Spaces and Venue Settings
Your spaces are the rooms and bookable configurations a guest sees when they’re considering an inquiry, and the capacities Paloma uses to figure out availability on a given date. This guide covers how to add a space, when to set up a layout, what guests see in the widget, and the venue-level settings around the gallery and total capacity.
How spaces work
Paloma keeps two ideas about your venue separate.
A space is a physical thing you’d describe to a guest: a name, photos, a capacity, what’s in the room. The Tuscan Room. The Patio. The Library. If you can walk a guest to it, it’s a space.
A layout is a bookable configuration of one or more spaces: the Tuscan Room as a private buyout, Tuscan and Terrace combined, the Patio as a group reservation. Layouts are how Paloma reasons about availability when a guest asks about a date or a party size.
Most venues only ever fill in spaces. Layouts are there for the venues that combine rooms (Tuscan plus Front Patio for big parties), split them (the Lounge as a group vs. private space), or want a different capacity for a particular configuration than the sum of the underlying rooms.
You won’t be quizzed on the difference. The dashboard prompts you for spaces first and only opens the Layouts section when you need it.
Where you do this
Open the dashboard, click Settings, pick the venue, and choose Spaces from the Business Information group. The page is titled Spaces and has these working sections:
| Section | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Enable Spaces Gallery | A switch at the top of the page that turns the See Our Spaces gallery on or off in your booking widget. |
| Spaces | The rooms you describe to guests. Each one has a name, an overview, capacities, and media. |
| Layouts | Optional. Bookable configurations of one or more spaces, used for capacity and availability. |
| Venue Total Capacity | An optional override for the venue’s overall capacity number. |
Each section saves on its own. Editing a space, adding a layout, and flipping the gallery switch are three independent saves, so you don’t have to commit to everything at once.
Adding and editing a space
From the Spaces section, click Add Space. (If you’re editing an existing one, click Edit [space name] on the row.) An editor opens with the fields a guest sees and the numbers Paloma uses for availability. A preview card on the right shows the guest’s view of the space as you edit, so you can see the gallery card update in real time.
The basics
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space Name | The name guests see (“Tuscan Room”, “Front Patio”). Required. |
| Overview | A short description that introduces the room in the gallery. Aim for one or two sentences. |
| Details | The longer write-up that opens when a guest taps into the space’s detail view. Use it for what a guest would want to know. |
Capacities
Capacities are the seated and standing ranges for the space. Each has a minimum and a maximum.
- Seated min / max. The realistic range when the room is set for a sit-down event.
- Standing min / max. The realistic range for a cocktail or reception setup.
Either trait is optional. If your room only does seated events, leave standing blank. The numbers feed Paloma’s availability logic, so a guest asking for fifty seated only matches a space whose seated max can carry fifty.
Media
Media is what makes the gallery feel like your venue.
- Preview Video. A short hero video. Plays muted in the gallery card.
- Preview Photo. The still image used as the gallery thumbnail.
- Gallery Images and Videos. The wider set of media a guest sees when they tap into the space.
Pick from the media library you’ve uploaded to the venue. Use Remove to clear a field, or Add Gallery Image or Video to extend the gallery.
Saving and removing
The save button at the bottom of the editor commits your changes. To remove a space, open it and click Remove Space. You’ll be asked to confirm. Removed spaces drop out of the widget gallery and out of layout match logic.
Layouts: combining and splitting spaces
Most venues won’t need layouts. If you have one space per room and every room is bookable on its own, the Spaces section alone is enough.
You’ll want a layout when:
- A configuration combines two or more spaces (Tuscan Back and Tuscan Front bookable together) and the combined capacity isn’t just the sum.
- A space has more than one bookable mode (the Lounge as a private buyout vs. the Lounge as a group reservation), and you want availability to reflect each.
- You’re syncing a calendar and want a particular layout to read as occupied when an event’s title matches a pattern.
Adding a layout
Open the Layouts section and click Add Layout.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Layout Name | What the layout is called (“Tuscan Back and Front”, “Lounge: Private”). |
| Description | Optional context for your own reference. |
| Booking Type | Private for a buyout configuration. Group for a shared reservation. Affects how availability counts the layout. |
| Override Capacities | A switch. Off, the layout inherits the capacity of its underlying space. On, set different seated and standing ranges for the layout. |
| Room Selector | Pick the spaces this layout occupies. A combined configuration picks both rooms; a single-room layout picks the one. |
| Event Matching Pattern | Used with calendar availability. When a synced calendar event’s title matches this pattern, that layout reads as occupied for the event. |
The pattern can be plain text or a regular expression. If you leave it blank, Paloma uses the layout’s name as the pattern. Not sure what to put here? Leave it for now and reach out to us when you’re wiring up calendar availability.
Click Save to commit. The layout shows up under the Layouts section with its booking type, capacity, and the spaces it covers.
To remove a layout, open it and click Remove Layout.
How spaces show up for guests
Guests meet your spaces in two places in the booking widget.
The gallery
When Enable Spaces Gallery is on, your widget welcome page shows a See Our Spaces entry point. Tapping it opens a gallery of every space you’ve configured: hero video or photo, name, overview, capacities, and the wider gallery. A guest can browse before they inquire, or as they’re inquiring.
If you don’t have any spaces yet, Paloma won’t let you turn the gallery on. Add at least one space first.
Ask a Question
Spaces also feed the widget’s Ask a Question chat. When a guest asks “do you have a room that fits forty seated?” Paloma can answer with the right space from your gallery, using the overview, details, and capacities you’ve written for each one. The more you’ve filled in, the better the chat can answer without sending the guest into an inquiry.
Venue settings around spaces
A few venue-level controls sit alongside the spaces page.
Enable Spaces Gallery
The switch at the top of the Spaces page controls whether guests see the See Our Spaces entry point on the widget welcome. It’s safe to flip on and off as you add or polish spaces. Paloma blocks turning it on until at least one space exists.
Venue Total Capacity
At the bottom of the Spaces page, Venue Total Capacity is a single number: the largest event your venue could host across all spaces combined. It’s optional. Leave it blank and Paloma will calculate the venue’s capacity from your spaces.
Set it when summing your space capacities would overstate what you’d actually take. A venue with three rooms that fit forty each isn’t necessarily a 120-person venue if you can’t book all three at once.
Publishing your venue
Your venue’s publication status (Draft, In Review, Public with link, Public) controls whether it shows up across the dashboard’s venue lists and whether your public Paloma URLs are reachable. Switching that status is a support-assisted step today. Reach out to us when you’re ready to take your venue public, or to move it back to Draft, and we’ll handle the switch on our side.
Any questions? Email us at contact@palomaparties.com or book a meeting.