Didcot Town Council serves the local community in Oxfordshire, managing a range of public spaces, community facilities and leisure venues that support residents’ health, wellbeing and day-to-day activities. With a focus on making these spaces accessible and valuable to the community, the council plays an important role in helping local people engage with sport, leisure and community life.
Having joined Bookteq in November 2021, Didcot Town Council has used the platform to modernise its bookings process and make it easier for residents to access its facilities. This case study looks at how the council has used Bookteq to support community access, improve the day-to-day management of bookings and make better use of its venues.
The challenge
For town councils, community facilities play an important role in local life—but they also need to deliver value financially. Spaces such as halls, sports facilities and community venues have the potential to generate meaningful revenue, but without an efficient booking process and strong visibility to local users, that opportunity can be difficult to maximise.
Managing bookings manually can also make it harder to keep facilities busy. Staff may spend valuable time handling enquiries, checking availability, arranging payments and coordinating repeat bookings, while customers face a slower booking experience than they increasingly expect. For councils and community centres, balancing limited resources with the need to make the most of public assets, this can create a real challenge: how to increase income from community facilities without adding more pressure to day-to-day operations. Didcot Town Council needed a more effective way to manage its bookings, improve access to its venues and generate stronger, more consistent revenue from its community spaces.
Managing access to community facilities can be just as challenging as managing the bookings themselves. Many bookings take place during evenings and weekends, often requiring council staff to be on-site to unlock buildings before sessions begin and return later to secure them once users have left. This not only creates additional staffing costs but also places unnecessary demands on staff outside of normal working hours, making it difficult to operate facilities as efficiently as possible.
The solution
To help improve the way its community facilities were managed, Didcot Town Council implemented Bookteq. The platform provides a centralised online booking system that allows customers to view live availability, make bookings and complete payments through a simple self-service portal, reducing the need for manual administration and making venues easier to access.
By moving the booking journey online, the council has been able to simplify many of the tasks involved in managing community lettings, from handling enquiries and checking availability to processing payments and managing repeat bookings. This has helped reduce the day-to-day pressure on staff while creating a faster, more convenient booking experience for residents, clubs and community groups.
In turn, Didcot Town Council has been better placed to maximise the use of its facilities, improve access to community spaces and generate more value from the venues it manages. With a more efficient booking process in place, the council has created a stronger foundation for increasing utilisation, growing revenue and supporting a healthier, more active local community.
To remove this operational burden, Didcot Town Council implemented Access Control, Bookteq’s smart access control solution. Access Control automatically grants access to authorised users at the start of their booking and secures the facility once the booking has ended, eliminating the need for staff to manually unlock and lock venues.
By automating access around every booking, the council has reduced the need for staff to attend sites outside of normal working hours, while ensuring facilities remain secure and accessible only to authorised users. This has created a more efficient, reliable and scalable way to manage community facilities alongside the Bookteq booking platform.
The results
1. Increase venue utilisation by 165%
One of the clearest outcomes of Didcot Town Council’s partnership with Bookteq has been the steady increase in venue utilisation over time. Since joining the platform in November 2021, the council has seen utilisation rise year after year—from 18.83% in its first year, to 35.73%, then 45.17%, and most recently 49.95%.
This consistent upward trend reflects the impact of making community facilities easier to access, easier to book and easier to manage. By providing a more convenient booking experience for local users and supporting the council in promoting and managing its venues more effectively, Bookteq has helped Didcot Town Council make significantly better use of its community spaces.
For a council managing public facilities, higher utilisation means more than fuller calendars—it means stronger community engagement, better use of valuable local assets and greater potential to generate sustainable income from spaces that might otherwise be underused.
2. Increased revenue by 143%
Alongside the growth in utilisation, Didcot Town Council has also seen strong revenue growth from its community facilities since implementing Bookteq. In its first year on the platform, the council generated £46,555.07 in revenue. That rose to £96,763.91 in the following year, before reaching £113,389.68 in the most recent full-year period.
While year-on-year demand can naturally fluctuate, the overall trend is clear: Didcot Town Council has significantly increased the income generated from its facilities since joining Bookteq. By making venues easier to access and supporting a more efficient booking journey, the council has been able to unlock greater commercial value from its community spaces while continuing to serve local residents.
For a town council managing public assets, this kind of revenue growth is particularly valuable. It helps ensure facilities are not only well used, but also able to generate meaningful income that can be reinvested into the upkeep, improvement and long-term sustainability of community spaces.
3. Supporting a Healthier, More Active Community
For town councils, community facilities play an important role in supporting the health and wellbeing of local residents. Since implementing Bookteq, Didcot Town Council has made it easier for people to access its venues, helping more residents, clubs and community groups take part in regular sport, exercise and community activity.
By giving customers a simple way to view availability, book spaces and make payments online, the council has reduced barriers to accessing local facilities. This has made it easier for people to organise regular sessions, from sports bookings and fitness activities to wider community use, helping ensure local spaces are used more consistently and by a broader range of residents.
As utilisation has increased over time, so too has the role these venues play in everyday community life. Rather than simply acting as bookable spaces, Didcot Town Council’s facilities are helping to create more opportunities for local people to stay active, connect with others and make use of the community assets available to them.
To wrap up
Since partnering with Bookteq in November 2021, Didcot Town Council has made meaningful progress in the way it manages and maximises its community facilities. By making venues easier to book and more accessible to local residents, the council has increased utilisation, grown revenue and strengthened the role its spaces play in supporting community activity.
The results show the wider value of a more efficient bookings operation. Higher utilisation and stronger revenue have helped the council generate more from its public assets, while improved access to facilities has created more opportunities for residents to stay active, take part in local activities and make greater use of the spaces available to them. Together, these outcomes have helped Didcot Town Council build a more sustainable, accessible and community-focused lettings operation.
Ready to Transform Your Community Centre Lettings?
If your community facilities are still being managed through emails, phone calls or manual processes, there’s a better way to make them easier to book, easier to manage and more valuable to the people who use them.
Bookteq helps councils and community venue operators simplify bookings, payments and customer management through a user-friendly self-service platform, reducing administrative pressure while increasing utilisation and making facilities more accessible to local residents. Whether you’re looking to generate more revenue, support a healthier and more active community, or make better use of your public spaces, Bookteq can help.
Book a free demo with our team today and discover how Bookteq can help you unlock more value from your community facilities.
