We get it; things can get expensive when you are looking to plan a meeting, celebration or even a wedding. But you don’t need to “know a guy” to get a deal, you just need to get strategic with how you do it. Here are 5 ways to save money on your next booking:
DAY OF THE WEEK
At Santa Maria Goretti Centre, you can save an average of $200 on your hall rental rates by booking your meeting on a weekday. Weekends are a busy time for events, which is why venues increase their prices to accommodate for the influx. Take advantage of the slow time, abundance of parking and the discounted rates by looking at Monday to Thursday reservations.
THE MEAL
With the increase in cost to export produce, rising oil prices, and the dramatic change in our climate taking its toll on crops, all of this is affects the price of food. Food is almost always the biggest expense when you bring people together, but change the way you look it and you can get around breaking the bank when you feed your guests. If you schedule your meeting in the morning, this will cut your sit down meal price in half compared to that of the dinner menu. People will still have a variety of delicious cuisine for a fraction of the cost just simply when you change the time of day. Depending on the style of your event, if you wanted to keep people interacting, you could serve appetizers instead of a traditional meal. Also, take advantage of the Sunday Pranzo at SMGC to plan your get together. The elaborate seven-course meal is the cheapest option for the quantity of food that you get; just book a private pranzo for the additional privacy.
ALTERNATIVE ROOMS
When looking at a hall to book your clubs meeting, practice space or creative class, the venues marketing usually pushes you to look at the featured rooms but there may be other options. Depending on the venue, you can save money by breaking up a room with a partition wall, or using a secondary space. At SMGC, we have a variety of rooms on the lower level that can be used for smaller occasions at a fraction of the price, even during peak time on weekends.
MULTIPLE BOOKINGS
You may be booking a multi day conference, monthly meetings, or planning your own weekly dance, paint or yoga class. Making multiple bookings at the same venue will always be more cost effective than sporadically reserving single dates. Its ideal to talk to your venue about discounted rates for bulk buying dates, as early in your schedule as possible.
BRING YOUR OWN GEAR
Most venues will have items for rent, like projectors, screens, sound systems, centerpieces, linens, etc. Depending on the venue and their policies, bring in these items yourself if you have access to them. This will always save you money, as long as you are all right with spending a little extra time to set them up and tear them down.
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