Earn cash as you plan. Get a $20 gift card for every 200 points with The Knot Rewards
Wedding Etiquette Forum
kanolik
member
Promo code for Uber/Lyft credit instead of shuttle from hotel to venue
Hi there! I'm considering providing my out of town guests with a promo code for credit to use Lyft for transportation between the the hotel, in downtown Philadelphia, and the venue, about 20-30min up the Delaware river. One concern is that guests would not travel in groups of 4, and we'd have no way to monitor this, which would end up costing us more. I'm also concerned about guests being late, but have considered using one code for the trip to the venue that expires at a time that ensure guests leave the hotel on time.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Or any gut reactions? Thank you!
Does anyone have any experience with this? Or any gut reactions? Thank you!
Re: Promo code for Uber/Lyft credit instead of shuttle from hotel to venue
As far as your guests timeliness, well that is one them. I don't think you should punish them if they are late. Things happen, heck some people could leave on time and get caught up in a traffic jam. No need to worry over this point.
As a guest, I'd probably side-eye this. As @scribe95 said, not everyone uses Uber, and some people aren't comfortable putting a new app on their phone and providing a CC on their hotel wifi, or using data. It could be a mess, particularly for older guests.
Not sure if it applies, but Uber is also a pretty polarizing app among my friends, who are spread between NYC/NJ/Eastern PA. (Plenty of people are still angry about scabbing the taxi strike, or about the issues they've been having with harassment in the workplace, etc.)
I'd definitely go for a shuttle service. FWIW, our wedding was a bit north of you and in NJ, but we paid about $500 for a bus that held 50, making it $10 pp round trip - and it was a price I knew and could control.
We originally thought of an Uber/Lyft code for it...but both had really mixed reviews from our friends for business practices, older relatives either didn't have smart phones or weren't up for a new app that was going to have their credit card info. The bus just became also something we could have a little more control over timing wise...drivers can cancel, drivers can get lost, groups that want to go together can get separated and suddenly the bus just became easier and more cost effective.
The other thing for you to think of being 20-30 mins away...we were looking at out of towner dinner venues that far out and when we asked some drivers about going out there they said that they don't always pick up trips that far out because if you can't get a passenger going back to philly there's a decent amount of time not making money. And where we were looking at holding the dinner -- Uber/Lyft weren't as prominent so guests could have been waiting a long time for a car. When we were looking it wasn't something we really thought of until someone else mentioned it but it was among the reasons we didn't put our dinner out there.
but you have to let go of the 4 in a car thing and wanting to set a time frame for when they can leave.
Thank you! We're getting our professional pictures next weekend, so I'll post it after that.
You are not required to provided transportation to/from your venue. I think 20-30 min drive is fair in any city. For the most part, I would say let your guests figure out their own transport, but if you can get a promo code easily, no harm in sharing it with your guests. Just realize not all of them may use it and they are unlikely to travel in groups of 4.
We do have a good amount of friends & family who use Uber & Lyft, but we talked to a few OOT guests and they all seemed like they didn't feel it was necessary so we didn't end up doing it. If you DO want to do something like that, and you know your crowd typically does use those services, it may be worth looking into. I would do a price comparison between that & a shuttle though, just because it could add up quickly.
I've been to a few weddings where there were multiple hotels. Either they used multiple shuttles (if there were lots of guests at each hotel), or they let guests know the shuttle would be leaving from one central hotel and you were responsible for getting yourself to that shuttle if you wanted it (so likely a few dollar taxi/uber fare, instead of 30-40 dollars to get to the venue).