Price Negotiation? How much room do we have?

I'm mainly concerned with the catering halls. I'm pretty sure individual vendors will try and be competitive.. but I was thinking how the catering halls have you in a bind. I can imagine if you go back to the catering hall, after your initial interview, they must think they probably have you hooked. You already know the price, and you liked it so much that you've come back there. I'm thinking they won't budge on price.

So, do you have any real leverage here?

Anyone have experience forcing out a better deal from the catering halls? If not getting a lower price, getting extras for free?

I didn't see anything general about this in the forum.. so maybe someone has some good info here.

Honestly, it depends from one hall to the other. The best bet is to schedule your meetings with them, always show interest, and sit there and negotiate.

Fall in love with the place first, and then sit down and go through the packages - most of the times, they'll work with your budget.

Do your research and make sure you're ready to book the place you dreamed of.

Just had to say you sooo sound like my FH. Whenever we would go back to a vendor twice he would say 'Now they're not going to negotiate...they think they have us!' Too funny!

Anyway, really depends on the hall. Some halls wouldn't budge...but this only happened once or twice. Many went down after we asked and two went down without us asking. It can definitely vary but most halls expect that you will try to negotiate. Good Luck.

Thanks for the reply..

So I take that as a yes, they will negotiate price (at least in some cases).

Anyone have any good negotiating tactics?

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Posted by HusbandToBe

Thanks for the reply..

So I take that as a yes, they will negotiate price (at least in some cases).

Anyone have any good negotiating tactics?

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you can remove certain things from the menu, like carving stations at the cocktail hour.

also, if you're flexible on the month and day, you will definitely find that they're more willing to negotiate. a Saturday night in June is the most expensive.

Yes, they can and will negotitate, they want your business after all. Best tips are, if you can book a short date, meaning 6 months or less you'll get a great deal (we booked in Oct for a May wedding). If you can get a cancelled date that they want to fill, you'll get a great deal. Always say your max pp is less than it is and have them meet you. We said ours was $60pp...we ended up paying mre but with a lot of things thrown in. Ask for extras...chair covers, stations, extra time, more entree choices. The worst they could say is no. If something seems too high or even if something seems great, don't get too excited, always ask 'is this the best you could do for us?'. Be prepared to say 'X place offered me this for Y price'...they'll almost always work with you.

Good luck and happy planning!

In my experience, most vendors are more willing to throw in extras than they are to lower their prices.

For instance, instead of asking the place to lower their price by $10pp, ask them to throw in extra cocktail stations or a viennese hour for free.

We were comfortable with the price we were quoted, so we decided to ask our banquet manager to throw in the dessert cafe (same as a viennese) for free...and she did it!

Best of luck to you on your hall search.

They sometimes throw stuff in that aren't included in the packages if you ask, i.e. flowers on the tables, mini viennese, etc.