Venue site visit checklist: what to check, ask and photograph before you sign

Jump to the printable checklist or the photo shot list.

Print the site visit checklist

Print this page or copy the list below. It is free and ungated. Each line is marked See it, for things you check with your own eyes on the day, or Confirm in writing after, for things to get from the venue in writing before you sign. The blocks follow the route you walk, so you can work down the page as you go.

1. Before you go

• Confirm in writing after: Send the venue your group size, dates, room layout and session times, and list the specific rooms you want to see.
• See it: Ask to see the rooms you would actually be allocated, not the show room or the best suite.
• See it: Bring the venue's listing, floor plan and written answers, so you can compare them room by room.
• See it: Ask to meet, or at least be introduced to, the person who would be your contact on the day.

2. Arrival and approach

• See it: Drive or ride the last mile the way your group will arrive. Estimating the drive time itself is a desk task, covered in the venue diligence checklist linked above.
• See it: Van and coach access. Can a passenger van or coach reach the door? Check the driveway width, the turnaround, any steep or gravel sections and low branches, and where the driver waits and parks.
• See it: Where drop-off happens and where drivers park. The parking questions to settle in writing are in the same venue diligence checklist.
• See it: The entrance your group would use, and the address and entrance emergency responders would use. Note any separate group or service entrance.
• See it: Signage from the road and from the parking area to the entrance.

3. Bedrooms and bathrooms

• See it: Walk every bedroom you would be allocated, including rooms in other buildings, and check what you see against the written room count. How to count private bedrooms is covered in our guide to private rooms versus shared beds.
• See it: Look for the rooms that don't match the listing. Lofts, dens, bunks, sofa beds and pass-through rooms can inflate how many a house says it sleeps.
• See it: Count the bathrooms and note which bedrooms share one.
• See it: For rooms in a second building, walk the route between buildings and note the lighting and the path after dark.
• Confirm in writing after: The room list by building, with bed types, matched to what you saw.

4. The meeting room, set in your layout

• See it: Ask for the room to be set, or at least sketched, in your layout. Stand where the presenter stands and sit in the back row. Can everyone face one screen, and is there a wall or screen to project on?
• See it: Check whether the "meeting room" is a purpose-built room or a living room or dining table pressed into service.
• See it: Natural light, blackout, heating or cooling, and the power points within reach of the tables.
• See it: Noise from outside, from the kitchen or from the room next door.
• See it: Connect a laptop to the screen, and run the WiFi test from our venue WiFi guide in this room, not the lobby. Photograph the result with the time showing.
• Confirm in writing after: The AV, furniture and setup included in the price.

5. Breakouts and quiet space

• See it: Rooms for breakout groups, with doors, and how far they are from the main room.
• See it: A quiet space people can step into. Our guide to quiet rooms and sensory breaks covers what makes one work.

6. Dining and the kitchen

• See it: Can everyone eat at one sitting, at one table or a few nearby tables? Our guide to venue capacity explains why the lowest of the sleep, meet and dine numbers sets your real capacity.
• See it: If a chef will cook on site, look at the kitchen: the range and oven, fridge space, counter space, and whether a caterer could stage there. Our guide to private chefs versus on-site restaurants covers the choice.
• See it: If meals are in an on-site restaurant, note how it is laid out and where your group would sit.
• Confirm in writing after: Whether the restaurant stays open to the public on your nights, and the dining setup you were promised.

7. Shared and evening spaces

• See it: At an operating inn or hotel, which common rooms, bar and restaurant other guests use on your dates. Whether you have a full buyout or a room block is a written question, covered in our guide to true buyouts versus soft room blocks.
• See it: Where your group would gather in the evening, and how close it is to bedrooms.
• See it: Outdoor spaces you plan to use, and the indoor backup room if the weather turns.
• Confirm in writing after: Other events on your dates, such as weddings or another group in a second building, and any quiet hours.

8. The accessible route

• See it: Walk the route an attendee takes end to end, from arrival to bedroom, meeting room, dining room and the way out, rather than relying on a description. Use the full table in our venue accessibility checklist. As a New York City government guide puts it, "Do not rely on signage at the venue or the say-so of the venue operator to determine if a particular entrance or facility is accessible. Always make your own assessment." (NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Planning an Accessible Event, May 2025.)
• See it: The accessible bedrooms you would actually be given, not a sample. For hotels and other places of lodging, the federal ADA regulation on reservations, 28 CFR § 36.302(e)(1)(ii), expects them to "Identify and describe accessible features in the hotels and guest rooms offered through its reservations service in enough detail to reasonably permit individuals with disabilities to assess independently whether a given hotel or guest room meets his or her accessibility needs", so it is reasonable to ask which accessible rooms you would get, and to see them. This is a pointer, not legal advice.
• Confirm in writing after: The venue's answers on the accessible rooms and route. You observe and ask; the venue confirms against the standards.

