Booking a venue

jameshayes

Hi All,

After MANY hours of deliberation, my other half and I have chosen a venue, they have availability at the time we want and I am close to calling them now to hold the date for us...

My question is, do people have much luck with negotiating packages with venues? Their current package has everything we want so it wouldn't be a case of adding more to the package but getting a bit of a discount.. I'm going to chance my arm anyway, but I'm also wondering when is the best time to do this? After I have the date held, before, or when I go to pay the deposit?

Pistachios & cream

We had the same issue, When we met with our hotel there was nothing they could add intothe package to get a better deal so we negotiated on price. We didd the negotiations the first time we met with them and got them written down. When we went to pay the deposit a few weeks later we met a different manager who had to get the price confirmed as they don't normally discount their packages.

We are not from the area so i think they were able to offer a discount because we would have more people staying in the hotel.

Gaillimh1976

I would do it when you go in to pay the deposit, but before the money changes hands. Nothing makes a salesperson focus like having a large amount of cash waved in front of them. Tell them you have the cash with you to pay the deposit there and then, but won't be doing it unless they can move on the price.

Be prepared to stand up & walk if they dig their heels in, you won't make it 2 steps from the table before they are calling you back.

Oh, and good luck with it all, hope everything works out.

jameshayes

Thank you both - on the extra rooms thing, yeah thats our situation too, both sides will be travelling at least an hour and a half to the venue so there will be more rooms than normal booked...

on the walk away side of things, this venue is booked solid for 2016 summer months except monday's and tuesdays.. I don't really think they'd care if I walked to be honest, they're so busy!

Milly33

Hope you got it all sorted, well done and congrats on booking..

An Bhanríon

What we did was e-mail the wedding coordinator before we paid our deposit. We said we really liked the place but had another place offering us other stuff. We asked for specific things to be added to the package. We got some of them and didn't get others.

It is worth a try, anyway, but now is the time. After you have paid your deposit it is too late. They have your money at that stage!

And make sure you get any promises in writing. We have all ours written into the contract. And the first copy of the contract we got didn't have everything written into it so read your contract carefully!

Best of luck.

clint_silver

Gaillimh1976 wrote: »

I would do it when you go in to pay the deposit, but before the money changes hands. Nothing makes a salesperson focus like having a large amount of cash waved in front of them. Tell them you have the cash with you to pay the deposit there and then, but won't be doing it unless they can move on the price.

Be prepared to stand up & walk if they dig their heels in, you won't make it 2 steps from the table before they are calling you back.

Oh, and good luck with it all, hope everything works out.

Or if its a popular date in a popular venue a long time out then be prepared to be not called back as the venue know what theyre chances of selling that date at their set rates are very high.


If Im booking a date in a calendar, I look at how far out a date is and how many times I got requested to look for it in previous years. If dec 29th this year isnt filled and I know I get asked 10 times a year in the period 24-6 months out for it then I can afford to be picky over prices if its early in the year. If its 4-6 months to go and I haven't filled it, I'll take a reduced rate on it but not until then. The customer doesnt know obviously, but that's business.

From experience, the christmas/new years period 26th dec right up to 2nd jan (depending on weekend days) are quite popular dates in the wedding calendar as people avail of work breaks.

You still have nothing to lose by playing hardball, if they absolutely refuse to budge, still walk out, sit out in the car for a bit then go back in, sheepishly swallow pride. They wont mind. Play bad cop/good cop with other half, worst that can happen is they say no.