Child’s party

[Anonymoususe]

Ok so I'm fully aware this may sound completely silly to some people, but I am massively suffering with anxiety particularly at the moment and just wanted to see if anyone has any advice on how to handle this.

I planned a party for my 1 year old at a local village hall last weekend. It was a really small party there was only about 5 children and the rest adults - covid and other things has meant we haven't been able to have many get togethers as a family so thought we'd make a celebration of it. We paid a £100 deposit, I emailed today thanking the lady who I had all correspondence with when planning, asking when we could expect the deposit back. She said she wants to ring me as there is a problem with a few things regarding our use of the hall! I have been racking my brains all morning and literally cannot think of anything it could be?! I'm so worried about the phone call I hate confrontation, I don't want to lose any of the deposit! I'm also annoyed that it's taken all week for anything to be said about it and until I contacted them. I know this is probably pointless as until i speak to her I don't know what it could be. For some reason this has triggered me to become so anxious and overwhelmed thought I could turn here for a bit of support I guess not sure how to handle this

Presumably you were given instructions on how to leave it - did you follow them?

So our village hall for example doesn’t have cleaners so you’d be expected to sweep the hall floor, clean the toilets and kitchen, put all the furniture back where you found it/chairs stacked in the cupboards, switch everything off and take the rubbish out. You would be expected to make sure no one smoked or vaped, that nothing was left behind and pay for any breakages or damage.

Assuming you followed any instructions you were given I’d assume misunderstanding/mixup and that it’ll get sorted out easily enough on the phone.

Was the hall clean and tidy when you left? Was there anything forgotten or left behind? Was there any damage?

It could be something as silly as a pull cord on a light has broken so they want to deduct a fiver.

So I’ve spoken to them, they had a cleaner stop by after our 2hr party to check over the place before Monday morning. They are charging £30 for cleaning…in the photos they’ve sent there are 2 small leaves on the floor of the lobby area which weren’t swept up (no exaggeration) one toilet in the mens wasnt flushed (only a wee! The rest was clean!) which I totally take responsibility for I should’ve noticed that but I only checked all the taps were off and that it looked generally clean, rather than each cubicle. And also the bin in the ladies had a few bits of rubbish in - again I’m kicking myself for not emptying that! Was all a bit hectic and I was focusing on the kitchen/ main hall area. I still think £30 is excessive…they told me on the phone they already organised for a cleaner to stop by - it would have taken about 10 minutes to do those bits. I know WE should have done them before we left I’m not arguing that - but £30?!

I get it's frustrating but they have to pay the cleaner and pass the charges on to you. The fee has to be worth the cleaners time and effort to get into work as well.

Yes i suppose you’re right. I won’t bother arguing it over £30 I get too stressed about these things, but I do think its quite unfair. The way the lady said it on the phone was that they were already planning on having it cleaned before an event Monday morning. won’t be booking next years party there that’s for sure 😂

Sorry 3 leaves 🫣

Honestly it sounds about par for the course to me. They’re not a business, our village hall is run by volunteers on a shoestring - a completely thankless task and I’m not sure why they do it to be honest. The cleaner will want a minimum payment and they’ve probably deduced that you haven’t thoroughly cleaned if you haven’t even made sure the toilets were flushed.

To you it’s trivial and a couple of leaves but to the person running the place who probably deals with this stuff every other weekend the alternative is she ends up doing lots of “ten minutes” after every let.

Feel for you! Hired our village hall for a birthday party too and it took parents and inlaws to make sure it was up to scratch.

I get they have to pay a cleaner - even if it's only a few small things - but £30 is presumably a fee for 2 hours work. I'd offer to pay £15 as I'd expect them to charge one hour minimum.