About the Venue

Holy Trinity is an Anglican Church rooted in an inclusive Catholic tradition. The parish community embraces this spirit of inclusivity with their welcoming message: ‘Whoever you are, wherever you come from — you are welcome here.’ The church community is proud of its welcoming environment which brings the local community together.

The church is rich in history, with a presence on this site spanning over 1,000 years. Its long history, possibly dates back to a pre-Christian site, with its first known dedication to St. Andrew. The current church, largely rebuilt in the 19th century, has seen multiple expansions to accommodate a growing parish. It played a significant role in the Oxford Movement and has historic links to key figures like Dr. Pusey. Today, Holy Trinity continues its Anglo-Catholic mission, embracing social outreach and welcoming all, inspired by figures such as John Frost, the Newport Chartist buried in its churchyard.

As well as the church main building, there are three spaces available for hire by the local community. These versatile spaces (the Hall, the Helliwell Room and the Blancharde Room) are perfect to host everything from a birthday party to a performance to a creative workshop, language course or wellness class.

The Hall at Holy Trinity is the largest space available for hire, making it ideal for a variety of events. Its standout feature is a beautiful sprung wooden floor, perfect for dancing. Adding to its charm, the Hall offers direct access to a well-maintained, child-friendly garden, creating a delightful indoor-outdoor experience. One off booker, Bernadette says,

“It is a lovely big hall - great floor - warm in winter - good administration”.

Holy Trinity has a proud tradition of being a special place to bring people together for life events and regular activities.

Regular booker, Peter, says,

“I've been lucky enough to use the Helliwell Room to rehearse several shows. It's an ideal and versatile space with terrific natural light and varied electric lighting. I look forward to coming back again in the near future.”

The Blancharde Room is the smallest meeting room and was refurbished in 2024. It offers a bright, quiet space perfect for small or one- to one meetings.

One Sharesy booker, Helen, had this to say about the Blancharde Room:

The Challenge

When Holy Trinity Church came to Sharesy, the venue had previously been hiring out spaces, but the lettings process was cumbersome and time-consuming. Caroline Plaice, the Church Warden and Parish Safeguarding Officer, noted that while it was difficult to estimate the exact time spent on securing bookings, the process consistently took far longer than anticipated and became highly time-intensive. Caroline felt her time would be better spent building relationships with the people attending the church and thinking about the lettings strategy, rather than managing all of the lettings admin.

Holy Trinity was already generating income through their lettings, but the team identified several areas where they saw room for improvement.

Cumbersome Booking Process: In her experience  with the booking process, Caroline found that there was a lack of clarity around exact timings and spaces required and there were a lot of back and forth emails and telephone conversations. 

Time Management: The booking process often required several days of administrative work, communication, and processing. Caroline explained, "It could take several days from the initial contact to receiving payment and sharing the relevant information with the booker.”

Securing Bookings: Due to the nature of the booking process, slow response times to inquiries potentially led to lost income. In today's fast-paced environment, there was a risk of losing potential bookers who chose to go elsewhere.

The Solution

Caroline first heard about Sharesy through an email she received from the Diocese of Bristol announcing a partnership with Sharesy. The partnership was established to help ease the administrative burden associated with renting out the spaces in parishes and schools in Bristol and the surrounding area. 

One of the key aspects of the partnership that appealed to the team at Holy Trinity was Sharesy's commitment to enabling local people and businesses to book the space with minimal administrative effort, while also increasing the income generated from lettings.

The key reasons Holy Trinity chose to partner with Sharesy were:

• Reducing the administrative burden on volunteers at the church
• Providing accurate insights into income generation
• Streamlining the booking process for users
• Expanding the visibility and marketing of their spaces

Caroline's first impression of the Sharesy team was that they were passionate and dedicated to supporting community spaces. 'We also felt confident in an "Airbnb-style" system, which many people are already familiar with. 

The proposal was then presented to the Parochial Church Council (PCC) with a recommendation to proceed, which was approved.

"We appreciated Sharesy's mission to help people book local venues and reinvest money into their communities. It aligned well with our own goal of supporting local projects,' Caroline added."

Holy Trinity joined Sharesy in September 2024 and went live on the platform in November 2024. With Sharesy's support, the church successfully addressed the core challenges they had previously faced with bookings.

