********* If the venue has a PAID subscription DO NOT RETIRE THE VENUE you need to let THE SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER (Paula/Sam/Graham) KNOW **********
1. Firstly you must complete some checks.
If you can see from google or from the information provided that the venue has actually closed down, you can go straight ahead and retire the venue.
If a venue asks to be removed because they don’t want to be listed, or they think there is no benefit to their listing, it is very important that you explain the benefits of a free listing with us, who we work with and what they will gain from working with us. If they are still unwilling to be listed, we must retire the venue.
If the venue no longer has any meeting space, check if they offer accommodation as they could be listed as an accommodation only venue and still receive enquiries.
If the venue is receiving unsuitable enquiries for the space they offer we should make sure that the venue has the correct information and capacities listed.
If the venue has closed down or no longer has any meeting or accommodation space then we should retire the venue straight away.
- Once you have discussed the listing with the client and you have agreed to retire the listing you must record the reason for retiring the venue in the Admin-only notes.
2. Check for provisional and recently confirmed bookings
Search for the venue in www.myeventschannel.com
Click on ‘Users’ and then click on one of the users listed. This can be any user but preferably log in as one of the generic email addresses if there is one.
Then click on ‘Endeavour user page’ which will take you to the users profile
Click on ‘Skeleton log in’
Hover over ‘enquiries’ at the top of the page and click on ‘view all’
Now to find any provisional or confirmed bookings you will need to amend the status to provisional, change form created date to arrival date, and then amend the dates to about a year before the current date to a year after the current date.
Click Filter
If you find a provisional booking, you cannot retire the venue yet. If there are provisional bookings for 1 agent, make the venue private to that agent. (You will need to set a reminder in your calendar for a date a month in the future and check to retire the venue once the provisional booking has been released).
If the venue has zero provisional bookings for the dates selected then you are good to go. Next you will need to change the status to confirmed and filter again to check there are zero confirmed bookings as well.
If you find any confirmed bookings, you won't be able to retire the venue until that booking has been completed and paid for. If all confirmed bookings are with the same agent you will need to make that venue private to that agent.
If the venue is closing down then you will need to email the agent to let them know the venue may not be able to fulfil the booking as the venue is no longer active in our database and is closing down
If the venue does have confirmed bookings check the arrival date. If the arrival date is over a year ago you can continue to retire the listing, however if it is less than a year ago this will change the retiring process. See part 4 What to do if the venue has Provisional and confirmed bookings
3. Retire the listing
Now that you have checked for bookings you can retire the listing. Go back to MEC and find the venue.
Select General Information from the left-hand menu
Amend the venue name by adding - RETIRED at the end of the venue name
Click SAVE
Then select ‘Admin Only’ from the left-hand menu
Select the ‘general Information’ tab.
Change the Publish This Venue to the Internet Indicator to NO
Change the Keep Private to GRATIS Owner field to Conference Line
Amend the Retired indicator to YES
Complete the venue admin notes with the reason why the venue has been retired and click SAVE
4. Remove any Availability and collections & Clusters
Check if the venue is in any collections, Go to ‘Admin Only’ and click on ‘Availability and collections’. If the venue is in any collections they will be listed on this page, and will need to be removed. You can remove the collection by clicking a little bin icon by the collection.
Click Save
5. Remove the venue from branding
Click on ‘Brands and Affiliations’, then change the key group to independent venue
Change ownership to none and remove any ‘other groups and brands’ if any are listed. Please also ensure any outstanding users are also removed.
Lastly once you have retired the listing you need to add the venue details to the “Official Retired Venues To Check” spreadsheet. Add in the venue name, venue ID, date retired, your initials and the reason you have retired the venue.
https://cvent.box.com/s/v2674tucryi93ch6nx3v8pnmxjycy0aa
If the venue has a video you need to notify Mercedesz and ask her to remove the video from the venuedirectoy.com youtube channel
6. What to do if the venue has Provisional and confirmed bookings
If the venue has a provisional booking that is passed the arrival date you can go ahead and retire however, if it is for a future date then you have 2 options.
If the venue has closed down. You will want to contact the booking agent asking them to release the booking and explain that the venue has now closed
If you are retiring for any other reason you will want to speak to your manager who can advise the best course of action.
If the venue has a confirmed booking and the arrival date is less than a year ago then you will need to retire the listing this way:
Go back to MEC and find the venue.
Select General Information from the left-hand menu
Click SAVE
Then select ‘Admin Only’ from the left-hand menu
Select the ‘general Information’ tab.
Change the Publish This Venue to the Internet Indicator to NO
Change the Keep Private to GRATIS Owner field to the agent the venue have the confirmed booking with
Amend the Retired indicator to No
Complete the venue admin notes with the reason why the venue has been made private to a particular agent
Click SAVE
Lastly, you will need to set yourself a reminder to check the venue when the arrival date has passed to see if it has been paid.
If the venue is closing down you can contact the agent to see if the booking will still be going ahead and if not, ask if they can release the booking.
Contact your manager for advice if you are unsure on who to contact and what to say in your email.