Many will attest that wedding hall-hunting could be a bigger challenge than finding that perfect groom or bride. All those endless hours of driving around the city to book a hall in a specific locality or within a budget will hopefully come to an end if Pradhyumna Venkat’s website, >www.chennaihalls.in , delivers what it claims it would — make hall-hunting hassle-free.
Like all real-world problems, here too, it was the supply not meeting the demand.
“We wanted to build a platform where people looking for halls for a wedding or a seemandham can connect with hall owners in the city, which is done mostly offline today. We hope to change that with technology,” says Pradhyumna Venkat, CEO, Caladium Systems.
“I had a tough time finding a proper hall myself when I wanted to celebrate my son’s birthday,” he says of the website that went online this June.
Different categories
The website looks very basic with halls slotted according to the kind of social gatherings that can be organised. “They are categorised according to the type of celebrations (weddings, seemandhams , birthday parties etc) and the price,” he says.
If you want a hall to celebrate a birthday, browse through the available halls listed under ‘Birthday Party Halls’, take your pick, make an advanced payment and a reservation. Finer details can then be thrashed offline after taking a trip to the hall. This is a tricky business to be in primarily because the customers are usually sentimental about certain things. They want to see the rooms and halls just to be sure their loved one’s wedding doesn’t run into problems. “For those who like personal assistance, we have venue consultants who can find out requirements and suggest a hall within 60 minutes,” he promises.
Making it easy
The intention is to make hall-hunting as easy as booking a movie ticket. “Real-time availability of halls is accessible on our website,” he says. Was it difficult to get property owners on board considering there is always resistance to adopt technology? “There is some resistance, but then they realise they need business on non- muhurtham days. Once they understand that we can help give them business, they willingly come on board,” he says.
The options for both customers and hall-owners are aplenty. “We helped a parent celebrate his kid’s birthday in a big wedding hall where he could bring in massive inflatable sliders for kids to play. No hotel banquet halls could give him that kind of a place, but we could get a hall for 20 per cent of what they usually charge for a wedding,” he says.
