What an Axe Throwing Venue Website Needs

What the site is actually for

Axe throwing has spread from a handful of venues to cities right across Canada over the past couple of years. For most people it is still new, and the first reaction to the idea is often a nervous laugh.

Customers arrive in groups: birthdays, staff outings, team events, stag and stagette parties, friends on a Friday. Whoever suggested it has to talk the others into it.

So the site is a persuasion tool for that person. It has to explain the evening to people who have never done it, reassure the nervous ones, and settle the practical rules before anyone arrives.

Every question the site answers is one the organiser does not have to answer fourteen times in a group chat.

What happens in a session

Most people have never thrown an axe and cannot picture it. The first page they need describes the evening from arrival to the last throw.

Arrive, sign the waiver, meet the coach, get a safety talk and a lesson, throw at targets in lanes, then play games or a small tournament. Say roughly how long each part takes.

Photographs of the real lanes, the targets and a group mid-session do more than any description. A short video of someone's first throw does more still.

The questions every organiser gets asked

• Is it safe, and who supervises.
• Do I need experience, or strength.
• How old do you have to be.
• What should I wear, especially on my feet.
• Can we bring food or drinks.
• Can someone come just to watch.

The first decides whether the doubtful members of the group come at all. Answer it plainly with what your venue actually does: who supervises, the briefing before anyone throws, and how the lanes are separated.

Waivers, explained before the night

Every thrower signs a waiver, and the site should say so before anyone books, along with who signs for anyone under age.

Say whether the waiver can be signed online ahead of time, and put the link in the booking confirmation. A guest who arrives unsigned holds up the whole lane.

If a signed waiver stays on file for return visits, say that too. Regulars notice when they are asked to sign the same form every time.

Keep signed waivers somewhere secure. They hold names, birthdates and signatures, and need the same care as any other personal information.

Age rules and footwear

Age questions come from parents planning a birthday and from adults bringing a teenager. State your minimum age, whether younger throwers need an adult with them, and whether families can book a lane together.

Footwear is the rule most often learned at the door. Most venues require closed-toe shoes, and someone arriving in sandals in July either goes home or watches.

Put the shoe rule in the booking confirmation, in the reminder email and on the page the organiser forwards. Saying it three times costs nothing.

A worked example

An axe throwing venue with six lanes in an industrial unit near a highway opened last autumn, with a site built quickly from a template: a home page, a prices page and a booking calendar.

The calendar took full payment for every thrower at the time of booking. An organiser planning a staff outing for sixteen had to pay for sixteen people before asking any of them.

Many organisers phoned instead, to ask whether they could hold a date. Staff answered between sessions, often mid-coaching, and the same questions about shoes, ages and food came with nearly every call.

The rebuilt booking takes a deposit to hold the lanes, with the balance paid on the night, and the confirmation email carries the waiver link, the shoe rule and the arrival time.

A single page called before you come answers what the organiser gets asked, written so it can be forwarded exactly as it is.

Staff now point callers to that page rather than reciting the rules in the middle of a session.

Prices, deposits and changing numbers

Some venues price per person, others per lane by the hour. Either works if the site says what is included: the coach, the time on the lanes, and how many people share a lane.

Organisers collect money from friends, so give them a figure per person even where you charge by the lane.

Numbers change right up to the night. Say how late a group can grow or shrink, and what happens to the deposit when it does.

Guests who only want to watch

Staff outings and parties often include someone who does not want to throw: a nervous colleague, a friend with a sore shoulder, a grandparent at a birthday.

Say whether they can come, where they wait, whether they pay and whether they sign anything. An organiser who knows the answer can invite everyone.

Food, drink and the party

Party organisers want to know whether they can bring food in, order pizza or use a room to eat in. Say what you allow and what you offer.

If your venue serves drinks, or has a rule about drinking before or during a session, say so on the page a stag party organiser reads, not only at the door.

Walk-ins, session times and the door

Opening hours mean little at an axe venue. Show when walk-ins can throw, if ever, and when the lanes are kept for booked groups, so a couple planning a date night does not arrive to a private party.

Venues often sit in industrial units, where the right door is hard to find after dark. A photograph of the entrance and a line about parking, sent with the confirmation, saves the first ten minutes of a session.

The counter-case

A venue that mostly runs leagues, with the same regulars every week, needs less explanation and more on schedules, standings and how to join.

A very small venue booking by phone may reasonably start with a clear page of rules and prices and a simple enquiry form, adding online deposits later.

For most venues, though, the group booking is the business: write for the organiser first, with the session, the rules, the waiver and a deposit.

What to build first

1. Describe a session from arrival to last throw.
2. Answer the safety question plainly.
3. State the age rules and the shoe rule.
4. Take a deposit instead of full payment.
5. Link the online waiver from every confirmation.
6. Say whether non-throwers can come along.
7. Photograph the entrance for the confirmation email.

Step four changes who can book. An organiser can hold a date with a deposit before collecting from anyone, which is how group plans actually come together.

Customers who check every detail before driving over are also the subject of what a toy store website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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