Professional Marquee Quotes That Win More Business

How South Coast Marquees Went from Manual Chaos to Winning More Work

South Coast Marquees has been in the marquee hire business for over 20 years. Based in Lymington, Hampshire, Becki and her husband AJ run a team specialising in king poles, Celeste pole tents, and stretch tents for larger weddings and events. Two decades of experience. A solid reputation. And a quoting process that was quietly costing them business.

The Problem: Manual Quoting Could Not Keep Up

Before GoodEvent Business, South Coast Marquees ran on 100% manual processes. Every quote built from a template, typed out, and sent by hand. Every invoice the same. Stock availability checked by glancing at a diary on the desk.

Becki and AJ were also running a second business - a glamping operation - at the same time. Enquiries were coming in. Time was not.

In Becki's words: "Before GoodEvent, we were fully 100% manual - creating quotes, templates, and sending them out manually. As you can imagine, that was just a nightmare. We were losing business because we could not keep on top of the enquiries. We did not know what kit we had left available - it was always a guesstimate by glancing at a diary on the side of the desk."

The decision was clear. To grow, something had to change.

What Changed: GoodEvent Business

Professional Quotes, Sent Fast

The biggest shift came in how South Coast Marquees builds and sends quotes. With GoodEvent Business, Becki can start from a pre-built sample quote, adjust it for the specific enquiry, and send it - with images, plans, and pricing all in one client-facing view. No more typing from scratch. No more attaching PDFs and hoping the client opens the right file.

Clients see everything in one place. They can share the quote with a partner or family member through the portal. The presentation is clean, visual, and far ahead of what a typed Word document could ever deliver.

When South Coast Marquees first started using GoodEvent Business, clients noticed immediately. As Becki recalls: "Originally, we were getting quite a few comments from clients saying, 'This looks great,' and that it was way more advanced than anything else they had received."

Real-Time Stock - No More Guessing

One of the features Becki relies on most is component-level stock availability tracking. For a marquee hire company, this goes deeper than just knowing whether a table is free. It tracks whether the individual parts of a build are available.

Take an oak barrel bar. It is made up of barrels and planks. If the barrels are already booked for another event, the system flags that the bar cannot go out. That kind of intelligence prevents double-bookings that a diary or spreadsheet would never catch.

The cross-hire feature adds another layer - tracking equipment borrowed from or lent to other companies, keeping stock accuracy clean across every source.

Load Lists and Staff Information

With automated load lists, the team in the field always has the right information. Jobs update in real time. Staff do not need to call the office to find out what is on the lorry or what has changed. As Becki puts it: "As an employer, we have been able to be more organised and professional, giving staff the accurate information they need to deliver a job - which has saved time and reduced the amount of forgotten kit and errors on loading for jobs."

For a business running large-scale weddings where nothing can go wrong on the day, this matters.

The Result: More Quotes, More Bookings, Year-on-Year Growth

The numbers tell the story clearly. Since switching to GoodEvent Business, South Coast Marquees has grown its turnover every single year. The connection is direct.

In Becki's words: "Naturally, because of the volume of quotes I can now pump out, there has definitely been an increase in sales. As a company, year on year, we have grown, and our turnover has increased each year."

More quotes sent means more chances to win. Faster responses mean fewer enquiries lost to a quicker competitor. A more professional presentation means clients have greater confidence before they even pick up the phone.

Becki is clear about why industry-specific matters: "I am sure people have other stock control systems, but the way GoodEvent has built this specifically for the marquee hire industry makes a difference. They have really thought about the little things that help with the day-to-day running of a marquee business - things that other rental software will not have."

Try It Yourself

If you are still building quotes by hand, or relying on a diary to track stock, South Coast Marquees know exactly where you are. GoodEvent Business is built for marquee hire companies - from component-level stock rules to visual client quotes to real-time load lists. Start a free trial and send your first quote today.

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Related Case Studies and Resources

See how other marquee hire companies have used GoodEvent Business to save time and grow:

• North Down Marquees: Stock Tracking and Faster Quoting - how remote stock visibility helped them say yes to more jobs
• TL Marquee Hire: 10x More Time to Grow the Business - how delegation and digital tools freed up the owner
• GoodEvent Business - the full quoting, stock, and operations tool
• Marquee Hire Software - built for the UK marquee industry