Venue advice

We all know things are difficult economically but that doesn’t seem to me to justify some of the corporate greed that’s cropping up.

One of the nearby quality local hotels, part of a well-known chain has signed up with a company to instal TV screens in its leisure club and this company is selling advertising space on these screens. Note that there is no sound on the screens.

The hotel already has screens in the main hotel area – another supplier and another contract – currently up for re-negotiation I’m told.

It also has a preferred supplier list which includes wedding suppliers.

And twice a year it has a wedding fair organised (for a fee) by a company that also publishes a wedding magazine.

That’s four potential revenue streams, all promoting the single resource behind them all – the hotel. And what is the real value advertisers are getting?

Only two of the six TV screens in the leisure club are a decent size (46″) – the reminder are 26″ and located in the changing rooms – though just what value there is in silent advertising to people getting showered and changed is beyond me.

The hotel declines to hold or distribute the advertising material of any supplier – “too much trouble” – and the only way to get a stand (£250 for 4 hours) at the wedding fair is to take print advertising with the magazine.

Now I’m a committed free market person but all this one-sided promotion stands in contrast to the hotel’s reported desire to attract a “better class of wedding”.

Happily this isn’t a universal situation.

I know of two reputable hotels in our area, one part of a national chain, the other independent, which are taking the economic situation head on – in conjunction with suppliers, not subsidised by them. Rates for supplier participation at their events have been lowered, not raised and suppliers invited on the basis of their reputation and track record with the hotel, not merely their ability to pay.

Good reputations are the toughest things to gain and the easiest to lose. If you’re looking for a venue for a wedding, don’t rely on the name alone when drawing up your list of possibles – visit as many as you can yourself and make up your own mind.