AI for hospitality
AI for Australian function and event venues.
A wedding enquiry lands while you are mid-event on Saturday, and by the time you reply on Monday the couple has booked the venue that answered in ten minutes. The proposals you did send sit un-chased for weeks. We build the AI that qualifies every enquiry, checks the date, sends the pack, and follows up the quote across the whole long sales cycle. The catering and the liquor licence stay with your team.
Plugs into the stack you already run
- iVvy, Event Temple, Tripleseat, HoneyBook or Perfect Venue (event CRM + proposals)
- your venue calendar and date-availability sheet
- Xero or MYOB (deposits, invoicing, accounts)
- website enquiry forms, wedding directories and a Google Business Profile
- Instagram, Facebook and email (where wedding and corporate enquiries land)
What can AI actually do for a function or event venue?
It works the long event-enquiry sales cycle for you. When a wedding or corporate enquiry lands, it replies in minutes, qualifies it (date, headcount, budget, style, dietary count), checks date availability, and sends the capacity and pricing pack. Then it follows up the proposal on a schedule across the weeks it takes a couple or an events manager to decide, so warm bookings do not go cold while you are running this weekend's event. The catering food safety and the liquor licensing stay with your certified team. The AI runs the enquiry pipeline, not the event.
The one that eats the week
What actually swamps a venue.
The long event-enquiry sales cycle that runs for weeks while you are busy running events. A couple or a corporate planner sends an enquiry, often on a weekend when you are mid-event, and the first venue to reply with the date, the capacity and a price usually wins the shortlist. Then comes the slow part: the proposal that needs chasing at day three, day ten and three weeks out, the site-visit booking, the date you are holding tentatively for two parties at once. Every un-answered enquiry and every un-chased proposal is a $10,000-plus booking leaking out because nobody is working the pipeline between events.
What you're doing now · What we'd ship instead
The before and after, in plain terms.
You, today
Wedding and corporate enquiries land while you're mid-event
The enquiry comes in on a Saturday when you are running this weekend's function. By the time you reply on Monday, the couple has booked the venue that answered in ten minutes.
Proposals go out and never get chased
You send the capacity-and-pricing pack, then it sits. A booking decision that takes a couple three weeks needs three follow-ups, and nobody between events has time to send them.
Slow first replies lose the shortlist
For a high-value event, the first venue to come back with the date, the capacity and a price usually makes the couple's shortlist. A reply that lands two days later rarely does.
Date-availability questions pile up unanswered
Is the 14th of March free, can you hold it, what's your capacity for 120. These land constantly, sit unanswered during events, and the planner moves to a venue that confirmed.
Qualifying eats hours you spend on the wrong enquiries
Half the enquiries are out of budget, out of capacity or for a date you cannot do. Sorting the real leads from the rest, by hand, between events, burns the time you needed for the live ones.
You look slow and hard to book
A high-value booking is a trust decision, and a venue that takes two days to reply reads as disorganised before the couple has even seen the room. The bigger venues have an events coordinator and it shows.
You, with us
Every enquiry answered in minutes, even mid-event
The AI replies the moment a wedding or corporate enquiry lands, in your venue's voice, with the date checked and the next step offered, so you make the shortlist while you are still running Saturday's function.
Every proposal followed up across the full sales cycle
The pack goes out, then a friendly nudge at day three, day ten and three weeks, in your tone, so the booking that takes weeks to decide does not go cold while it decides.
Enquiries qualified before they reach you
Date, headcount, budget, style and dietary count captured up front, so the leads that hit your desk are the ones worth your time and the out-of-scope ones are handled politely without burning your hours.
Date availability answered instantly
Is the 14th free, what's your capacity, can you hold it, answered against your calendar in seconds, day or night, so the planner gets the certainty they need to keep you on the list.
Site visits booked into your diary automatically
A qualified enquiry is offered a site visit and booked straight into your calendar, so the next step happens without a week of back-and-forth emails between events.
You read as the responsive, organised venue
Fast replies, consistent follow-up, a clear next step every time. The couple experiences a venue that has its act together before they have walked the room, because now the pipeline does.
A function venue lives or dies on the pipeline, not the night itself. The event you ran last Saturday was won months ago, in an enquiry inbox and a string of follow-up emails. The trouble is that the person best placed to work that pipeline, you, is also the person running this weekend’s event. So the wedding enquiries sit until Monday, the proposals go un-chased for weeks, and the dates you were holding slip to the venue that replied faster. None of it is an events problem. It is a nobody-is-working-the-pipeline-between-events problem, and it is exactly what AI is built to carry.
