Alternative and DIY event venues are all the rage nowadays when it comes to booking venues online as more and more Malaysians plan ahead to organise personalised events instead of the more traditional “been there, done that” venues.
Popular Malaysian instant event venue and services portal startup, VMO Rocks Sdn Bhd saw a staggering booking growth of 435% year-on-year from 2015 until 2016 on their booking portal vmo.rocks. In addition, they are already estimating a double growth digit for 2017.
“The venue booking landscape is changing rapidly with consumers planning almost a year ahead of time. Some customers have even paid in advance, especially for popular venues,” said Vincent Kok, Chief Eventgelist of VMO Rocks Sdn Bhd when announcing their latest growth figures since going live in 2015.
According to Kok, at the end of December 2016, VMO received RM39 million in inquiry value compared to RM9.5 million in 2015. The value of bookings also increased from RM223,000 in 2015 to RM1.19 million in 2016, a growth of more than five times.
As of 30 June 2017, VMO’s total number of bookings is already 2.2 times more than bookings made in the first half of 2016, giving VMO a competitive edge in the online event venue and services booking industry in the country and perhaps in the region.
VMO’s figures also show that restaurants are getting the bulk of the online booking revenue at 64%, followed by pubs at 17%, event spaces at 9% and cafes at 7%.
“Consumers today are serious about making online bookings and getting instant confirmation on the ‘newest’, ‘hipster’ and ‘instagrammable’ spaces in town,” said Kok. “The hottest trend in the country currently, however, is booking ‘blank spaces’, where customers decorate and fill up a completely empty venue space by themselves.”
While one may say that booking ahead is quite a common practice, especially for weddings given that this industry is vastly popular and very demanding, but the fact that many consumers are opting to book venue spaces online, receiving instant confirmation for dates and the menu as well as getting spoilt for choices from a range of different services available, such as florist, bands, photography, catering services and many more, simply at your fingertips, is surely a new phenomenon.
“They want the ‘WOW’ factor! They want things fast! They want to curate their very own unique event with their selected venue, creativity and flexibility,” said Kok. “It is in line with this that VMO now celebrates its new tagline, ‘Celebrating Creatively’!”
VMO’s recent success in raising half a million Ringgit in an equity crowdfunding campaign to further advance its business has seen an increase in listings to 1,000 establishments, and has already made its way to the shores of Sabah and Johor.