothing extra to type.
Your hall, as a hirer sees it in results
Five · What hirers see about you
Be the hall people can tell will answer.
A hirer choosing between three halls picks the one that looks like it will reply. A verified badge, how quickly you usually answer, and whether the 17th is free are things a hall cannot say on its own website. They only count when someone else says them.
Who keeps the hall
Handing over?
Both of you can sign in until you are ready to step back. Every hirer, rate and note stays with the hall.
Six · When you hand over
You hand over a login, not a shoebox.
Every hall has one person who knows how it runs, and a committee that quietly worries about it. Here the diary, the regulars, the rate card and every enquiry belong to the hall. The next person signs in and starts from the same week you left.
Everything you get, and what it costs
Nothing in the first two columns has a price, a trial or a card. The third is where we may charge one day, and it is not built yet.
Your listing
Your office
Where we may charge
Being straight about it now, so nobody feels moved later. None of this exists today, and none of it takes anything away from the two columns beside it.
Three steps, and we do the middle one
Most halls are through it inside two days.
Find your hall
It is almost certainly here already. We built a page for it from what is publicly known, and it has been working away without you.
Tell us who you are
Your name, your role and an email. A person checks it against the hall's own details, usually within a day or two.
Put your week in
An evening's typing gets your regular hirers in, and they fill the year themselves. Or ring us and we will do it with you.
The catch, in full
There isn’t one, and here is why we can afford that.
A directory that knows which halls are free on a given Saturday is worth far more than a subscription from any one hall. Every hall keeping its diary here is what makes that true, so the diary has no price and no upgrade path.
If we ever charge, it will be for the third column above — invoicing and online payments — and never for the diary, the listing or the enquiries. You would not be moved onto a paid plan; you would have to choose one.
Questions booking secretaries actually ask
Is it really free?
Yes. No listing fee, no commission on bookings, and no card. The diary is part of your listing, and both stay free. If we ever charge it will be for invoicing or online payments — neither of which exists yet, and neither of which takes anything away from what you have.
We use Hallmaster. Do we have to leave?
No, and we do not touch your account there. Run both for as long as you like — most halls start by putting only their regular hirers in here, which is an evening's work and tells you whether you like it.
Who can see our hirers' details?
Nobody outside the hall. Hirers see free or busy per room and nothing else — no names, no phone numbers, no prices you have agreed, no notes. You choose whether even that much is shown.
Our diary is a book on the kitchen table.
Then this is easier for you than for anyone: nothing to move across and nothing to unpick. Print the week each Sunday and the book stays on the table, in your handwriting's place.
What if our hall is not listed?
Add it. Sign in, choose 'Add a new venue' from your dashboard and fill in the basics — we review and publish within 1–2 business days, and it then works exactly like every other hall here.
How long does claiming take?
The form takes a couple of minutes. We review claims by hand within 1–2 business days and email you once it is approved.
Can two of us share it?
Yes. Add the treasurer or a co-secretary by email from Diary settings and they sign in to the same diary. When you step down, hand the hall over in one click — the next secretary starts from the same week you left, and you can stay on as an editor for as long as you like.
What information can I update?
Everything: your description, photos, rooms and capacities, pricing, facilities, accessibility, contact details and booking information — plus the diary, the regular hirers and the hours you are hireable.
Find your hall and take it over.
Two minutes to claim, an evening to fill in, and no card at any point.
Would rather talk to someone? We will ring you and set it up together.