Negotiation with Hotel

Virgo2011

Hi, I have began to haggle with the venue I have chosen. However i'm afraid they will not drop their price for me

Do all hotels give you the highest price first. I really hope they come down, i'm hoping by about 10 euro per head.

clint_silver

Virgo2011 wrote: »

Hi, I have began to haggle with the venue I have chosen. However i'm afraid they will not drop their price for me

Do all hotels give you the highest price first. I really hope they come down, i'm hoping by about 10 euro per head.

Depends on the hotel and the price you've been given already.
Put up the price per head and what you're getting for that. If its 30e per head with a menu of mermaids tails for starters and lionel richie doin the music then they just might be rock bottom already.
If its 130e per head, 40e per bottle corkage with no seat covers and 1 waiter then I'd guess there's some wiggle room there.

Virgo2011

Its 60 per head...
Starter
Soup
Beef or Seabass
Tea/Coffee
sausages and sandwiches for 60% guest

Half bottle of wine per guest.

Similar hotel close by doing it for 40 p/h..

Feel like i'm paying for the name on my one.

clint_silver

Virgo2011 wrote: »

Its 60 per head...
Starter
Soup
Beef or Seabass
Tea/Coffee
sausages and sandwiches for 60% guest

Half bottle of wine per guest.

Similar hotel close by doing it for 40 p/h..

Feel like i'm paying for the name on my one.

Without knowing the hotel I would have thought 55-60 is about the going rate for that to be honest. When you say pay for name, these things are always supply and demand, is the 40e per head hotel as nice as the 60e one? If it is, why are you paying the 60? If its not as nice a hotel then thats why theyre only charging 40. Surely you checked out the 2 before booking and decided 1 was nicer (grounds, service, decor etc).


hold on, a hotel in the country doing wedding meals with beef or seabass for 40 a head? Or any mains?

Doesnt really matter though, as to your original question, if they have a package, they may add to it like chair covers or throw something else in, may even take 3-4e off, cant see a tenner though, but ya never know, start negotiations. tell them you have a budget and your over at 60e a head but you will pay 50, they might say ok, but youre getting turkey and ham, not beef and seabass.

Moonbeam

I found it was not easy to get them down on price but was easier to get them to throw in more or customise what you want for their price.

ABajaninCork

I agree with Moonbeam. The extras route would be the way to go (seat covers, bar extension, etc.). Either that or get the hotel to knock off the charges for menu choice.

grind gremlin

Some hotels will throw in extra rooms. I managed to get a few to agree to them. Our hotel also offered free gym membership for a year. We live too far away to use it so they gave us free rooms in exchange.

Toto Wolfcastle

Is that all that's included in the package for €60? It seems very expensive.

slowmoe

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

Is that all that's included in the package for €60? It seems very expensive.

To me it seems quite reasonable. I guess it depends on the type of establishment that the op is looking at, travelodge vs 5 star hotel or private country house etc and how good the food on offer is

Dinkie

slowmoe wrote: »

To me it seems quite reasonable. I guess it depends on the type of establishment that the op is looking at, travelodge vs 5 star hotel or private country house etc and how good the food on offer is

It seems a little expensive to me too - based on costings at various hotels in Wexford recently (3* and 4* hotels) in the past couple months

I guess it does depend on what slowmoe says.... Looking at some country hotels in Wicklow they were asking about an extra E20 for an identical package then what Wexford hotels were asking for.

+1 for asking for extras like tea/coffee scones while you are getting the photos taken.

Toto Wolfcastle

slowmoe wrote: »

To me it seems quite reasonable. I guess it depends on the type of establishment that the op is looking at, travelodge vs 5 star hotel or private country house etc and how good the food on offer is

True. However we're not paying much more than that and we're getting a hell of a lot more in a place with a fantastic reputation. The food is amazing too. It's not in Dublin though, so that would make a difference if the OP is in Dublin.

slowmoe

Pretty much every hotel i've looked at includes tea/coffee and biscuits in the package.

op can i ask what venues you're looking at, because i think the value for money really depends on the venue.

Bobblehead i'd love to know where your venue is too, if you don't want to post could you pm?

some venues that we've looked at have been around 120 for the ops package!!!

