negotiating with Hotels on Food and Beverage

tstevens215

What is the best way to do this? How flexible are they with Food and Beverage Minimums?

slubkin

My venue was not flexible about the minimum, but she told me that the food, drinks and tax and service charge all contributed towards it so it wasn't a minimum BEFORE tax & service.

fallbride1109

It depends.  I think you really just have to ask if there is anything they can do.  If you are going to be using the hotel for other things like the RD, room blocks, brunch the next day, etc., you'll have a better chance.  We ended up not meeting our minimum but they let us "upgrade" to get there--we upgraded to the premium bar and added food stations.  So that was nice even though we were still paying the full price.

My boss just got married at a hotel and they negotiated their minimum down because they were having such a small wedding (75 people).

NillaWafer10

A girl on my local board went to a competing venue for a quote.  She told them that she was interested in both venues, and she asked for the best deal they could offer her.  She then used that quote to negotiate with the venue she wanted.  

theanglfac

I was honest and said, looking at everything we probably won't spend more than X. I got them to come down on the minimum a few thousand dollars. We also booked a block of rooms and are doing our rehersal dinner in a restaurant associated with the hotel.