The fastest first reply makes the shortlist
Think about what a wedding enquiry actually is. A couple has set a rough date and a budget, they are emotionally invested, and they are messaging a handful of venues to find theirs. For a booking worth five figures, the venue that comes back first with the date, the capacity and a price almost always makes the shortlist. When that enquiry lands on a Saturday while you are mid-event and your reply goes out Monday, you are off the list before you have said a word, beaten by a venue that answered in ten minutes.
A lead-engine agent replies the moment the enquiry lands, in your venue’s voice. It captures the date, the headcount, the budget and the style, checks the date against your calendar, offers to pencil a tentative hold, and sends the capacity-and-pricing pack. You make the shortlist while you are still pouring sparkling for this weekend’s couple, and the qualified lead is sitting in your CRM when you next sit down.
The proposal that needs chasing for weeks
Past the first reply sits the slower, bigger leak: the proposal nobody follows up. A high-value booking decision takes weeks, and across those weeks it needs a nudge at day three, another at day ten, and one more around three weeks, plus a site visit booked and a tentative date managed. That is steady, patient work, and it is precisely the work that falls off the desk when you are running events back to back.
The AI runs the whole sequence on a schedule you set, in your tone, with an easy way for the couple to say where they are up to. Warm bookings stay warm across the long decision instead of quietly going cold. The booking you used to lose to silence is the one the follow-up keeps alive until the couple signs.
Where the line sits, and it does not move
This part is firm. A venue that feeds and serves guests carries two sets of obligations, and both belong to your certified people. Under the FSANZ Food Standards Code, including Standard 3.2.2A, your certified Food Safety Supervisor and trained food handlers own the catering and the allergen rules under Standard 1.2.3. If you serve alcohol, your state liquor licence and your RSA-certified staff and licensee own responsible service. The AI does none of it and must never appear to. It does not give food-safety, allergen, dietary or RSA advice, it never confirms a menu is safe for a guest’s allergy, and it never makes a liquor-service or intoxication call. The moment any of those questions comes up, it goes to a person. The agent qualifies enquiries and chases proposals underneath your certified team; it never steps over the line into the food or the bar.
The enquiry surge lands months before the event
The value tracks your booking lead time, not your event calendar. Wedding enquiries cluster around engagement season for events a year or more out, spring and autumn are the most-booked seasons, and the corporate and Christmas-function run spikes enquiries from mid-year. So the flood of leads arrives months ahead, exactly when your attention is on the events already in the diary. An always-on enquiry engine catches that surge and works it patiently for weeks, without an events coordinator you only need for the busy enquiry windows.
If you want the broader picture across food and drink, the AI for Australian cafes and restaurants guide covers the wider hospitality stack, and the hospitality overview maps where each piece fits. When you are ready, book a free 30-minute audit and Jenn will name the two or three agents worth building first for your venue, quoted fixed in AUD.
Concrete, not hand-wavy
What the AI actually does for a venue.
- Replies to every wedding and corporate enquiry within minutes, in your venue's voice, day, night and mid-event.
- Qualifies the enquiry up front: date, headcount, budget, event style and dietary count.
- Checks date availability against your calendar and offers to pencil a tentative hold for your approval.
- Sends the capacity-and-pricing pack and books the site visit straight into your diary.
- Follows up every proposal on a day-three, day-ten and three-week schedule across the long decision cycle.
- Escalates every allergen, dietary or alcohol-service question to a person, never answering it as a bot.
- Replies to Google reviews and wedding-directory enquiries to keep your profile fresh and your response time visible.
- Drafts the social post from last weekend's event, photo in, caption out, for your approval.
Where the line sits
A function venue that prepares or serves food is a food business under the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Food Standards Code, including Standard 3.2.2A, requiring a certified Food Safety Supervisor and trained food handlers, plus the Standard 1.2.3 allergen declaration rules. A venue serving alcohol also holds a liquor licence under its state or territory liquor Act and its staff must hold Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) certification. The AI touches none of this and must never appear to. It does not give food-safety, allergen, dietary or RSA advice, never confirms a menu is safe for a guest's allergy or intolerance, and never makes a liquor-service or intoxication call. Any allergen, dietary or alcohol-service question is escalated to a person, because confirming what is safe to eat is the job of your certified food safety supervisor, and responsible alcohol service is the job of your RSA-certified staff and licensee, not a bot. The AI qualifies the enquiry and chases the proposal; the certified humans own the food, the allergens and the bar.
