Patricia over at Markree Castle has written a great blog post on “Wedding Price Wars” looking at price cutting and haggling from a hotel’s point of view. Obviously, we are all out there looking for the best deal nowadays but you have to bear in mind that if you are squeezing the hotel massively, that they are a business and they will have to cut corners in places to keep their margin.
Here are some of Patricia’s tips for “Would-Be Hagglers“:
1. Sort out the prices before you sign the contract and/or pay a deposit- the reasons for this are obvious. Firstly, you won’t know if you’ll be able to get the deal you want/need until you ask and you may end up stuck with a venue that can’t fulfill your needs. Secondly, it’s only polite to let the hotel know if you are on a budget before things are set in stone.
2. Watch out for catches in ‘package’ prices. Lots of hotels offer, for example, 1/2 bottle of wine per person as part of their package- rarely, in fact nearly never, would your wedding guests drink even close to this amount and not many hotels are offering you the left-over wine to bring home with you! Often you’ll get a better deal on a per consumption basis.
2. Remember that hotels are businesses- exceptionally low prices mean they will be cutting corners somewhere to protect their profits, whether it be on the quality of food or staffing levels on the day.
3. Beware of hotels that will only give you the best price if you pay for the whole lot 6 weeks before the wedding- we can’t think of a single non-shifty reason for this.
4. Bear in mind that if you really want the best prices you will have to make some compromises. For instance, you will always get the best price if you choose an off-peak date for your wedding even if it means compromising your ideal of a sunny, summer Saturday.
5. Don’t get too caught up in the price. Ask yourself this- is the cost the most important thing about my wedding day? The answer is of course no- instead think about value for money.
6. Don’t always thing about value as being purely relating to something that you can physically hold on to. Think of all the other intangible elements that will make up your wedding day: atmosphere, company, backdrop….
7. The number one issue of contention seems to be corkage. Seems to be a rip off since you aren’t paying for a product. Instead think of it as a service and consider the other costs associated with serving wine, aside from the wine itself: storing, chilling, polishing glasses, laying glasses, opening, serving, washing the glasses.
You can read Patricia’s full post here and of course if you dream of a castle wedding or are looking for a Sligo Wedding Venue, you can check availability for the ever-fabulous Markree Castle on weddingdates.ie!
