Banquet software manages events that happen in your function space: it checks room availability, sends proposals and contracts, produces the banquet event order (BEO), gets the kitchen and service team what they need, and bills the event afterwards. For a hotel it is the "sales and catering" system next to the property management system. For an event venue, a caterer with its own rooms or a restaurant with private dining, it is usually the main operating system for events.
This guide explains what banquet management software does, what each type of business needs from it, which functions matter, how 10 vendors compare, what it costs and how to choose. Univents is one of the ten and gets the same treatment as the others.
Key takeaways
- Banquet software is not a PMS and not a POS. The PMS manages guest rooms, the POS runs outlets; banquet software manages function space, BEOs and event billing.
- Three market segments: hotel sales-and-catering suites (Amadeus Delphi, Oracle OPERA Sales and Event Management), venue and event platforms (Momentus, iVvy, Event Temple, Tripleseat) and all-in-one systems for venues and caterers (Univents, Caterease, Planning Pod, Perfect Venue).
- The BEO is the core. Every serious tool generates it; the difference is whether it updates itself when the booking changes and whether it feeds kitchen production and staffing.
- Kitchen and staff are the gap. Most sales-led banquet tools stop at the BEO. Production lists, shift scheduling and time tracking are native in only a few systems.
- Costs: published SMB pricing runs from about $59 to $299 a month; hotel and enterprise platforms are quoted per property.
What banquet software is, and what it isn't
Banquet management software (also called banquet booking software, BEO software or sales and catering software) covers the event lifecycle in your function space:
- Sales: inquiries, availability, holds, proposals, contracts, deposits
- Operations: BEOs, room setup and floor plans, kitchen and production, staffing, run sheets
- Billing: final invoice with guarantees, add-ons, service charges and payments
It is different from three neighbors. A property management system handles guest rooms, check-in and folios; group room blocks may be linked, but function space isn't its job. A POS handles restaurant and bar transactions. Conference and registration software handles attendees, tickets and badges. Banquet software sits between them and owns the function itself. If you want the step-by-step process first, read the hotel banquet planning guide.
Banquet software by business type
Hotels
Hotels need a function diary across all meeting rooms, group sales pipelines that tie function space to room blocks, BEOs for the weekly BEO meeting, and banquet checks for billing. Large and branded hotels usually run a sales-and-catering suite such as Amadeus Delphi or Oracle OPERA Sales and Event Management, integrated with the PMS. Independent and smaller hotels often find those suites heavy and look at venue platforms (iVvy, Event Temple, Tripleseat) or an all-in-one system that runs banquets and leaves guest rooms in the PMS.
Event venues
Wedding venues, event halls, museums and rooftop spaces sell dates and rooms. The core requirements are availability across rooms, holds and double-booking protection, fast proposals, deposits and a clean handoff to catering, whether that's in-house or a partner caterer. Floor plans and capacity per setup style matter here; the room capacity calculator helps you set realistic numbers per room.
Caterers with function space
Caterers running their own banquet rooms alongside off-premise events need both worlds: room availability like a venue, plus production lists, packing lists and staff scheduling across several events on the same day. This is where banquet tools built purely for sales fall short, and where caterers usually end up in a catering platform instead. The best catering software comparison covers that side.
Restaurants and private dining
Restaurants selling private dining rooms, group dinners and buyouts need a light setup: an inquiry form, a proposal with a set menu, a deposit, a BEO for the kitchen and a calendar that doesn't clash with regular reservations. Tripleseat and Perfect Venue are built for exactly this market.
Conference centers and large venues
Convention centers, arenas and university campuses run multi-day, multi-room events with exhibitors, many departments and high volumes. They need enterprise platforms with deep workflows, reporting and integrations. Momentus is the reference in this segment; iVvy also serves function centers and stadiums.
Core functions of banquet management software
1. Function diary and availability
A calendar of every room with holds, definite bookings and setup times. It should warn before double bookings and let one event span several rooms, for example a reception in the foyer and dinner in the ballroom.
2. Proposals, contracts and deposits
Menu and package selection, room rental and minimums, e-signature, and deposit collection by card. The faster a proposal leaves the building after a site visit, the higher the conversion.
3. BEOs
The banquet event order generated from the booking, with version numbers, quantities per menu item, setup, timing, AV, staffing and billing. The best systems update the BEO automatically when the booking changes and let you share the current version with everyone involved. What belongs on one is covered in our BEO guide, and the free BEO template gives you the structure if you are still working in documents.
4. Floor plans and room setup
Setup styles, table plans and seating charts attached to the event, so the setup crew doesn't work from a sketch on the back of the BEO.
5. Kitchen and production
Production and packing lists derived from the booked menu and guest count, ideally across all events of a day, with allergens flagged. Many banquet tools leave this to the chef's spreadsheet.