9. Safety inputs for later

• See it: Exits from the meeting room, dining room and bedroom corridors, and whether the routes look clear. OSHA's exit routes fact sheet, written for employers, describes an exit route as "a continuous and unobstructed path of exit travel from any point within a workplace to a place of safety." You are noting what you see, not assessing compliance.
• Confirm in writing after: The venue's own emergency procedures and the duty contact for your dates. Ask where the group should gather if the building is evacuated. These answers feed your event emergency action plan.

10. Rental houses only

• See it: How close the neighbors are, and where cars would park.
• Confirm in writing after: House rules on events, guest numbers, quiet hours and vehicles. Our guide to engineering team offsite pitfalls covers the house-rules questions and other rental-house risks.

11. Season

• See it: Heating or cooling in barns, sunrooms and outbuildings, and whether outdoor spaces will be usable in your month.
• Confirm in writing after: What changes in your season, from heating to which spaces are open.

Common gaps between the listing and the venue

A visit is the easiest way to catch the differences between how a venue is described and how it works for a group. Check for these gaps:

• A bedroom count padded with non-bedrooms. Lofts, dens, bunks and sofa beds counted toward how many the place sleeps.
• A "meeting room" that is really the dining table or a living room, with no wall to project on.
• Dining that can't seat everyone at once, so meals turn into two sittings.
• Shared common spaces at an operating inn that the listing photos show empty.
• WiFi that was only tested in the lobby, not in the room you'll work in.
• Vans that can't reach the door, leaving people to walk luggage up a long or steep drive.
• Wide-angle photos that make rooms look bigger than they are. Your own photos, with a person or object for scale, settle it.

Questions only the visit can answer

Questions you can settle by email belong in the written stage, and our venue diligence checklist has them. On the day, ask the person showing you around about the things that depend on seeing the place, and watch for the answers as you walk.

• Which rooms would we actually get, and can we see them now?
• What else is booked on our dates: weddings, other groups, or events in another building?
• Is any renovation or building work planned between now and our dates?
• What is noisy here at night or early in the morning?
• What changes in our season, from heating and cooling to which outdoor spaces are open?
• Who would be our contact on the day, and can we meet them?
• Of what we've just seen, what isn't included: furniture, AV, signage or the room setup?
• If a chef cooks, where would they work, and is the kitchen available to them?
• Where does the van or coach driver drop off, wait and park?

Things to observe while you walk: how staff respond to questions, how the rooms are kept, and what the place feels like with other guests around. Afterward, ask for anything that matters in writing.

The photo shot list

Bring back photos a colleague who couldn't come could decide from. Work through the list in walk order, and caption each photo by venue and room as you take it, or straight afterward.

1. The driveway approach and turnaround, from a van's point of view.
2. The exterior, drop-off point and entrance your group would use.
3. Parking and turning space.
4. Each bedroom: the door, and each bed showing the bed type.
5. Each bathroom, noting which bedrooms share it.
6. The route between buildings, and its lighting if you're there after dark.
7. The meeting room from the presenter's spot and from the back row.
8. Power points near the tables.
9. The screen with a laptop connected.
10. The WiFi test result with the time showing.
11. Breakout rooms and the quiet space.
12. The dining room set, or measured, for your number.
13. The kitchen's working surfaces and appliances, if a chef will cook.
14. Shared and evening spaces.
15. The indoor backup space for any outdoor session.
16. Each accessibility checkpoint on the route, following the accessibility checklist linked above.
17. Exits and the assembly point.

A few practical rules:

• Take a wide shot first, then a detail.
• Include a person or object for scale wherever size matters.
• Ask before photographing other guests or staff, and if in doubt, don't.
• In a private home, avoid the owner's personal items and documents.
• Keep the photos internal, and ask the venue before sharing them beyond your team.

Time it like the real event

If you can, visit on a similar day of the week and at a similar time to your event. A venue at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday can feel very different from the same venue on a Friday evening, when other guests arrive and the bar fills up. If you drive there, do it at the departure time your group will actually use. In Google Maps, Google's help page says to "select Depart at or Arrive by" to change your travel times; the full drive-time method is in our venue diligence checklist.

If your group will share the venue with other guests, see it with other guests around. Note the light in the meeting room at your session times, especially if you'll present in the afternoon.

Who should go, and what to do if you can't

The organizer should go, ideally with whoever will run the event on the day. If privacy or senior expectations matter, as for a leadership group or a board, bring the decision-maker or brief them closely before and after; our guide to board meeting planning for EAs covers planning for board and other senior groups.