Keith C

I'm interested in a PM on prices & locations on this.
We got 2 day wedding rates bout 6 mths ago & now the hotel website has the same price for 2 days advertised except the dates for our wedding weekend (bout €40 higher).
So going to approach them over that.
Also we were advised 2012 prices back in Nov'11 that were going to be the price..
When Jan came around the 2012 packages were cheaper then what we had signed contract and with a few more extras.
Had to contact hotel and challenge them on this.
A lot of other "rip off" attempts for wedding that we're slowly uncovering & trying to sort out.

BeardySi

Last October we paid €49 per head for a midweek wedding in a 4 star hotel in the midlands (though I beleive their prices have gone up a wee bit since we originally booked)...
for that we got:

on site civil ceremony room
pre-ceremony tea/coffee and biscuits
post ceremony drinks reception (canapés sparkling wine and punch)
seat covers in the ceremony and reception rooms (the same ones moved from one to the other)
2 free rooms for parents
bar until 3am for all guests
Free room and dinner for 1st anniverserary


Meal:
soup
choice of 2 starters
choice of 2 mains (seabass and beef wellington had a supplement but we didn't go with either of those, we did get roast beef and chicken)
Choice of 2 deserts
3 glasses of wine per person (or soft drinks at dinner)

Sandwiches and 3 types of hot finger food in the evening.

The food was top quality and to the same standard as the (extremely good) hotel resrataunt.

I'm sure there was moe, but I can't remember everything...

Long story short, yes, €60pp for that is expensive.

john_cappa

Virgo2011 wrote: »

Its 60 per head...
Starter
Soup
Beef or Seabass
Tea/Coffee
sausages and sandwiches for 60% guest

Half bottle of wine per guest.

Similar hotel close by doing it for 40 p/h..

Feel like i'm paying for the name on my one.

60 is too much.

Last year for 46 per head I got champagne reception and tea/coffee/biscuits/sandbo for all guests. Full dinner (starter,soup, main, desert) with choice of main course. 1/2 bottle wine per head. Chair covers, evening food (sausages,sandbo etc), 4 free rooms, bar extention etc etc.

This was 4 star hotel. I had 200 guests which make negotiations easier.

Moonbeam

If you are looking to get a discount from them maybe change the main courses beef is one of the more expensive options,pork,chicken etc is way cheaper.
It depends on the hotel I looked at everything from 25pp up to 100pp and some of the menus were more or less the same but the hotels were posher.
In the end we got a lovely 4 star hotel and are paying somewhere in the middle for it.

Virgo2011

Well there are other things in the package, bridal suite, 2 rooms for parents, bar extension, evening food, canapés on arrival.

The just assumed that wedding packages are sold like houses, there is always room to come down on price??? I don't think this place will budge on price, but they are adding things for me... which I suppose is good

Sleepy

Nope, wedding packages are sold to gauge how much you're prepared to pay. You can nearly always add things to the package but reducing the price seems to be far harder.

You could look at your package and see what's there that you don't want/need e.g. ask what effect on the price having just tea/coffee/biscuits instead of canapés on arrival, cheaper meal options etc. Or see if they offer a cheaper package and try to use that as the basis for haggling: i.e. fine we'll take the cheaper package price but you'll have to include the chair covers / evening food / canapés / whatever's important to you.

60 a head sounds about the norm for the package you're talking about in a Dublin / Wicklow hotel. You'd possibly get it for cheaper in Meath / Kildare and would get it for significantly less in Wexford or Louth.

Moonbeam

Meath and KIldare hotels can be really expensive alot worse in some cases then the Wicklow ones.


One of the things that can help bring down price is not having Beef as a main and only having a choice of main course not soup or starter.

Having a midweek or winter wedding will also get you a discount.

Always ask for extra bedrooms too.

Virgo2011

Thanks for all your help, I do think it is an ok price for everything i'm getting, I just didn't want to give in to their first offer.

slowmoe

Can i please get a pm about venue names? Pretty please

ABajaninCork

Moonbeam wrote: »

If you are looking to get a discount from them maybe change the main courses beef is one of the more expensive options,pork,chicken etc is way cheaper.

I would agree with this. I'd also factor in the fact that a lot of people do not eat much red meat these days. In my experience, not many go for pork either. Chicken might be boring, but it's the safest (and cheapest! ) option.