6. Staffing
Shifts per event for servers, bartenders, captains and kitchen, plus time tracking. With casual staff, a phone app to accept shifts saves hours of calls every week.
7. Billing and reporting
Final invoices with guarantee vs. actual count, add-ons recorded on the night, service charges, taxes and payments, plus reports on revenue by room, event type and period.
Banquet software comparison: 10 vendors
"Not documented" means we could not confirm the feature on the vendor's site or in our comparison research; it may exist.
| Software | Segment / best fit | Published pricing | BEOs | Floor plans | Kitchen / production | Staff scheduling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Univents | All-in-one for venues, caterers, agencies and hotel banqueting | €55/mo (Quotes); full platform €299/mo (€249 billed yearly) | Yes, generated from the booking | Yes (room and seating plans) | Yes (production and packing lists; kitchen display on Scale) | Yes, with staff app and time tracking |
| Amadeus Delphi | Hotel sales and catering (full-service, select-service, brands) | Not published | Yes, automated BEOs and banquet checks | Yes (Delphi Diagramming) | Not documented | Not documented |
| Oracle OPERA Sales and Event Management | Hotel sales and events within the OPERA suite | Not published | Yes | Not documented | Menus and catering packages; production not documented | Not documented |
| Momentus (incl. Priava) | Convention centers, arenas, campuses, large venues | Not published (sales-led) | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| iVvy | Hotels, function centers, stadiums | Around $150/mo (event module), publicly cited | Yes, version-controlled | Not documented | No | No |
| Tripleseat | Restaurants, hotels and venues selling events | Not published (sales-led) | Yes | Yes (2D/3D add-on) | No | No |
| Event Temple | Hotel and venue group sales | From about $249/mo (annual contract) | Yes | No | Not documented | Partial (via partners) |
| Caterease | Caterers and event planners, incl. venues | From $99/mo billed annually + $200 launch fee per user | Yes | Layouts listed | Yes (kitchen display) | Staffing listed |
| Planning Pod | Venues and caterers (US) | From about $74/mo, unlimited users | Yes | Yes | No dedicated module | No dedicated module |
| Perfect Venue | Restaurants and small venues, private events | $59/mo (Basic, billed annually) | Yes (automatic) | Not documented | Not documented | Team tasks only |
The vendors in brief
Univents
An all-in-one platform where inquiry, proposal, order confirmation, BEO, production and packing lists, staff shifts and invoices hang off one event record. Venues get multi-room events with double-booking protection and room and seating plans; clients get a portal to accept proposals online and pay by card via Stripe; staff get an app with shifts and time tracking. Booking pages take structured inquiries from your website, calendars sync with Google and Microsoft, and an AI assistant turns a voice memo, email or chat into an event or draft quote. Self-service with a 7-day free trial. For hotels, Univents runs the banquet side and leaves guest rooms in your PMS; see Univents for hotels.
Amadeus Delphi
The long-established hotel sales-and-catering system, now built on Salesforce. It serves full-service and select-service hotels and multi-property brands with proposals and contracts, automated BEOs and banquet checks, a centralized client database and reporting, plus Delphi Diagramming for floor plans. Pricing is by quote. The natural choice for branded hotels with a dedicated sales team.
Oracle OPERA Sales and Event Management
The sales and events module of Oracle's OPERA hotel suite. Its function diary shows all event details graphically; event resources let you attach menus and inventory items to catering events and produce the BEO; event templates and catering packages speed up repeat bookings, and availability can be checked across properties. Best for hotels already standardized on OPERA.
Momentus
Formerly Ungerboeck, Momentus serves convention centers, stadiums, arenas and campuses with deep multi-department workflows and proven scale, and today also includes Priava. Sales-led pricing, implementation projects measured in months. Univents vs. Momentus.
iVvy
Australian venue and event management software used by hotels, hospitality groups, function centers and stadiums: CRM, function diary, branded proposals, e-signature contracts, version-controlled BEOs and run sheets, with many hotel-tech integrations. No staff or production module. Univents vs. iVvy.
Tripleseat
The leading US event sales platform for restaurants, hotels and venues, used at more than 20,000 hospitality venues according to the company. Strong lead-to-BEO process, payments and a 2D/3D floor plan add-on; kitchen production and staff scheduling are outside the product. Univents vs. Tripleseat.
Event Temple
A Canadian group sales platform for hotels and venues that produces proposals, contracts and invoices very quickly. From about $249 a month on the Basic tier; staffing through integration partners. Univents vs. Event Temple.
Caterease
Catering and event software covering leads, proposals, BEOs, contracts, invoices, layouts, staffing and payments, with a kitchen display, client event portals and an AI assistant. Express $99, Standard $149, Professional $199 a month billed annually, plus $28 per extra user and a $200 launch fee per user.
Planning Pod
A broad US all-in-one for venues and caterers with inquiries, proposals, contracts, BEOs, floor plans, invoices and client portals, priced by event volume from about $74 a month with unlimited users. Univents vs. Planning Pod.