The cost question, answered straight
What this runs for a venue.
A single wedding or corporate function booking is worth thousands, often well over $10,000. Recovering one booking a year that would otherwise have been lost to a slow first reply or an un-chased proposal pays the system back many times over. In practice a busy venue recovers far more than one, because the leak is constant and the fix runs every day without you touching it.
Where most function & event venues start
The packages we'd actually quote you on.
AI Lead Engine
Every enquiry triaged, qualified and replied to in your voice, in under 5 minutes, even at 11pm on a Sunday.
The flagship for a venue. Qualifies every enquiry and chases every proposal across the long event-booking sales cycle so warm bookings do not go cold.
$2,000 AUD setup + $499 AUD/month
Read the brief →
AI Front Desk
An always-on receptionist for service businesses, answers enquiries after 5pm, books appointments, sends reminders, escalates the tricky ones.
Replies to enquiries and date-availability questions in minutes, even when you are mid-event, so you make the shortlist.
$1,500 AUD setup + $199 AUD/month
Read the brief →
AI Content Engine
A content production line in your brand voice, Instagram, LinkedIn, blog, newsletter, drafted, scheduled, and refined from what actually performs.
Turns last weekend's wedding or function into an on-brand Instagram and Facebook post. Photo in, caption out, you approve.
$1,500 AUD setup + $499 AUD/month
Read the brief →
The short version
- The killer workflow for a function venue is the long event-enquiry sales cycle: the fastest first reply makes the shortlist, and every proposal needs chasing for weeks while you run events.
- AI qualifies every enquiry, checks the date, sends the pack and follows up the proposal across the whole decision cycle, so $10,000-plus bookings do not leak out.
- A venue that serves food and alcohol carries FSANZ food-safety obligations (Standard 3.2.2A) and a state liquor licence with RSA; the AI never gives food-safety, dietary or RSA advice and escalates every such question to a person.
- A single recovered wedding or corporate booking a year pays the system back many times over; a busy venue recovers far more, because the leak runs every day.
Real questions function & event venues ask
Before-you-book questions.
Will the AI confirm a menu is safe for a guest's allergy, or make a liquor-service call?
No, and that is deliberate. Confirming whether a menu is safe for an allergy or dietary need is the job of your certified food safety supervisor, and responsible alcohol service is the job of your RSA-certified staff and licensee. The AI captures the dietary count and any alcohol question and escalates it to a person. It never confirms a menu is allergen-safe, never gives dietary or RSA advice, and never makes an intoxication or service call. The food, the allergens and the bar stay entirely with your certified team.
Does it work with my event CRM (iVvy, Event Temple, Tripleseat, HoneyBook)?
Yes. We build around the event CRM and proposal tool you already run. The AI logs the enquiry, writes the qualifying details where you expect them, triggers your proposal pack, and runs the follow-up sequence against your pipeline. We do not migrate you off iVvy or Event Temple, we add the fast-reply and follow-up layer on top of it.
How does it handle the long booking cycle without nagging the couple?
It follows a schedule you set, a friendly check-in at day three, day ten and around three weeks, each in your venue's voice, with an easy way for the couple to say where they are at. The point is to stay warm and helpful across the weeks a high-value decision takes, not to pester. You control the timing, the tone and when a human takes over the conversation.
Will it sound like a robot to couples planning their wedding?
It is tuned to your venue, your packages, your style and your tone, so it reads like your events team rather than a generic bot, which matters more for a wedding than almost any other booking. Most venues run it in shadow mode for a week first, where you see exactly what it would have sent before it goes live, and any conversation can be handed to a person the moment it gets serious.
I'm a small single-venue operation. Is this overkill?
It is the opposite. A small venue is where the owner is running this weekend's event and cannot also be replying to next year's enquiries in minutes or chasing proposals for weeks. The system is what lets a single venue compete with the bigger places that have a full-time events coordinator, by never letting a high-value enquiry sit or a proposal go cold. It is the cheapest way to run the pipeline like a larger venue.
We build this Australia-wide
Every agent we ship is remote-first, so we work with function & event venues across the country. AI consultants in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Gold Coast, Newcastle , or anywhere in Australia.
If you run a venue business, book the 30-minute audit.
Jenn maps your business live on the call, names the two or three highest-ROI agents we'd build for a venue, and quotes them fixed in AUD on the spot. No deck. No pitch theatre. No obligation.
Or email Jenn directly: jenn@onautopilot.com.au, reply within 1 business day, AEST.