Make a blank booking-confirmation and key message that carries your own house rules
Every booking needs the same practical message: the date and time including set-up and clear-away, how the key is collected and returned, the hire conditions and the house rules. Committees write these rules once and then retype the message each time. A blank template built from your own rules saves retyping and avoids missing one. The AI builds the empty template only: your booking secretary fills each message by hand, so no hirer name, address, phone number or event detail is ever pasted into the AI tool.
Steps
- List the facts every confirmation needs, from your own rules: how the booking is confirmed, the hire period including set-up and clear-away, key collection and return, deposit and how it is returned, payment dates, a short list of house rules (parking, noise, leaving the hall clean, fire exits clear), and who to contact.
- Paste the facts into the prompt. The AI returns an empty message with placeholders only: [HIRER NAME], [DATE], [START TIME], [END TIME], [EVENT TYPE], [KEY ARRANGEMENT], [CONTACT]. It adds no promotion and no new rule.
- Fill each message by hand outside the AI tool. Do not paste a booking request or any hirer detail into it.
- Check the template against your approved conditions of hire, and attach the approved conditions rather than summarising them.
- Review the template whenever the committee changes a rule, a charge or the key arrangement.
The exact prompt
I am a volunteer booking secretary for a village hall in the UK. Below are the hall's own facts and house rules that every booking confirmation must carry. Task: write an empty booking-confirmation message template for the booking secretary to fill in by hand. Use ONLY these placeholders for personal or booking details: [HIRER NAME], [DATE], [START TIME], [END TIME], [EVENT TYPE], [KEY ARRANGEMENT], [CONTACT]. Put my facts and house rules into short numbered points in a neutral, friendly tone. Do not add rules, reassurance, promotional lines, legal wording or claims about safety or licensing. If something is unclear, write [FOR THE COMMITTEE TO DECIDE]. RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my hall committee's own rules, headings, dates and anonymised notes. I have not included, and will not include, any name, address, phone number, email, date of birth or other detail about any hirer, member, child, volunteer or trustee. Do not ask for any, and do not invent any: use the blanks and roles I give you, such as [HIRER], [GROUP], [TRUSTEE A], [CHAIR] and [TREASURER]. Do not give legal, safeguarding, safety, licensing, tax or charity-law advice, and do not say whether anything is lawful, fair, safe, adequate or compliant. Do not do arithmetic or count dates: leave every figure and date exactly as I typed it. If something is unclear, write [FOR THE COMMITTEE TO DECIDE] instead of guessing. OUR FACTS AND HOUSE RULES: [PASTE THEM]
✓ Check before you send
- Every fact and rule in the template is in your approved conditions of hire, with nothing added.
- The template contains only the placeholders listed and no real hirer details.
- The approved conditions of hire are attached to the message, not paraphrased.
- Messages are filled in by hand and no booking or hirer detail was pasted into the AI tool.
- The template is reviewed when a rule, charge or key arrangement changes.
UK notes extra
- A confirmation to someone who has booked is not marketing, but a promotional email or text needs a lawful basis under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (UK). Do not add offers to a confirmation. ICO: electronic mail marketing (PECR, UK; the ICO says this page is under review after the Data (Use and Access) Act).
- Hirers' names, phone numbers and event details are personal data (UK GDPR): keep them out of AI tools. ICO: guidance on AI and data protection (UK).
- A hirer who plans alcohol, music or food may need licences of their own; the template can point to your approved conditions but cannot say whether a licence is needed. See the licence and music jobs for the official bodies.
- Timberscombe's policy (online bookers tick to accept conditions, others sign and return an agreement) and Polruan's key rule are two halls' own arrangements, not requirements. Timberscombe village hall hiring policy, file name dated May 2025 (a hall committee's own document). Polruan hall Conditions of Hire 2025 (a hall committee's own document).