Perfect Venue
Private-event software for restaurants and small venues with a central calendar, automatic BEOs, AI email replies, team tasks, an iOS app and Stripe payments. Basic $59, Professional $119, Premium $189 a month on annual billing.
How to choose banquet software: 7 questions
- Who is the main user? A hotel sales team, a venue manager or a caterer's operations lead need different depth. Choose for the person who opens the system every morning.
- Does the BEO update itself? Change the guest count on a test event and see whether quantities, staffing and the invoice follow, or whether someone edits a document.
- How far past the BEO does it go? If your kitchen and staffing run in spreadsheets today, check for production lists and shift scheduling, not just a PDF.
- Multi-room and parallel events? Book one event across two rooms and a second event overlapping in one of them. The system should warn you.
- What does it connect to? PMS for hotels, POS for outlets, accounting for invoices, calendars for your team. Ask which integrations are native and which are custom projects.
- How long until you're live? Self-service tools run the first real event within days; enterprise suites plan implementations in months.
- What is the total cost? Subscription, users, locations, setup, add-ons and payment processing, for your busiest month, over three years.
What does banquet software cost?
Published pricing for small and mid-size businesses starts around $59 a month (Perfect Venue Basic, annual) and runs through $74 (Planning Pod), $99–199 (Caterease), about $150–250 (iVvy modules, publicly cited) and about $249 (Event Temple Basic). Univents starts at €55 a month for quotes and invoicing, and €299 (€249 billed yearly) for the full platform including BEOs, staff scheduling and kitchen production; Growth is €649, Scale €1,199 and Enterprise on request. See Univents pricing.
Hotel sales-and-catering suites and enterprise venue platforms (Amadeus Delphi, Oracle OPERA, Momentus, Tripleseat) don't publish prices and quote per property, often with implementation and training fees. When a price isn't published, ask for the three-year total including setup, integrations, training, support and annual increases.
Watch for three hidden costs: per-user fees that climb in peak season, payment processing fees on integrated card payments, and add-on modules (floor plans, online ordering, extra locations) that are priced separately.
Moving from spreadsheets to banquet software
Import rooms with capacities per setup style, your menus and packages, contacts and upcoming events. Rebuild one proposal and one BEO template. Then run a real event that's booked but not yet delivered entirely in the new system, including one guest-count change, rather than tracking it in parallel. Most small venues are productive within days; hotels with PMS and POS integrations take longer.
Frequently asked questions
What is banquet software?
Banquet software manages events in your function space from inquiry to invoice: room availability, proposals and contracts, banquet event orders (BEOs), floor plans, and billing. More complete systems also generate kitchen production lists and staff schedules from the same booking.
What is the best banquet software for hotels?
Branded and large hotels typically use a sales-and-catering suite such as Amadeus Delphi or Oracle OPERA Sales and Event Management, integrated with their PMS. Independent and smaller hotels often prefer lighter platforms such as iVvy, Event Temple or Tripleseat, or an all-in-one system like Univents that runs banquets and leaves guest rooms in the PMS.
What is BEO software?
BEO software generates banquet event orders from the booking instead of from a copied template. Menu, room, guest count and pricing live in one record, so when the booking changes, the BEO updates and every department works from the current version.
How much does banquet management software cost?
Published prices for small and mid-size venues range from about $59 to $299 a month, plus extra users, setup and payment processing fees. Hotel sales-and-catering suites and enterprise venue platforms are quoted per property and often include implementation fees.
What is the difference between banquet software and a PMS?
A property management system handles guest rooms, reservations, check-in and folios. Banquet software handles function space: availability, proposals, BEOs, event staffing and event billing. Hotels usually run both and link group room blocks between them.
Does banquet software handle kitchen production and staffing?
Most sales-led banquet tools stop at the BEO and leave production and staffing to spreadsheets or separate tools. In our comparison, Univents and Momentus cover kitchen production natively, Univents also includes staff scheduling with time tracking, and Event Temple connects staffing through partners.
Is there banquet booking software for small venues and restaurants?
Yes. Perfect Venue, Planning Pod and Tripleseat target restaurants and smaller venues selling private events, and Univents offers a Quotes plan from €55 a month with a free start of four quotes a month. Look for online inquiry forms, proposals with e-signature, deposits by card and automatic BEOs.
How long does it take to implement banquet software?
Self-service tools can run the first real event within days once rooms, menus and templates are set up. Hotel sales-and-catering suites and enterprise platforms usually plan implementation projects of several months, especially with PMS and POS integrations.
Next step
Shortlist two or three tools from your segment in the table above, then push one real event through each: inquiry, proposal, a guest-count change, BEO, and the final invoice. With Univents you can do that without a sales call: start a 7-day free trial, no credit card required, or book a demo with one of your own events.