To think that our wedding caterer shouldn't charge us for barbecue hire?

[thousanddenier]

We've had a quote through for our wedding catering and the equipment hire breakdown includes a cost for hiring the barbecues (at £200 for two)

They hire all the crockery and glasses etc on our behalf at cost price which is fine and I understand that's additional to the cost of food.

AIBU to think that a bbq menu should include the cost of the things it's being cooked on? I suppose it's a bit of a grey area as I accept that they have to charge us for the hire of other kitchen eqpt (sinks and the like) as we're having a marquee wedding.

They're a lovely little boutique company and really want to use them so I don't know if IABU to push back on this if it's standard practice?

Why is the bbq any different from the other stuff they have to hire?!

I'd expect it to be costed into the per head fee, but then I'd expect the same with all the other equipment too so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about

It seems a bit steep though.

If they were just carrying out trays of BBQ food then maybe it's unreasonable, if they're BBQing in the marquee then the BBQ is part of the "experience" so not unreasonable.

I'm not sure, I just feel that if they offer a bbq menu they should own barbecues. The cost of hire of them took me back a bit!

Does it matter whether they charge separately for it or increase the price of the food to cover it? It's the overall quote for everything that matters, not how it's made up.

Pretty sure it's standard practice. Unless they advertise themselves as a BBQ company specifically?

It's no different to having to hire the ovens if you weren't having a BBQ menu.

If they have to pay to hire them on your behalf then i assume you have to pay for them somehow. I guess they could have increased the cost of the food to cover this but they have been open about it. Seems fair to me.

If you ordered a roast beef dinner menu would they charge hire for ovens?

I wonder how much they are to buy..? off to google

It's completely reasonable unless they only do barbeque food

It does seem steep. I would ask whether they own the BBQs and charcoal/gas, and if not, from whom they are hiring them. Might look to find some for less.

The overall price is the key thing IMO.

It probably would be difficult to cost it into the price per head as that would depend on the number of guests.
e.g. if 40 guests, the £200 BBQ would add £5 per guest, but for 200 guests only £1 per guest.

It's probably easier to say that the BBQ is £200, then food is £xxx per head.

£200 to hire a BBQ is quite a lot though.

ok so the ones quoted for cost nearly £2k each new

Can you find a price for second hand BBQ's? Then buy two and sell them afterwards for the same price you paid for them?
However, you'd have to set them up, and then clean them afterwards, so probably not worth it?

I think it's standard. It wouldnt be a wonky £40 Homebase BBQ and probably cost a fair bit for them to buy. Hire charges are then a company's way of making this expense back, plus wear and tear and probably cleaning the thing afterwards as well.

SmallVera are you the OP, if so, name change fail. Your replies are no longer highlighted, so people might miss your replies.

I don't know if it's the same, but we had a chocolate fountain at ours, which we had to hire, on top of the other cost for the buffet.

YABU. If they had spent the money to buy expensive barbecues you’d be paying more per head. It’s more expensive to bbq instead of using the kitchen at the venue you’ve hired, which is presumably what their standard charges are based on.

Motoko I've just noticed that and reported it - I nc'd as not many people in RL know I'm getting married and some of them know my usual MN name!
I am a twat

And also IABU I suppose. It's expensive, this wedding lark.

probably what's happened is they've listed that cost in the interests of transparency. If you had a higher price quoted for food, per head, which included the cost of the barbecue, would you have noticed?

it's just I can imagine a business thinking that it would be better to really show all the costs so people can see what it's all for, and I wonder if, in this case, it hasn't worked!

How much have they quoted per head?

I presume they've specified the particular BBQs they want to use? you could try finding out the hire price yourself (not mentioning it's a wedding) and offer to get them collected/checked/installed if it's significantly cheaper. Or use it as a bargaining chip to get the price down if they're really being cheeky. Only problem is making sure this is done, making sure they light/have enough fuel, and insuring against them breaking down.

I nc'd as not many people in RL know I'm getting married and some of them know my usual MN name!

Oops! You're not a twat though!