Booking Venue Space Early or Waiting…That is the question
You have called all over town trying to book a space for your event. The pricing is all over the map. From thousands of dollars for a hotel meeting space to Free (as long as your guests buy enough food and drinks from the bar). Now you not only need to reconcile with your budget but the best place is requiring a deposit. A non-refundable deposit at that. Are they crazy? What if the CEO decides to reschedule or not enough attendees sign up? This is not going to be as easy as you thought. When booking venue space, timing is everything.
No, The Venues Aren’t Crazy
Despite the view from your office chair, the venues requiring a deposit may be doing so for a very good reason…cancellations. You are likely familiar with people canceling orders or jobs in your own line of business. For your firm it is no big deal really, the items canceled just go back on a shelf waiting for the next buyer. The job that gets canceled will be replaced with another job shortly. The challenge for companies that rent space for a period of time is the lost opportunity. Unlike the product you put back on a shelf, space is only available for a fixed amount of time. The venue rental company must pay rent, utilities, payroll, and supplies EVERY day, whether space is rented or not. Every hour of rental counts. Empty meeting or party space is a drain on finances. This makes booking venue space early with a deposit mandatory.
Your Cancellation Is Lost Revenue
When you book a space, most reputable companies will BLOCK that space from availability on their calendar. This prevents double booking, which always means one of two customers is not accommodated and that is bad customer service. Many hotels overbook their rooms just to prevent them from having empty rooms that go unfilled. They overbook and in many cases, they also require a deposit. As you can see, when you think about it, deposits are just there to protect the business from lost revenue and to ensure you get the space you need. Booking venue space early is a risk, but well worth it. [tweet_box design=”default” float=”right” width=”40%”]Unlike the product you put back on a shelf, space is only available for a fixed amount of time.[/tweet_box]
How We Do It At The Beacon Center
Here at The Beacon Center, we see the results of overbooking a lot. We receive several inquiries a month from folks who lost their rental space due to overbooking by the original company. Most of the time they are desperate and upset. This is what we work to avoid at our venue. It is why we require a deposit when booking venue space. When we promise space for your event we want to be sure you get it. On the flip side, if you fail to rent that same space, we lose the revenue your event would have generated. We would not stay in business very long operating that way.
The prospective renter has two options:
- Pay a non-refundable deposit and get a 100% guarantee that your space will be ready when you arrive
- Wait until just before your event, with no deposit, and take your chances that space will be available
Both options have pros and cons. At The Beacon Center, we do require a deposit to reserve your date and time. The last thing you want to do is arrange all the details for your event, only to call and find out two days before that you can’t find open space anywhere. So a deposit to hold your space isn’t crazy, it is a good customer service practice and it helps ensure we stay in business to serve you.
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