Venue charging Bride to use "outside" vendors.

Jim Snow · May 7th, 2009, 09:55 AM

Publicity, lots of publicity is the way to reduce this type of extortion. The only problem is; who will provide negative publicity about wedding venues? A first thought would be bridal magazines and destination publications. But if a major venue is an advertiser or potential advertiser, how "objective" do you think the magazine would be? All to often - not very.

When it comes to money, priorities of businesses and people become much more complex and self serving. Altruism isn't often found in business. People often keep their mouth shut for fear of the consequences. A case in point - Warren, the hotel in Hawaii has a name. But you didn't give everyone a heads up by naming the hotel. Why? Because you didn't want to risk recriminatory impact on your business. I'm not saying that you should take that risk, I'm just using that as an example of what I mean.

The bright light of day is a good way to deal with this type of "extortion". But who has the light - or the courage to use it?

Philip Howells · May 14th, 2009, 11:47 PM

The Hawaii hotel situation sounds like the pits. Here in the Manchester UK area we're preferred suppliers to two local hotels. In neither case does the hotel require a fee or a percentage and the clients are free to bring in their own people if they wish without additional charge.

For us the benefit is that the hotels distribute our packs (brochures, price and demo DVD) to prospective clients.

For the hotels it means they can recommend a supplier whose work and peformance equals theirs.

These hotels each have two wedding fairs each year for which we pay a modest fee which goes into advertising. In additional they hold a monthly "Wedding Open Day" at which only preferred suppliers can exhibit but do so for free. These are lower key than the Fairs but give plenty of time to talk to potential clients, to show them specific examples in previous weddings. Through-put is low, conversion is high, commitment from us (given that it's two Sundays each month through the year when we're tied up) is also high but we didn't come into this business after a lifetime in Corporate/bit of Broadcast because we wanted an easy life!

We also pay a local church (notable for literary associations - a former vicar wrote Alice In Wonderland etc) a modest annual fee to appear on their website and also to distribute our packs to each potential bridal couple. They charge a fee because of some unique windows but again it's nominal.

As a general remark, we find wedding fairs and these Preferred Suppliers events better value than print advertising.

May 7th, 2009, 09:55 AM	#16
Jim Snow Trustee Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Santa Clara, CA Posts: 1,104	Publicity, lots of publicity is the way to reduce this type of extortion. The only problem is; who will provide negative publicity about wedding venues? A first thought would be bridal magazines and destination publications. But if a major venue is an advertiser or potential advertiser, how "objective" do you think the magazine would be? All to often - not very. When it comes to money, priorities of businesses and people become much more complex and self serving. Altruism isn't often found in business. People often keep their mouth shut for fear of the consequences. A case in point - Warren, the hotel in Hawaii has a name. But you didn't give everyone a heads up by naming the hotel. Why? Because you didn't want to risk recriminatory impact on your business. I'm not saying that you should take that risk, I'm just using that as an example of what I mean. The bright light of day is a good way to deal with this type of "extortion". But who has the light - or the courage to use it?

May 14th, 2009, 11:47 PM	#17
Philip Howells Trustee Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 1,212	The Hawaii hotel situation sounds like the pits. Here in the Manchester UK area we're preferred suppliers to two local hotels. In neither case does the hotel require a fee or a percentage and the clients are free to bring in their own people if they wish without additional charge. For us the benefit is that the hotels distribute our packs (brochures, price and demo DVD) to prospective clients. For the hotels it means they can recommend a supplier whose work and peformance equals theirs. These hotels each have two wedding fairs each year for which we pay a modest fee which goes into advertising. In additional they hold a monthly "Wedding Open Day" at which only preferred suppliers can exhibit but do so for free. These are lower key than the Fairs but give plenty of time to talk to potential clients, to show them specific examples in previous weddings. Through-put is low, conversion is high, commitment from us (given that it's two Sundays each month through the year when we're tied up) is also high but we didn't come into this business after a lifetime in Corporate/bit of Broadcast because we wanted an easy life! We also pay a local church (notable for literary associations - a former vicar wrote Alice In Wonderland etc) a modest annual fee to appear on their website and also to distribute our packs to each potential bridal couple. They charge a fee because of some unique windows but again it's nominal. As a general remark, we find wedding fairs and these Preferred Suppliers events better value than print advertising.