Contract for Reception Venue--weird clause

NashBride01

Hi all,
I chose my reception venue largely based on the one room in the hotel in which I would like to get married.

I am surprised by a clause in my reception venue's contract (a nice downtown hotel--the one room is sort of well known in this city) that says that "we may reassign you" or "substitute" your room at any time, for any reason the hotel chooses.

(This is not just an "act of God" flooding or electrical issues type of clause, it's much broader).

Is this normal? Has anyone ever been "bumped" when a bigger customer comes in or for any other reason a venue chooses?

Thanks for your help!

janedoe1113a

If you want to rent that specific room for your wedding, I would ask them to revise the contract to make sure you get that room.

chosen175

It's pretty common, at least in the venues we looked at.  Of course if the room you want is a bit larger than you technically need and a larger party comes in asking for the same day, the venue is going to give THEM the bigger room.  I asked our venue if they'd put in our contract that we were guaranteed the larger (and much more beautiful) room and they said no - so we didn't sign with them.  Doesn't hurt to ask, though.

MyNameIsNot

I answered this on E, but again here.  Since you haven't signed yet, you should refuse to do so unless they take out the clause.  Do not rely on a verbal assurance that they won't move you, if it's in the written contract, they can. 

There are plenty of venues out there that will give you the room you want (at a cost).  Book one of them.

I <3 Seabass

I wouldn't sign a contract with that stipulation in it.  Our reception venue contract stated the specific room that we would be in and we had a minimum we had to meet. If we didn't meet the minimum we still got to stay in the room but we would have to pay for at least 150 people even if only 140 showed up.

future mrs.riva

does your venue come with a minimum you need to meet for the room? our venue had that clause- basically stating that if you have a room for say 250, but you only end up having 150 attend, they have the option to bump you down to a smaller room. BUT you might also want to ask if you can keep your room, regardless of the number attending, if you meet a minimum for the room. basically they want to make sure they don't lose money.
all in all, see if you can add it into the contract. if not, i dont think it's likely (don't quote me on this) that they'd bump you. but that's a risk you'd have to be comfortable with. GL

nicoleceline

That's a relatively normal clause, but like everyone else stated, you should ask what the reasons would be that they could bump you and if you could get it in writing that they won't (and have them date and sign it).


Megan

duckie1905

I wouldn't sign the contract unless they revised it to guarantee you the room you books and are planning on paying for.  But, it is fairly normal clause to see and not really usual.