CUSTOMER STORY
She teaches all day.
The hall books itself.
Jean Stout runs Goose Hall Event Center, an event space in Findlay, Ohio, a single-room event center that hosts baby showers, birthday parties and quinceañeras most weekends of the year. She is a schoolteacher by day. She describes herself as a pencil and paper person. And for about a year, her bookings have come in through Check Cherry, most of them placed by the renters themselves. The ones that arrive while she is standing in front of a classroom wait for her until she gets home.
It started with her son's building
Her son bought the building. She wanted the empty unit.
"My son bought the strip mall. So I talked him into letting me do the little space, and we fought about it at first, and then I won, and it's been good ever since."
It was not a straight line. She started the hall, decided she was done with it, and stepped away. Then the other tenants in the building, a chiropractor, a shoe store, started asking for the days at the hall her son had promised them.
"He was begging me. Oh, mom, we need this."
So she came back. The name, Goose Hall, is one she calls silly. It works. People in Findlay ask what Goose Hall is, and they remember it.
What they book is not weddings. It is a lot of baby showers. Birthday parties, family reunions, quinceañeras. The day we spoke, the hall was hosting a party for a newly adopted child. Renters set up themselves and clean up themselves, which means the thing they want most from the hall is a simple way to get it.
Two tools that were not built for a hall
Before Check Cherry she tried twice. Both times the support was excellent. One was expensive. The other was built for a different business.
"They had excellent support, but it totally wasn't what I was doing. I don't have that bulkiness. I'm not renting out a lot of items, and they kept trying to turn the venue into that thing I'm renting. It just wasn't in my lane."
A hall is not an inventory business. There is one room, a calendar, a rate, and a handful of extras. Software built for companies that rent out inventory asks a one-room hall to describe itself in terms that do not fit. She needed packages, add-ons and a calendar that renters could book from on their own.
"I'm the old type. I like pencil and paper. But this has just been so perfect."
One package per day of the week
A renter picks the day, and the hall is priced by the hour. She could charge more for Saturdays. She has decided not to, and could change it in a second.
Add-ons she enjoys inventing
The candy bar is hers. Each one is a little more revenue from a booking that is capped by the hours in a day.
Renters book themselves
They pick the date, sign, and pay from the booking page. She reviews it in the evening.
Support one click away
Her words: nine times out of ten we answer right away, and when we cannot, she scrolls back through the old chats and finds the answer herself.
Four or five calls a day
At first she booked people herself. Then the phone did not stop.
"At first, it was just a few bookings, and then I was getting four or five calls a day. I would try to help people book, I would go on and book from my end, and I'm like, no, I'm just gonna ask them to start booking themselves."
That is the moment every small venue hits, and it is where the hall either becomes a second job or does not. She handed the booking page to her renters and held her breath.
"I'm like, boy, I hope Check Cherry's got this, because I sure don't. I couldn't write it down, I couldn't keep up with it. And Check Cherry had it."
Weekends at Goose Hall are now fully booked. Weekdays are the next project. She is looking at an LED screen so local businesses can hold trainings and seminars in the hall during the week. And her son bought a second building, so she expects to be running two halls before long. Her words on the call were "get ready, Check Cherry, because I'm in trouble."
One small thing from the week before we spoke says a lot about the day to day. A renter texted her wanting to change a booking, and she could not place the name. She had the phone number. She typed the last four digits into the search box. Every ounce of her, she said, expected it not to work.
"Oh my gosh, it brought it right straight up. This was one of the easiest problems I've solved, but I didn't solve it. Check Cherry just existed."
"It'll take a booking right there during the day, and I go home and look at it in the evening. It's like, okay, it all worked. White-knuckle ride, is this gonna work? Yeah, it does, over and over again."
Jean Stout
Owner, Goose Hall Event Center
Expert at the little parts
She knows there are features she is not using yet. That is on purpose.
"There are features on there that I know exist, and I dabble with them a little bit. I'm not quite ready to go there. I'm trying to become an expert at just the little parts."
She started with packages, add-ons and a booking page, got comfortable, and keeps tweaking. Her next experiment is putting her grandson on the account as staff so she can hand him the dance floor setup.
Other software companies keep calling.
"I'm pretty happy where I'm at, and I'm not gonna change. I'm gonna let you guys see me through. Why bounce around at this point?"
Is this your venue?
Goose Hall is a good match for the setup if these sound like you.
One room, rented by the hour
A hall, a calendar, a rate, and a few add-ons. Renters bring their own decorations, set up and clean up. No inventory to track.
You have another job
Renters pick the date, sign and pay on the booking page without you. You look it over when you get home.
You want it simple
Jean's test is the honest one. If she can get it, anybody can. Packages, add-ons and a booking page, nothing technical to run.
About Goose Hall Event Center
Goose Hall is a rental hall for showers, birthdays, reunions and celebrations in Findlay, Ohio, owned and run by Jean Stout. Renters bring their own decorations, set up, and clean up, and book the hall by the hour on the day they want.
goosehallgold.comStart the way Jean did
Put your hall online with a package for each day, a few add-ons, and a booking page your renters can use without you.