Streamlined Booking Process: Sharesy's automated systems proved to be highly successful, enabling quick responses to inquiries and simplifying the overall booking process. The system significantly boosted efficiency while still maintaining the human touch, with passionate and responsive team members available to assist when needed.

Time Saving: Joining Sharesy has allowed the church to redefine its relationship with regular bookers, streamlining the booking process from blocking the calendar and rescheduling bookings to invoicing. This new system is helping to strengthen relationships with regular bookers, while securing steady income for the future.

Complete Control: While entrusting others with the booking process can seem inefficient, Caroline found that Sharesy allowed Holy Trinity complete control over the bookings. 'It’s reassuring to have the final say on individual bookings, which only takes 30 seconds to approve.' Several legacy bookers transitioned to Sharesy, and Caroline praised Jack for handling the complexities of the process with patience and grace, ensuring everything was set up correctly.

Bringing in new one off bookers: Holy Trinity has noticed an increase in their one-off bookings, with some bookers even booking a year in advance! A wonderful benefit of raising the profile of Holy Trinity is that the team there has been able to nurture new relationships with new people coming to look at their wonderful spaces.

Planning for the Future

Since joining Sharesy,  Holy Trinity have seen bookings increase, and are planning to put any additional income to good use by identifying improved hospitality facilities in the church, where a Warm Welcome is run from October – March each year, and a Welcome Pantry throughout the year. 

These community projects offer a lifeline to people in the community who need it the most.

“We have welcomed a total of eight guests from Ukraine since war broke out in 2022 into our local church house”.

They have even been able to put a focus into re-designing their former parish office to be an additional hireable space. 

Holy Trinity’s Top Tips on Joining Sharesy:

1. Prepare Thoroughly: Schedule as many online meetings as needed (with agreed agendas) to ensure Sharesy understands the unique aspects of your bookings (every church has them!). Send sample data to discuss in detail.

2. Engage the PCC Early: Take the proposal to your PCC and keep them updated on the process over subsequent meetings. This will allow them to respond to any inquiries from hirers. Demonstrate Sharesy at a meeting early on.
   
   
3. Communicate with Regular Hirers: Once you have approval from your PCC, inform your regular hirers about the upcoming changes, including upfront payments and the new computer system for bookings.
   
   
4. Tailor Communication Preferences: Discuss how your regular bookers prefer to be contacted. We found that some preferred different email addresses to be used, so it's worth refreshing those details ahead of time.
   
   
5. Help Regular Bookers Transition: Prompt your regular bookers that their bookings will be transferred by Sharesy and encourage them to engage in the process to ensure a smooth transition.
   
   
6. Review Billing Arrangements: Ask your regular bookers if they want to change their billing arrangements. ‘I didn’t do this and regretted it, as most preferred monthly payments over termly payments, especially with the new upfront system’.
   
   
7. Invest in Quality Photos: Get someone skilled in photography (with the right equipment) to take high-quality photos for the website. It makes a big difference, and we’re considering hiring a professional to revise the existing ones.
   
   
8. Reevaluate Your Charges: Take the opportunity to review and update your pricing. It makes sense to do this at the same time, and you have a bit of a ‘buffer’ with Sharesy incase there are difficult conversations to be had with hirers
   
   
9. Consider Timings: Think about the timing of your hires. We had several back-to-back bookings, which wasn’t ideal. We compromised by keeping regular bookers at the same time, but now we ensure new bookings have a gap in between.
   
   
10. Hold a Debrief: Plan a debrief meeting a week or so after going live to address any issues. Holy Trinity have also planned a regular meeting for the first few months.
    
    

Caroline’s final thought,

“Working with Sharesy has been brilliant,and allowed Holy Trinity to really engage with the wider community by opening up our space to a much wider constituency. People who have never heard of Holy Trinity, or the hireable spaces on offer, have found us through the analytics Sharesy use to make our spaces prominent when searching the internet.  In terms of process, I definitely think having a dedicated ‘on boarder’ is essential at the beginning. I asked for one person to work with during the switch-over, and Claudia was outstanding. Holy Trinity look forward to developing the partnership with Sharesy further.”