A travel tech bit from Australia tells of a startup called Venuemob, which helps users find places to hold their events. News from Betakit talks about the recent $450,000 funding round from Singapore based telecom Singtel, but we thought we’d take a look at the service for usability.
See screen two for the venue search result
With still more minimalist design headed at those in need of conference or even party space, Venuemob does a nice job of getting users/visitors started on the venue hunt right away. As the screen of the landing reveals above, just type in your event criteria and bingo!
The second screen below shows my filtering options for a “travel conference” space, I have of course selected a rooftop venue because my company needs to be on top of the world. There are many other options for drilling down to the exact venue for your event.
As you can see, checking the boxes lets you refine what exactly you are looking for
My quick search results have now been narrowed to just four possibilities out of a great many. I can view these, or further refine what it is I am looking for now. The Rooftop at The Aylesbury is my choice, as quite frankly the other ones look a bit cheesy for a $10,000 dollar plus budget to me. Maybe the venue providers need to offer some better images too? Anyhow, the screenshot below tells of this startup doing more than the basic job of presenting venues and details for users.
The 123 on Venuemob results - not superb, but better than most
Take Away
This startup has a lot of potential if for no other reason than the space needs a new player. After all the “pros” of Venuemob have been evangelized though, two facets stare the developers in the face. First, the value of having the best places around list cannot be overstated here. We have worked with a great many travel startups that either won or lost based on who they presented and how well they did so.
Sydney rooftop space via Google and TimeOut - courtesy Pool Club/Change Room
My Google search for Australia rooftop spots took slightly longer to engage in, but the end results met or exceeded my search criteria within Venuemob by a long ways. What amounted to people’s rooftop sun decks on the service, ended up in places like the Ivy Pool Club (above) and almost legendary spots like Hotel Sweeney’s. For Melbourne rather than Sydney, I will say the former has its share of backyard BBQ looking venues too – via Google of course. Then again, it is “down under” – a backyard BBQ there can have 2000 guests :)
Venuemob only needs a business development type to grab marque venues – and they’re off and running to success. (with some more rich media) That’s the 123.