Is your independent hotel maximising income as a wedding venue?

Increasingly, our clients in the independent hotel sector are seeking to position themselves as wedding venues; whether just for receptions and after-parties or for the full service including non-religious ceremonies, and both indoors and outdoors.

Reasons for chasing the wedding pound

Commercially speaking, it makes good sense to consider the wedding sector as a key market; the benefits to positioning as an attractive wedding venue include:

• Significant deposits and advanced payments, which are the Holy Grail for cashflow
• Strong likelihood of full accommodation booking around the wedding
• Relatively straight forward catering from limited choice menus
• Business that is virtually recession / rate / tourism proof
• Consumers are increasingly comfortable with non-church weddings
• A fantastic experience inevitably leads to potential repeat business and referrals.

Don’t forget the bride

Traditionally, it was the parents paying whilst the bride and groom are more than a little emotionally involved in the decision.  Whether this is the case, or in fact the couple are contributing or covering all costs, they are heavily involved in all aspects of the selection and planning for the big day.

It’s fair to assume that whilst the ‘bankers’ will be giving consideration to costs and more practical matters, the bride and groom will be predominantly thinking about the magic and splendour of the day. This is where a skilled and experienced wedding coordination team comes in.

Making the right investments

From the perspective of the ‘emotional customer’ impressions are everything and the investment made in creating those impressions will pay back many-fold. Creating the right environment and having the right facilities will make or break your ability to commercialise your hotel as a wedding venue.

That investment may take an inevitable physical form in function suites, A/V, lighting, bar and open areas, guestrooms, leisure facilities and more as well as lighting, furniture, temporary structures etc. It can also be more esoteric in creating a good online visual presence, a great library of past events even, in one case a full VR experience of the big day!

It’s all about the guests

The guests are unlikely to be involved in choosing the venue, nor in paying for the occasion. You could say all they have to do is enjoy themselves.

However, to the hotelier, the guest experience is probably the greatest added value to the occasion.

The guest will almost certainly be less critical or appraising of the event; they will base their judgement more on the facilities available beyond the wedding, particularly if they are staying.

If you get the guest experience right, they will reward you with positive online reviews, with referrals and repeat business and possible – the greatest accolade of all – by using you for their own special occasion.

The guests will be interested in the quality of the rooms, the additional facilities such as spas, pools etc and on the breakfast. Indeed, the guest experience will largely be based on the day after the wedding rather than the wedding itself.

Are you set up to capitalise on the lucrative wedding market? Are you looking at investment to take your hotel to the next level?

That’s what we do. We help independent hotels grow and prosper.