Wokingham Borough Council already operated a successful sports facility offering to their 165,000 residents prior to working with Pitchbooking. Their facilities were well utilised by local clubs and individuals alike, generating over £45,000 per year in rental income that was invested back into the maintenance and operation of their facilities.
The management team at Wokingham Borough Council were however looking for ways to improve the customer experience and offer a digital solution to residents active in sport. Previously the booking process involved filling out an application at the start of the season which had to be processed along with many other teams’ forms before pitches were provisionally allocated. Final pitch allocations then had to be manually confirmed on a weekly basis throughout the season. Following that, invoices had to be manually compiled each month and care had to be taken to factor in VAT exemptions for 10 or more bookings. Invoices then had to be chased up to ensure payment. All of that is only to cater to Wokingham’s regular users. There was no way for the Council to advertise the facilities to the wider public.
Casual bookings came via the phone, which meant that bookings were only possible during working hours when somebody in the team was at their desk. When they did get enquiries for casual bookings, they had no centralised availability calendar to find out what facilities were free. As you can imagine, prospective bookers regularly gave up somewhere along this process.
Now, the process of booking and paying for Wokingham Borough Council sports facilities can happen with little administrative effort. In fact, over the Christmas break, the council took over £3,200 in booking revenue across 69 bookings whilst the council offices were closed for the holidays.
Gina Frost, Community Environmental Lead at Wokingham Borough Council, had this to say: “Pitchbooking has massively cut-down on the admin time required to operate the sports facilities we have. In fact, when we returned after Christmas, all the bookings were automatically in the calendar and payment had already been made so no chasing invoices. It allows me to focus more attention on other parts of the job.”
Kate Warren, the Localities Team Administrator, added: "Since bringing in Pitchbooking, we have had absolutely no problems with managing our bookings, which is usually unheard of! It became one of the easiest parts of my job".
We compared the financial performance of the council’s sports facilities in the first six months using Pitchbooking against the same period the previous year. During that time, Pitchbooking provided an additional 302 bookings, resulting in an additional £44k in revenue over that period. When accounting for the increase in facility rental prices, this represents a 89% increase in booking revenue in real terms. Not only is that an additional 302 sessions of sport facilitated by the council, but it also provides Wokingham Borough Council with the revenue both to help upgrade existing facilities and also to fund new ones to match this high demand.
Gina Frost noted: “Since going live with Pitchbooking, we’ve seen this large increase in revenue. It’s been game changing, with far more people in Wokingham now being able to easily avail of our great facilities.”
When we spoke with the team in Wokingham, they emphasised that having the ability to easily get in contact with the Pitchbooking team made for a great relationship. "It has been a pleasure being involved with the implementation of Pitchbooking at WBC, it really has streamlined our bookings and any problems I can just pick up the phone. They were very innovative and they’re definitely the best out there. I look forward to seeing Pitchbooking going from strength to strength and will always recommend it to other future customers." concluded Gina Frost.
If you are a local council looking for a better way to manage the booking and payment process for hiring your sports facilities, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by phone (+4428 9057 1702) or email (info@pitchbooking.com).
