Bargaining with Hotel Package Prices?

jay10

Has anyone successfully bargained with their venues asking price per head?? I am viewing places this weekend and we are getting married on a Sunday in November.....surely they will knock it down a little?? Its a recession! The smallest reduction would make huge difference in our budget....anyone got good strategy???Thanks in advance!

desistol

The first thing I would ask them to take out is any room fee.

jkepros

We're having our reception at a restaurant (Tapeo) we're renting out.  Originally they quoted us 2 prices, one to rent out the restaurant, but not the patio, and one for everything.  Well, we definitely wanted the patio but didn't think it was worth an extra $8k (I mean, what if it rains???), so we haggled and got them to drop it to $3k extra for the patio--PLUS we can decide up to 30 days in advance if we DON'T want the patio (like if a bunch of people can't come or we need to cut costs at the end or something).Basically to negotiate we just asked.  We said we thought that the price they quoted was a bit high, especially considering our use of the patio would depend on the weather, and asked the coordinator to talk to the owners.  We said if they could do it for $X, we definitely wanted to book, otherwise we weren't sure if we could afford it.  She got back to us and let us know that the owner ok'ed it.HTH!

noodle_oo

Yes, definitely!  I would not accept the package pricing as it is.  It is kind of like their first offer.  They should either negotiate the price or (if they can't do that) throw something extra in for you (like an additional food display) or something.  One venue we talked to, we got them to drop the pp price by about $15 per head, which is a huge difference!  They also threw in a cheese display I wanted for free.  Of course, this venue seems a little desperate (which worried FI a bit, if we book them we will definitely look into wedding insurance).  Don't feel bad about asking, they are used to it.  Just ask nicely.  They know you have options and they want your business.  The worst they can say is no.

anyalee

It may be easier to negotiate other fees as opposed to the cost of the meal.  For example, try to get rid of any split meal fee (usually $3), cake cutting fee, try to get upgraded apps/side dishes.  See if they'll give you an allowance for cake, flowers, invites, ect. (if it's not already included).  Definatley negotiate!  And remember that sunset in November is around 4:30 so you may want to plan the start time around that...for pictures sake.  Our venue usually does 12:00 on 6:00 wedding on Sats and we were able to get them to let us pick the time.  We choose 4:00 and got an extra 1/2 hour added onto the end.  GL!

anyalee

Also, I was about to book another, cheaper venue so they were willing to match some of they other venues prices to get my business.

Jellen29

One good thing to do is compare prices per head/packages at all of the different venues you look at.  Many places will do their best to match another venue's price if theirs is higher, or if a venue includes something in their package another one doesn't you can ask for it to be added.  Once I told one hotel I was choosing another because of the price difference, which was at least $20 a head, and they told me they would match whatever price I got from the other hotel.  We didn't go with them, but it was nice to know they were willing to make us a deal.

jay10

thank you ladies, i will try talk them around!

october010bride

I'm having a Sunday wedding and I was quoted a 10% discount for every single venue we looked at. I was able to pick and choose what I wanted in my package to eliminate extra costs.