Areas of negotiation with venue

nickyhutch

I don't mean to be argumentative, but why have you booked somewhere if you're not happy with the price? If you have a budget that you have to stick to, would it not have been better to find somewhere that can do what you want (or as near to) for the price you want? Other than that, rather than ask them to cut prices or throw in extras after you've agreed a price, you'll have to cut back on what you want.

alexlyne

The price isn't the issue - if they stuck their ground and said you have x guests, then it'll be £y, then fair enough. It's just about trying to get a bit back on the things that aren't going to be used - and asking here what people have been able to negotiate. If we have budgeted say 5k, but can get it all for 4.5k then surely that's a bonus?

hunnycat

alexlyne wrote: »

The price isn't the issue - if they stuck their ground and said you have x guests, then it'll be £y, then fair enough. It's just about trying to get a bit back on the things that aren't going to be used - and asking here what people have been able to negotiate. If we have budgeted say 5k, but can get it all for 4.5k then surely that's a bonus?

too right its a bonus! if you dont ask you wont get!!

nickyhutch

Fair enough, but why didn't you negotiate before confirming the booking? I'm all for saving money, but it must pip off the venue when you ask for reductions/extras after booking.

alexlyne

Because we booked it 3 years ago... and didn't have exact numbers then.
3 years later when we're getting round to sorting everything out and we are thinking of what needs doing we can better define what we want. If they don't want to play ball then that's their prerogative. All we can do is ask them, provide a good reasoning and see what they reply with. If our reason is good enough then they'll seem petty for refusing a request - in this way we're not trying to wring them out of anything they would deserve - all we'd be asking for is something fair.

nickyhutch

Fair enough. Hope you get what you want and have a good day.

PixieP

I'm also about to book my venue and am interested in seeing what discounts we can get. They're a bit of an unusual hotel and have quite a lot of Saturdays free in the two months (spring next year) that we were looking at. So I think there's room for negotiation since they're obviously not oversubscribed.

But a) we don't know what menu options we're going to have. They have the standard 'starts from £45 per head' quote, plus b) we don't know exact numbers. So it's hard to negotiate on catering because we don't know the cost of the menu or how many people we're having.

So in this case would it be better to try and get a discount on the venue hire? It's about £1500 for the ceremony and reception.

They don't offer drinks packages - just cost per glass/bottle etc. We're thinking of buying loads of sparking wine at the current Tesco half price sale and paying the corkage, as we this works out cheaper... could we negotiate corkage costs?

I've heard a lot from friends who tried to get discounts on their weddings that they're pretty hard to come by. But surely if you don't ask you don't get. And they're not going to turn your business away just for being cheeky and asking in the first place!

Likewise the evening buffet - this is currently 'starts from £17 per head', which is WAY more than I wanted to pay. I really just wanted bacon sandwiches (since we're having the wedding breakfast at 5:30/6ish), so don't really need more than that. Just something to soak up the booze! But there's no way I'm paying £17 for a bacon sarnie. But since we don't have menu options/full prices yet I don't know how to negotiate this. Once we've booked the venue, then the upper hand goes back to the venue.

Any advice?!

Roz_V

PixieP wrote: »

I'm also about to book my venue and am interested in seeing what discounts we can get. They're a bit of an unusual hotel and have quite a lot of Saturdays free in the two months (spring next year) that we were looking at. So I think there's room for negotiation since they're obviously not oversubscribed.

But a) we don't know what menu options we're going to have. They have the standard 'starts from £45 per head' quote, plus b) we don't know exact numbers. So it's hard to negotiate on catering because we don't know the cost of the menu or how many people we're having.

So in this case would it be better to try and get a discount on the venue hire? It's about £1500 for the ceremony and reception.

They don't offer drinks packages - just cost per glass/bottle etc. We're thinking of buying loads of sparking wine at the current Tesco half price sale and paying the corkage, as we this works out cheaper... could we negotiate corkage costs?

I've heard a lot from friends who tried to get discounts on their weddings that they're pretty hard to come by. But surely if you don't ask you don't get. And they're not going to turn your business away just for being cheeky and asking in the first place!

Likewise the evening buffet - this is currently 'starts from £17 per head', which is WAY more than I wanted to pay. I really just wanted bacon sandwiches (since we're having the wedding breakfast at 5:30/6ish), so don't really need more than that. Just something to soak up the booze! But there's no way I'm paying £17 for a bacon sarnie. But since we don't have menu options/full prices yet I don't know how to negotiate this. Once we've booked the venue, then the upper hand goes back to the venue.

Any advice?!

I would write a list of everyone you expect to invite/you think would turn up, and based on those numbers get a written quote from the venue, then you have a negotiating point. When you ask for the written quote, state that you don't require an evening buffet but would prefer bacon sandwiches at about 10pm (or whatever).

Venues generally don't ask for confirmed numbers until a few weeks before the date as they know that you won't necessarily have this info so don't worry too much about this.

Hope this helps