Haggling with hotel managers... what deals have you gotten?

grind gremlin · 19-01-2012 03:20PM #1

I have recently gotten engaged and I am already considering visiting a number of venues. I have heard off many people that it is possible to get good deals off managers.
Have any of you managed to blag anything off your venue?
I'm doing this on a budget so hoping to save as much as I can.
Also, I'm hoping to have it in the Louth / Monaghan area.

Thanks in advance

am i bovvered · 19-01-2012 03:26PM

No doubt there are deals to be done, however you need to be careful, after all it is your wedding day, hopefully a once in a lifetime event.
These are dangerous times for hotels, if the deal looks to good to be true it just may be so.
If you push the deal too tight, there will be pressure on the depts in the hotel to make up the difference.

Good luck

grind gremlin · 19-01-2012 03:33PM

Thanks for that

I'll keep it in mind.

I know from experience (a friend worked in a hotel), that bride and groom were told they had to pay for chair covers as the hotel 'hired' them in... when in fact, they belonged to the hotel and were on the premises.

mikemac1 · 19-01-2012 03:39PM

Are you bringing your own wine? Haggle hard on the corkage, there is always room on that.

If it's hotel wine, well the hotel has big markup on the wine so see what you haggle there.
And it's often bought in Lidl. Nothing wrong with this, just saying where it's from. Lidl can beat Irish distributors on price

If you saw the cheap stuff they put in mulled wine :pac:
It comes in plastic packets and has no labels on it, cheap as cheap can be.

Lastly, if you're bringing your wine be sure to call back and collect them sometime.
So many people never bother.
So staff get several bottles each at Christmas.

It's your wine, come get it

curlygal · 12-02-2012 05:12PM

There is definately room to haggle. In fact, I think hotels expect it. We've just booked our venue. We got free bar extension (500). We got them to get rid of 1.50 per person supplement on beef main course. they wouldnt budge any further on meal price but was reasonable anyway with choices of courses. A friend of mine haggled price of meal per person from 43 to 34. She also got them to scrap corkage (1.50 per bottle). Our hotel wouldnt do that but they charge a small flat rate of 50 euro. We also got them to do evening buffet for 2 euro per person. Their original price was 5.95, then they said they would do it at cost price of 3 but my fiance haggled for 2! So for a wedding of 220, total saving of about 1050 on original quote.

So haggle haggle haggle! Good luck

hoodwinked · 12-02-2012 08:05PM

With our hotel we choose, we went with a package that for €75pp we got:

Fruit punch reception, with Tea and Coffee and homemade cookies for all guests.
champagne on arrival for the bridal party and the Bride and Groom.
Chair Covers
2 sea view rooms for the parents of the Bride and Groom
upgrade for all the bridal party
harpist on arrival for welcome reception
5 course menu
wine served during the meal
toast glass per person
evening refreshments of Tea and Coffee and homemade sandwiches.

we also got as standard from the hotel:

red carpet on arrival
personalised table plan and menus
white linen cloth and napkins
floral arrangements for each table
silver cake knife and choice of stand
complementary over night bridal suite for the bride and groom
3 month membership to the spa
complementary tasting of the wedding menu prior to the wedding.
complementary first anniversary dinner
special overnight accommodation rates for your guests
10% off for a midweek wedding

we then argued (as i had worked in a simular hotel) over the room rates, the bar extention....etc

in the end we haggled for and got:

sausages to be added to the evening food free of charge
half price for the bar extension
Vat rate reduction applied (they were quite happy to accomodate this)
extra discount on accommodation for our relatives.
Discount on the PP package price.
Extra free room for our daughter on top of the two for our parents.
deposit to be paid suited to our terms (they wanted €1500 up front with the rest to be cleared on departure, we paid €500, with €500 due this month and the final €500 paid in June)

we felt we couldn't ask for much more as everything was included in the package. And they obliged us by meeting us halfway from where we asked.

ScouseMouse · 12-02-2012 08:17PM

We went for a family meal a week before the wedding and it was a disaster. This is how it went.

10 people at 30 euro a head totalled 330 euro. Do the maths.

Went to get coffee and never came back.

Some people had half eaten their main courses when the last of the peoples main courses arrived.

Ordered a vodka a coke and got a vodka and half a coke.

Indian waiter thought he was superb with his theatrical presentation of the food. Lifting the cover off almost with a "Whalllaaa!

Faxed the banqueting manager next day demanding those ejits were no where near our wedding.

RESULT?

One extra course of hor derves for 120 people (spelling?)
Soup and sandwiches bill waived.
An extra night in the honeymoon suite.

It was the best worst meal we ever had.

Name of hotel not mentioned deliberately, think golf, convention centre and airport.

CricketDude · 12-02-2012 08:28PM

grind gremlin wrote: »

Thanks for that I'll keep it in mind.

I know from experience (a friend worked in a hotel), that bride and groom were told they had to pay for chair covers as the hotel 'hired' them in... when in fact, they belonged to the hotel and were on the premises.

The old chair covers deal.
My sister is a hotel manager and told me some of the "tricks" they use.

One is the chair cover one. Hotels own them alright and only cost is of cleaning them in the hotel laundry. Practically nothing. At most €1 each.
They buy them for €40 each. What they are used for is a sweetener if the couple are trying to get costs down. Tell them you'll give them the covers for €20 a chair instead of €40 (or whatever they charge). Hotel makes €19 a seat and the punter thinks they are saving €20 a seat.

Insist on the chair covers for free and you'll get them free.

Denise2007 · 13-02-2012 09:55PM

Hey,

I think we're going with the same hotel ! is it ased in Dun Laoghaire ?

Packkags a pretty similar. We're paying €75 pp. How much discount did you get ? Presme it's too late for me to haggle now ...

Haggling with hotel managers... what deals have you gotten?

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