How to manage private hire enquiries from first email to signed contract

To manage private hire enquiries well, capture every enquiry in one place with the same core details, reply quickly with availability and a clear price, hold dates only for a set time, and confirm the booking with a signed agreement and a deposit. Then turn the agreed details into a function sheet the team can work from. Give each enquiry an owner and a dated next action, so none of them sit in someone's inbox.

The same steps work for restaurants, hotels, members clubs and event spaces, from a 12-person dinner to an exclusive-use takeover.

What should a private hire enquiry form ask?

Ask for enough to quote without a second email: preferred and alternative dates, start and finish times, guest numbers, type of event, budget or spend per head, food and drink preferences, dietary requirements, and the host's contact details, plus the company name for corporate bookings. A structured form on your website collects the same fields every time, which makes enquiries quicker to compare and price.

In Tiquo, a published form can serve as the enquiry form. Dropdown options can depend on earlier answers, fields can map to the customer's details or to custom customer parameters, and each submission can attach to a customer, an enquiry or both, landing in the assigned enquiry pipeline. Staff can also log phone, email and walk-in enquiries by hand, so every brief ends up in the same place.

How do you qualify a private hire enquiry?

Check three things before writing a proposal: the date is free, the numbers fit a space, and the budget meets your minimum spend or hire fee. If one of them doesn't work, say so in the first reply and offer another date, room or format.

Set your pricing before enquiries arrive, so whoever replies can quote without checking with a manager. Our guide to pricing private dining with minimum spends and room hire covers how to set those figures.

How should you track private hire enquiries?

Use a pipeline with stages that match how your team works, for example: new, qualified, proposal sent, provisional hold, awaiting contract and deposit, confirmed, and completed or lost. Each enquiry sits in one stage, has one owner and has a next action with a date. Review the pipeline daily in busy seasons and at least weekly otherwise. Recording why enquiries are lost (date unavailable, over budget, no reply, booked elsewhere) shows whether to change prices, rooms or response times.

Tiquo's enquiry pipelines work this way. You can run several pipelines side by side, one per enquiry type, such as private hire, membership prospects and supplier requests, each with its own kanban stages and assigned staff or teams. Stages can be marked Action Required, which puts a red indicator on the Enquiries sidebar entry when something needs attention. Each enquiry keeps its documents, notes, tasks and activity history in one record.

How long should you hold a provisional date?

Set a fixed hold period, such as seven days, and put the expiry date in the proposal. When it lapses, follow up once and then release the date. If a second enquiry arrives for a held date, tell the first host and give them a short deadline to confirm. Holds without an expiry block dates that another host might have paid for.

When a hold becomes a booking, keep it tied to the enquiry. In Tiquo, staff convert the enquiry into a confirmed booking or order, and the enquiry page lists its linked orders with a summary of the total value, the amount paid and the amount outstanding, so anyone picking it up can see whether the deposit has arrived.

What should a private hire proposal and contract include?

• Date, times, room and guest numbers, with the deadline for final numbers
• Menu or package, drinks arrangements and dietary requirements
• Minimum spend or hire fee, what counts towards it, and how VAT and service charge are treated
• Deposit amount, due date and when it becomes non-refundable
• Cancellation charges for each notice period
• When the balance is due and how it can be paid
• House rules on decorations, music, outside suppliers, damage and finish time

Send the terms with the proposal so nothing new appears at contract stage. For bookings from consumers, keep deposit and cancellation terms proportionate to the loss you would suffer.

How do you get the contract signed and the deposit paid?

Combine the two where you can. A host who signs and pays at the same time is confirmed; a host who signs and promises to pay later is still provisional. Electronic signatures avoid printing and scanning, and our guide to whether e-signatures are legally binding in the UK covers the law.

Tiquo handles this from the enquiry's Documents tab. Staff create the proposal or contract from a template, using the built-in e-signature, and send it to the host through a secure link. The host can sign without creating an account, and Tiquo records whether the document has been sent, viewed or signed, with an audit trail kept on the document. Booking flows can require a deposit or full payment at the point of booking, and for payments taken later, staff can email the host a payment link from the order.

What is a function sheet and who needs it?

A function sheet, sometimes called an event order, turns the agreed booking into instructions for the team: timings, room layout, menu and dietary notes, drinks, staffing, suppliers, the host's contact on the day and payment status. Send it to the kitchen, bar, floor team and finance a set number of days before the event, and reissue it whenever something changes.

Every enquiry in Tiquo has a printable Function Sheet with contacts, status, message, notes and tasks, opened from the enquiry's three-dot menu, with a print shortcut on the sheet.

What happens after the event?

Settle the final bill against the deposit, send it with any balance due, and move the enquiry to completed. Keep the host's details and the event notes on their customer record, so the next enquiry from them starts with what you already know about their group, their menu and how the night went.