For the first edition of the Joinways Event Venue Barometer, we surveyed 412 B2B event venues across France, Spain, and the UK. The goal: cut through the noise and understand what is actually happening in the market — from budgets and formats to technology adoption and sales challenges. Here are the key findings.
Methodology
412 event venues responded to our online survey between January and February 2026. The sample spans a diverse cross-section of the B2B event industry barometer 2026 landscape. Dedicated event venues represent 38% of respondents, while hotels with event spaces account for 27%, restaurants with privatization options make up 19%, and atypical venues round out the sample at 16%. In terms of capacity, venues under 100 seats represent 22% of the sample, mid-range venues seating 100–300 constitute the largest group at 41%, those with 300–500 capacity represent 24%, and large venues seating over 500 make up 13%. Geographically, France accounts for 54% of respondents, with Spain and the UK each contributing 23%.
1. Budgets: cautious optimism
62% of venues report that average event budgets have stabilized or increased slightly compared to 2025. The post-pandemic budget squeeze is officially over for the majority. However, the growth is modest: most venues report increases of 3–7%, roughly in line with inflation.
The B2B event industry barometer 2026 reveals several key budget insights worth noting. The average event spend per day has risen to €4,200 from €3,900 in 2025, a figure that encompasses room rental, catering, AV, and ancillary services combined. Catering continues to dominate as the largest budget line, absorbing 42% of total event spend on average, followed by room rental at 28%, AV and technology at 18%, and other services at 12%. Perhaps most revealing for venue operators is the finding that 47% of venues report clients are more price-sensitive on room rental than on catering, which suggests that positioning room rental as a value package with an all-inclusive day rate approach may significantly reduce price friction in the sales process.
2. Event formats: the return to in-person
78% of events hosted in 2025 were fully in-person, 16% were hybrid, and only 6% were fully virtual (typically streamed from the venue). The in-person comeback is well established, but hybrid is not going away — it has found its niche.
The B2B event industry barometer 2026 highlights several important format trends shaping the market. Seminars and conferences remain the dominant format, representing 34% of all events, a figure unchanged from 2024. Team-building events have experienced a remarkable surge, now accounting for 18% of events compared to just 12% in 2024, driven by companies investing heavily in team cohesion as hybrid work becomes a permanent fixture. Cocktails and networking events represent 15% of events and continue to grow as companies seek less formal, more relationship-driven formats for connecting with clients and partners. Product launches make up 11% of events but tend to command the highest per-event budgets in the market. Training sessions account for 14% of events and are increasingly popular at venues that offer breakout rooms and quality AV equipment.
3. Digitalization: progress, but still far to go
Technology adoption among event venues is improving but remains uneven. The data reveals a clear digital divide across the industry.
CRM and sales tools
Only 31% of venues currently use a dedicated CRM to manage their event sales pipeline, while the remaining 69% continue to rely on email inboxes, spreadsheets, or paper-based systems. This gap matters enormously because venues using a CRM report 23% higher conversion rates on average, demonstrating the tangible commercial impact of proper sales technology.
Online presence
55% of venues now have a dedicated events page on their website, up from 42% in 2024, representing encouraging progress. However, only 28% include pricing information on that page, and a mere 19% offer an online inquiry form or booking tool, leaving significant room for improvement in the digital experience offered to prospective clients.
Platform presence
44% of venues are listed on at least one event venue platform, and those that are report that platforms generate between 15% and 30% of their leads. Notably, venues listed on two or more platforms see the highest ROI, likely due to the broader visibility and increased chances of discovery by event organizers searching across multiple channels.
Response time
The average response time to an event inquiry stands at 18 hours across the industry. The top 25% of venues respond within 4 hours, while the bottom 25% take over 48 hours to reply. Response time remains the strongest predictor of conversion rate in the entire dataset of the B2B event industry barometer 2026, making it the single most important operational metric for venues to optimize.
4. Key challenges reported by venues
We asked venues to rank their top 3 business challenges. The results paint a clear picture of the operational pressures facing the industry.
Seasonality and uneven demand tops the list, cited by 71% of respondents, remaining the perennial challenge for the sector since most venues experience just 3–4 peak months and struggle significantly to fill the remaining 8–9 months of the year with profitable bookings. Lead quality and conversion follows closely behind, cited by 58% of venues, as many receive a high volume of inquiries but converting them into confirmed bookings remains persistently difficult with the average inquiry-to-booking rate sitting at just 12%. Staffing and talent retention, cited by 52%, has emerged as a growing pain point across all three markets, as finding and keeping qualified event staff proves especially challenging given the irregular hours and weekend work the industry demands. Price competition, cited by 44%, reflects the increasing competitive pressure from the proliferation of atypical and flexible venues such as coworking spaces, rooftops, and pop-up spaces that challenge traditional venue pricing models. Finally, technology adoption, cited by 38%, reveals that while venues broadly recognize the need to digitalize, many continue to struggle with the budget, training, and tool selection required to make it happen.
5. Outlook for 2026–2027
68% of venues are optimistic or cautiously optimistic about the next 12 months. The main drivers of this optimism include the stabilization of budgets and the maturation of the market following the pandemic disruption, which has created a more predictable operating environment. Growing demand for experiential and in-person formats also fuels confidence, as companies continue to prioritize face-to-face interaction. Additionally, the increasing professionalization of venue management, including technology adoption and revenue management practices, gives operators confidence that they can capture more value from each event.
On the other hand, several concerns temper this optimism among venue operators surveyed in the B2B event industry barometer 2026. Economic uncertainty and its potential impact on corporate event budgets remains the most frequently cited worry, as macroeconomic conditions could lead companies to reduce event spending. Rising operational costs across energy, food, and labor continue to squeeze margins, forcing venues to find efficiencies or pass costs along to clients. The increasing competition from non-traditional venue spaces also weighs on operators, as the barrier to entry in the events market continues to drop.
Key takeaways for venue operators
The B2B event industry barometer 2026 points to five critical actions that venue operators should prioritize to stay competitive.
First, investing in speed is paramount. Response time is the number one controllable factor in conversion, and cutting your average response time to under 4 hours will immediately place your venue in the top 25% of the market, outperforming 75% of your competitors on the metric that matters most.
Second, adopting a CRM should be a top priority. The 23% conversion advantage that CRM users enjoy is simply too significant to ignore, and even a simple, affordable tool will pay for itself within months through higher booking rates.
Third, diversifying your event formats is essential. Team-building and experiential events are growing fast, and positioning your venue for these formats — especially during traditionally slow months — can unlock new revenue streams and reduce your dependence on seasonal peaks.
Fourth, showing your prices online gives you a massive competitive edge. Currently, 81% of venues do not list pricing online, yet organizers consistently cite pricing transparency as a top factor in their venue selection. Being part of the transparent 19% immediately differentiates you in the eyes of potential clients.
Fifth, planning for seasonality proactively makes all the difference. The venues that successfully fill January start selling it in October, marketing their slow-month offers 8–10 weeks in advance rather than scrambling to fill empty dates at the last minute.
The full barometer report with detailed breakdowns by market, venue type, and size is available for download on the Joinways website.
