Start-up Spotlight: Eventup aims to simplify event-booking

Want to party at Jim Morrison’s former pad or do a photo shoot at the “Entourage” house? A new Santa Monica tech start-up can hook you up.

Online event booking site Eventup, which launched Tuesday, helps users search for and book exclusive venues for free without hiring an event planner.

Private beach homes, restaurants, the set of CBS’ “Big Brother” and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion are among the 300 sites already available in the Los Angeles area. Users can search for venues based on size and type of event, and can book the spaces for birthday parties, weddings, corporate functions, filming or photo shoots.

Eventup is the first start-up to emerge out of Santa Monica tech studio Science Inc., run by former Myspace CEO Mike Jones. Eventup is operating out of Science’s offices for now and will soon find its own space in Santa Monica, which has become the core of the burgeoning Silicon Beach tech scene.

During an interview, Eventup’s Chief Executive, Tony Adam, said he was hoping to streamline and simplify the fragmented event-booking process with features such as upfront pricing, photos and reviews.

“We want to bring transparency to the market. Right now it’s a really undercover thing that’s done on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “You literally have to go to every single listing to find out what you want versus with us, it’s search, filter, book, done. It’s quick, it’s easy.”

The service will also help venue owners and private homeowners market underutilized properties, Jones said.

“I have a feeling that not only will [Eventup] bring additional revenue to these homeowners, people will probably start throwing more interesting events because there’s low-cost, super-creative alternatives,” he said.

Eventup takes a 10% cut from each booking. The company manages financial transactions and bookings through the site and offers venue owners insurance options to protect their properties.

Adam said Eventup will soon be available for venue bookings in other cities.

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