Event Crisis

[TFNONE]

AIBU to expect some flexibility from a major chain hotel when it comes to a big event Im hosting in two weeks? Due to Corona Virus we are around 50 people down on a ticketed event. We have asked the hotel if they will reduced our numbers, which were 180, to 150, which would help us out alot. They have refused and said we signed the contract (which we did, April 2019) and they have every right to charge us, at an addition cost to my small business of £2000.

Should they be more accommodating due to the news?

[Randomname85]

I’ve had a similar issue and while it’s a shame it affects someone like you who runs a small business vs a chain, there is a lot of strain on everyone at the moment. Imagine if that chain had requests from hundreds of people at the same time regarding a similar request? It would be a lot of money for them to forfeit.

[SoloMummy]

Any profit they make is their business. Its sad it could be at the expense of your business, but they also need to negate the negative consequences of coronavirus on their business.
I would be more concerned about the potential for large events being banned. Then that's lots of £48 you're down.
I hope your event came with a refund policy that excused coronavirus given when you arranged it.

[Biancadelrioisback]

Okay, so most event suites have a minimum spend attached for an event. Let's say, for example, it was £1000. They will usually have a pricing strategy which would cover this so a package per person which adds up to at least the minimum spend and will contract you to a minimum number of people you are contracted to pay for at £X per person. If your event would have too few people to reach the minimum spend they would add on a room hire charge to at least bring it up to the minimum.
All of this will be written in your contract which you should have negotiated at the time. Always anticipate that your numbers will be less. So if you are hoping for 200 people, try and push for minimum numbers of 100 so you don't get hit (they'll probably offer 150).
I'd imagine that they would typically be somewhat flexible, but as we're going into a crisis, they'll be feeling it on all fronts. Other events cancelling, people cancelling reservations, not only at their site, but at their sister hotels too. If it's a global chain, orders will have come from the top and the GMs will be under a lot of pressure to keep their hands on money where possible. I'd guess that even elevating this to the GM wouldnt give you the result you want. They'll be following their contracts to the letter to avoid facing huge repercussions

[MayorPrentiss]

What were the minimums when you booked? Rule of thumb is that you should book the utter minimum and increase numbers as needed at the last possible moment - worth bearing in mind for future. If 180 is their minimum then they will need that revenue to make it worthwhile. If you're looking to drop 30 daily delegate rates at £48 per head that's just shy of £1500 - can you ask them to boost the spend elsewhere to make it a better experience for your existing delegates? So a better quality lunch/extra pastries at break times/more booze for the drinks reception? Once you're committed to a minimum spend with a hotel it's very hard to get that down.

Although to be honest I agree with pp - it's not looking likely your event will happen in 2 weeks at this rate. Do you have insurance?

[Onemorehitandillcrumble]

We agreed with the hotel, when we booked last April to pay for 180 meals

So that’s what you need to pay for then, regardless of how many turn up as they will have costed the whole event based on those figures (discounts per items etc bought from suppliers) unless you have anything re cancellations in your contract then you need to pay as you booked. You may not feel it’s right but this close to the date with stock/staffing/equipment (chair/table) hire and -most importantly-room size that they may have refused others the use of that room based on your booking - they may bee holding you to the fee based on the lost revenue of the size of the room booking especially if you could have been accommodated in a smaller room.
You may have booked it 11 months ago but they have been banking on that payment for nearly a year.

[TFNONE]

Normally for this event we would sell 220+ tickets. 180 was our minimum. To sell much less than that is only due to one thing.
For an event that has had rooms in the hotel booked for both weekend nights, the spend on the bar will be huge (always is with this event) I am genuinely surprised at the hotel not willing to even discuss it.
I like the idea of asking for the additional to be given out to homeless.

[LouMumsnet]

We've moved this over to our Coronavirus topic now.

[Biancadelrioisback]

Rooms and events are different revenues. The money goes into different pots to cover different costs. So an event which has loads of bedrooms ontop, while that's great for the overall monthly budget, it doesn't help the M&E team reach their targets. Also, you may well have ran this event before and feel confident saying that the bar spend will be huge, and I'm not saying that you're wrong. However, from their POV, there is no guarantee of that. I've done loads of events where people promise a huge bar spend and it really wasn't. With this whole virus, people might be less willing to drink as much or spend as much since we don't know what might happen from day to day. People might be conscious that they may have to dash home suddenly.

You also need to keep in mind how quickly this virus is spreading and how many people are being told to self isolate now. It's very, very likely that your numbers will drop again and you'll have a number of no shows. That is, if large gatherings aren't banned by then...