Have you heard of a vendor fee?

FromMtoH

I just had my tasting with our caterer last night. We get to the pricing and they tacked on a 10% vendor fee. When I asked about it they said that our venue charges them 10% to be on their approved list of caterers. Which this list we had to use. They also said that if we could get my venue to wave the fee, they would. Has anyone ever heard of this? There was nothing ever said about this when we signed our contract with the venue and it is not in our contract. Any suggestions on how to get it waved, without being a bridezilla?

MesmrEwe

You have a caterer that's being up front with you about it!  It's one of the shadier business practices out there, but it's not unheard of - most stores charge "rent" for shelf space, but you never consciously see that fee in the cost of your item.  If another caterer on the list doesn't charge you for it, it means the10% mark-up is already figured in to the pricing. 

kmmssg

I've heard of it. One of the venues 2 of my girls were interested in charged a 15% fee to the caterer, which was passed on to us. We passed on that venue.

MesmrEwe

kmmssg said:

I've heard of it. One of the venues 2 of my girls were interested in charged a 15% fee to the caterer, which was passed on to us. We passed on that venue.

The venue we used had the fee, but it was $200 flat fee which they instituted because of caterers leaving the kitchen/prep area a complete mess so it was to cover the cost of extra cleaning staff after events - $200 is one thing -but 10-15% HOLY ****!  That adds up!

FromMtoH

Oh wow! I guess I should be thankful it isn't 15%. I wish I would of known about this before we booked with them. The other part that gets me is we are being charged tax for it too. Which I don't really see how a vendor fee is a taxable item.

ScottishSarah

My venue has a per person charge for the use of the kitchen.  My quote included this charge.

ILoveBeachMusic

DD's venue charged if the caterer wasn't on their preferred list. There wasn't a line in the contract with the caterer (which was on the list) that specified they were being charged to be on the list.

FromMtoH

UPDATE* after going back and forth for quite some time, we had this vendor fee waived and our venue coordinator (who is new in the past 3 weeks) is going to work to have the fee removed for future events. I am thrilled! Now we don't have to cut food costs to allow room in a budget for a vendor fee!