When nobody can travel, a video walkthrough is the fallback. Ask for a live video call rather than a pre-recorded tour, and name the rooms and routes you want to see in advance. Ask the person on site to run the WiFi test on camera, as our venue WiFi guide describes, and ask for photos and measurements afterward for anything that matters, as the venue accessibility checklist suggests. A video call is less reliable than being there, so treat what you can't see as unconfirmed.

After the visit: the same-day write-up

Write it up the same day, while you still remember which photo is which. A short note for the decision-maker is enough:

• What matched the written answers.
• What didn't, with the photo that shows it.
• What we can only fix in the contract, such as the room list, the dining setup or other events on our dates.
• Photos, linked and captioned by venue and room.
• Recommendation: book, book with conditions, or drop.

Then send your follow-up questions to the venue in writing, and make sure anything promised on the tour appears in the contract before you sign or pay. Our guides on when to pay the venue deposit and the venue deposit and cancellation schedule cover that stage. If you're comparing finalists, line up the quotes like for like with our guide to what to ask in a custom event quote.

Site visit vs the day-before walkthrough

The site visit decides whether to book. The day-before walkthrough checks the setup you booked, and it lives in our company offsite day-before runbook. For a sales kickoff's production walkthrough with the AV team, see the sales kickoff production checklist.

Where a local event designer helps

You can run this checklist yourself. What takes time is visiting several finalists, sometimes hours apart, and reading what you find closely enough to spot the bedroom that is really a loft or the driveway a coach can't climb.

A Vantly local event designer who works in the region can help shortlist venues that fit your group, walk them with you or for you, and send the photos and answers you need to decide. The plan is then tailor-made around what the visit shows, from the rooms and meals to transport. Our intent is one vendor, one PO for the event, rather than a separate contract and deposit for every vendor. You can see sample events as examples a designer tailors to your team, or browse local event designers by destination. For the formats themselves, see our company offsite, team retreat and corporate retreat pages. When you're ready, get a custom quote.

Frequently asked questions

What should you check on a venue site visit?

Walk the venue in the order your group will use it: the approach and drop-off, the bedrooms you'd actually get, the meeting room set in your layout, dining for everyone at one sitting, shared and evening spaces, the accessible route and the exits. Check the written answers against what you see, and photograph each stop.

What questions should you ask on a venue site visit?

Ask what you can't settle by email: which rooms you'd actually get, what else is booked on your dates, whether any work is planned, what is noisy at night, what changes in your season and who your contact on the day will be. Then ask for the important answers in writing.

What photos should you take on a site visit?

Take a wide shot and a detail at each stop: the driveway and drop-off, each bedroom's door and bed, bathrooms, the meeting room from the front and back, power points, the dining room, shared spaces, accessibility checkpoints, exits and parking. Caption photos by venue and room as you go, and keep them internal.

When should you do a venue site visit?

After the written shortlist and before you sign the contract or pay the deposit, while the visit can still change the decision. Ask the venue, in writing, how long your hold lasts and what happens if you release it, and check the option date on yours. If you can, visit on a similar day and time to your event.

Can a video walkthrough replace a site visit?

It can help when travel isn't practical, but it is less reliable than being there. Ask for a live call rather than a recorded tour, name the rooms and routes you want to see, and ask for photos and measurements afterward for anything that matters. Treat what you couldn't see as unconfirmed.

Who should go on a venue site visit?

The organizer, ideally with whoever will run the event on the day. If privacy or senior expectations matter, as for a leadership or board group, bring or brief the decision-maker. If nobody can travel, a local event designer can walk the venue with you or for you and send photos and answers.

What is the difference between a site visit and a site inspection?

Usually nothing. A site visit is an in-person visit to a venue before booking, to check the space against your needs. You may also see it called a site inspection. Either way, it is different from the walkthrough the day before the event, which checks the setup you have already booked.

What should you do after a site visit?

Write it up the same day: what matched the written answers, what didn't, what needs to go into the contract, the photos and a recommendation. Send follow-up questions to the venue in writing, and make sure anything promised on the tour appears in the contract before you sign.

Ready to visit your finalists?

Share your dates, headcount and shortlist, and a local event designer can put together a tailor-made proposal around the venues that fit. Get a custom quote.

Related guides

• Venue diligence checklist (NYC area)
• First-time EA company offsite checklist

Sources

• NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Planning an Accessible Event (May 2025), p. 8
• 28 CFR § 36.302, Modifications in policies, practices, or procedures, via Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute: 28 CFR § 36.302(e)(1)(ii)
• Google Maps Help, Get directions & show routes
• OSHA, Emergency Exit Routes fact sheet

All sources checked October 2026.