Taking stall bookings

If your fair has outside stallholders (crafters, food vans, local businesses, charities), Upfayre takes their applications, lets you accept or decline each one, and collects their stall fees by card, straight to your PTA. No more chasing emails, forms and bank transfers.

Stall bookings are part of the Full plan, with the Shop. Stall fees are paid through Stripe, so connect it first (see Selling tickets and merchandise). Free stalls work without it. Event admins and the committee manage stalls; nobody else in the PTA sees stallholders' details.

1. Turn on stall applications

Open the event, go to its Settings tab and click Take stall applications. A Stalls tab appears on the event, where everything else happens.

Take stall applications, on the event's Settings tab (enlarge) — 1. Take stall applications, on the event's Settings tab

Take stall applications, on the event's Settings tab, highlighted on the whole screen — 1. Take stall applications, on the event's Settings tab

The Stalls tab (enlarge) — 2. The Stalls tab

The Stalls tab, highlighted on the whole screen — 2. The Stalls tab

2. Set up your application form

On the Stalls tab, open The application form. Everyone gives their name, email, phone and what they'll sell; the rest is up to you.

Stall fee. One fee for everyone, or 0 for free stalls. Stallholders only pay once you've accepted them.
Kinds of stall. Offer different kinds, each with its own price and number of places: craft £20 (15 places), food £35 (4), charity free. Stallholders choose one when they apply. When a kind is full, new applicants for it go on the waiting list.
Your questions. "Will you need a power socket?", "Do you need a table?": a short answer, or a choice from a list.
Documents to ask for. Public liability insurance or a food hygiene certificate. Stallholders upload each one with the date it's valid until.
Days to pay once accepted. Optional. Stallholders are reminded two days before, and an unpaid place goes to the next on the waiting list.
Applications close. Optional. Otherwise the form stays open until the event.
Your message when you decline someone. Write it once; it's filled in each time you decline, so you can change it for that person.
Stallholders' replies go to. Your PTA's inbox. Every email a stallholder gets from us replies there.

Kinds of stall, each with its own price and places (enlarge) — 1. Kinds of stall, each with its own price and places

Kinds of stall, each with its own price and places, highlighted on the whole screen — 1. Kinds of stall, each with its own price and places

Add your own questions (enlarge) — 2. Add your own questions

Add your own questions, highlighted on the whole screen — 2. Add your own questions

Click Save the form. Untick Taking applications whenever you want to close it.

The form's link is at the top of the Stalls tab. Copy it into your local Facebook groups, your newsletter or an email to last year's stallholders. The event's public page also shows a "Want a stall?" link while the form is open. If your fair doesn't sell tickets, it's only on your public page once you list it: the Stalls tab offers Show it on our public page until you do.

Each stallholder can apply once per fair. If someone applies again with the same email, we send them the link to the application they already made.

Copy the form's link to share it (enlarge) — Copy the form's link to share it

Copy the form's link to share it, highlighted on the whole screen — Copy the form's link to share it

4. Accept or decline each application

Each application arrives on the Stalls tab under Waiting for review, with what they'll sell, their answers and their documents, and the event's admins get an email. For each one:

Accept emails them that they're booked, or for a paid stall, a link to pay. If you offer kinds of stall, you can change the kind as you accept.
Waiting list keeps them in line for a place that comes up.
Decline… opens your pre-written message to edit, then Decline and send.

Accept, with the kind of stall (enlarge) — 1. Accept, with the kind of stall

Accept, with the kind of stall, highlighted on the whole screen — 1. Accept, with the kind of stall

Or Decline…, with your message (enlarge) — 2. Or Decline…, with your message

Or Decline…, with your message, highlighted on the whole screen — 2. Or Decline…, with your message

A document that has expired, or runs out before the fair, is flagged on the application, and so is one that hasn't been sent.

5. See who has paid

The top of the Stalls tab counts who's waiting, who's booked and who still has to pay, and how full each kind of stall is. Each accepted stallholder shows Booked once they've paid, or the date they need to pay by. Stall fees go straight to your PTA's Stripe account, and each payment is listed under Orders on the Shop page, marked Stall fee.

Who's waiting, booked and still to pay (enlarge) — Who's waiting, booked and still to pay

Who's waiting, booked and still to pay, highlighted on the whole screen — Who's waiting, booked and still to pay

If a stallholder doesn't pay by their date, their place is released and offered to the next person on the waiting list for that kind of stall, by email. You don't have to do anything. To cancel a stall that's been paid for, refund the order first, then decline it.

6. Tell stallholders what they need to know

Message stallholders emails everyone you've accepted: "Two weeks to go: arrive from 1pm, unload by the gate, the hall has power for six stalls."

Message stallholders (enlarge) — Message stallholders

Message stallholders, highlighted on the whole screen — Message stallholders

7. On the day: pitches, times and the site list

Once you've accepted stallholders, click On the day on the Stalls tab. There you:

Set arrival times, one for everyone or one for each kind of stall (food vans at 11, crafts at 12:30), so set-up is staggered.
Give each stall its pitch, and a time of its own if it needs one.
Add anything every stallholder needs to know (where to unload, where to park, where the power is) and a site map.

Each stallholder sees their pitch, time, your notes and the map on their stall's page, and every message you send them ends with their own pitch and time.

For the gate, Print, by pitch (or by arrival time) gives you an A4 list with a tick box for each stall, its pitch and time, phone, kind, their answers (such as whether they need power), and anyone who hasn't paid in red, with a column for your notes. It downloads as Excel or CSV too.

Invite last year's stallholders

Everyone who's had a booked stall with you is kept under Manage PTA → Stallholders, with the fairs they did and a private note for your committee ("always early", "needs a gazebo"). Next time, open the event's Stalls tab and click Invite past stallholders. Everyone booked at your last fair is ticked; tick anyone else you'd like back, then Send invitations. Each gets an email from your PTA with a link to the form, their details already filled in. They still apply, and you accept or decline as usual.

Anyone who's already applied isn't listed, and a stallholder can ask not to be invited again from the email. We keep each stallholder on your list for three years after their last stall with you; if one asks you to forget them, click Remove.

Already booked someone outside Upfayre?

If you started taking stall bookings on Upfayre shortly before a fair and had already booked some stallholders by email or on the phone, add them yourself: on the event's Stalls tab, click Add them here (under the counts, until the fair; it's offered when you turned stall bookings on within eight weeks of the fair). Enter their name, email and what they'll sell, and what they paid you if you like, for your records. They're booked straight away, with nothing to pay on Upfayre, and appear in your list, your messages to stallholders and the printed site list. Unless you untick it, they get an email with their stall page, where they can choose to be listed under Who's coming and add their logo. If one isn't coming after all, Remove takes them off without emailing them.

Show who's coming

Tick Show who's coming in the application form's settings, and booked stallholders who agree are listed on the event's public page, with their logo and a link to their website. It's good publicity for them and for your fair: they share it with their own followers.

After the fair

Ask your stallholders how it went from the event's Feedback tab: Email stallholders sends each one their own link, and their answers sit beside your team's and your visitors'. See After the event.

Stall applications are deleted 12 months after the event, unless the stallholder keeps them on a stallholder profile of their own.

What stallholders see

Stallholders don't need an account. They apply on your form, then get a page of their own showing where their application stands, with a button to pay once you've accepted them. If they do lots of fairs, they can make a free stallholder profile so their details are filled in next time. Having a stall at a fair is the guide to send them.