Is it sensible to share your conference or meeting venue budget? 

Written on 9th February 2011 by Matthew

You need some building work done on your house and you get some builders round to give quotes. When asked what your budget is do you tell them? Some will but the more wary of us will just be thinking they will be marking up their work to fill our budget, even if the work is not worth that.

It's Good to Share

So is sharing your conference or meeting venue budget any different. Do venues just mark up their prices to maximise their revenues. Well from our experience this is not the case. Venues are particularly keen to secure what they know is a confirmed budget and are prepared to discount list prices significantly as a result (sometimes by as much as 65%).

Discounting Prices

Conference venue and meeting room enquiries without budgets are seen by venues as very prospective. Some will not bother putting in a proposal at all, others will give their standard list prices as there is no way of them telling if what they are proposing falls within the clients requirements. A confirmed budget on the other hand is worth putting in a proposal for and discounting their prices early on in the process will make sure their venue gets noticed.

The Limits

All venues have limits on what they can reduce their list prices by. Giving a healthy discount up front instead of going in high and hoping the client will come back to them and negotiate is definitely the trend. There may be less or no room for negotiation at the end but you will have realised savings much earlier on in the process. You will be surprised to see how many venues normally outside of your budget try to win your business.

So by being open on your budget you will either end up getting more for your money, gaining access to venues that would have normally come in too expensive or realising some great savings so you come in under budget.

Contingency

A final note is on budget contingency. It is always sensible to hold a bit of your budget back for those unknown costs that always seem to appear when you have a conference or meeting. If you do have a contingency then make sure you remove this from the budget you disclose to venues. Hold this in reserve until you need it.