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Visitor Services

The Brighton Visitor Information Centre.

VisitBrighton offer a range of visitor services. Find out more in this section.

Booking services

  • Customers ask us to book accommodation for them both before on on arrival in the city. We use our product database to help us book accommodation. This contains details of nearly all the accommodation providers in the city.
  • Partner accommodation providers can use a unique password to log on to the system and update their availability and prices directly. Or they can call us and we will update information on their behalf.
  • When we are looking for rooms we search the database. Records that have been updated recently rise to the top of the list. This means that we can serve our customers quickly and efficiently because we know which property meets their needs and has availability.
  • We provide a free service to conference organisers that manages accommodation booking for their delegates. This involves working with room allocations from accommodation providers and handling all the delegates booking requirements.
  • We book customers into hotels and guesthouses that are members of the VisitBrighton partnership scheme.
  • We only work with accommodation providers that are assessed under VisitBritain's, or the AA's, National Quality Association Standards Scheme. This policy helps us to guarantee a minimum standard of service and facilities to our customers. For more information visit www.qualityintourism.com or or www.theaa.com.

Information services

  • Our staff handle 300,000 personal enquiries a year at the Visitor Information Centre, 18,000 phone calls on our information line, 12,500 email and 1,200 postal enquiries. The volume changes with the seasons and the day of the week.
  • The Visitor Information Centre racks free literature for customers to pick up and take away. Priority is given to businesses that are members of our Partnership scheme.
  • We prepare information sheets, monthly events lists and a city map to send to people who are planning a visit.
  • Customers who want printed accommodation information are sent personalised lists containing hotels, guesthouses and self-catering properties that meet their needs. These are printed from our product database and sent by first class post.
  • VisitBrighton manages the official visitor website for Brighton & Hove. It is called visitbrighton.com and receives approximately 100,000 unique visits a month.
  • We use a product database to help us manage and publish information in all the ways described above. The database contains detailed information about nearly all Brighton & Hove and some Sussex tourism businesses. Information is gathered and updated annually. VisitBrighton's product database is used to publish information on other websites such as VisitBritain.com.
  • VisitBrighton is the official local data steward for information about Brighton & Hove businesses. We ensure that our data complies with the standards set nationally for EnglandNet. National organisations such as VisitBritain, EnjoyEngland, Tourism South East and many others use the information we supply in their marketing campaigns.
  • All our information services are designed to give tourism businesses, working in Partnership with us, as much visibility as possible locally, nationally and worldwide.
  • This year, we have produced a free magazine (on behalf of the City Attractions and Venues Forum) for hotel bedrooms across the city so that visitors can be updated on city news, dates and events and browse at their leisure.

Destination management

  • VisitBrighton plays an important role in improving the visitor experience. Good pedestrian signage, clean litter free streets, friendly people, good customer service, a high quality events programme and many other things contribute to a good visit.
  • We work with our colleagues in the council to ensure that the voice of the visitor is taken into consideration in all sorts of decisions such as planning, events programming and parking.
  • We argue for positive action to be taken to improve the city for visitors and created the Tourism Strategy to help the whole city improve our environment for visitors and residents.
  • Areas that we are involved in include skills and training, quality standards and accessibility.

Visitor Services Strategy

  • The Visitor Services team have recently produced a strategy document looking at how to improve the services offered to visitors in the city over the next eight years.
  • The strategy shows recommendations on improving Visitor Welcome, Visitor Information, Product Development and Industry Partnership.

Distribution

  • The publications we distribute to tourism businesses in the city are the visitor map and the shopping and eating guide (produced by the City Centre Business forum). If you need these publications contact luzia.norman@brighton-hove.gov.uk. These publications are also distributed in bulk to tour operators, group organisers, conference organisers and others who are bringing large numbers of visitors to the city.