The following are our top 10 things to take into consideration when booking a meeting room for your corporate training, meeting or event.
Availability
Before you get swept up in talk about pricing and facilities, find out whether or not they have the date(s) you require available in order to save yourself a lot of time. Ideally you want to make this one of your opening questions.
Equipment and Facilities
Not all providers of corporate meeting spaces will be equal in terms of the facilities they can offer. A high end venue can expect to be able to offer you high speed Wi-Fi internet, projectors, visual displays and computer laptops. These may come at additional cost, so find out what’s included in your price.
Catering and Refreshments
In order to have your day run smoothly your delegates will want to be able to get food and drink on site. Quality catering normally comes at a price; however special arrangements can be pre-arranged with local cafes and sandwich shops in order to provide food that can be purchased on the day.
Flexibility
A good venue will have lots of flexible options including room equipment, layouts, entry times and leaving times.
Costs
It can help to scope out several quotes in order to provide yourself with the information needed to negotiate on pricing. The cheapest quote is probably not going to be the most suitable venue, find out what will be included for your money.
Cancellation Policy
Sometimes even the best plans can and will go wrong. By checking the cancellation policy you can find out whether or not you are still liable to pay fees within a particular time scale. You can expect charges for regular customers to be considerably lower than a one off booking. It’s not unusual for catering still to be charged at late notice.
Surcharges and Small Print
Check to see whether or not they charge additional fees for car parking facilities or computers as they made not be included in your quote. You can ensure you’re not hit with these additional fees on the day by checking up front.
Repeat Business
If you’re looking to establish a long term relationship for multiple bookings, be sure to let them know! Companies would like you to use their facilities and may be able to give you introductory offers or waiver particular fees.
Staff
It’s a good idea to get a feel for the people who run, manage and operate the venue in question as these will be the people you entrust to help your day operate without any unexpected hiccups. Keen and informative staff will ask you plenty of questions in order to get the information needed to provide you with a service that meets your requirements.
Testimonials
Does the venue tell you who their past or current clients are? Do they provide a list of testimonials? This can be one of the most credible ways to establish whether or not a venue might be suitable for your needs based on recommendations from other credible organisations and businesses you trust.
This useful guide was written by Liam Malson of the PDW Group. PDW provide premium meeting rooms for businesses and corporate training within their purpose built venue located in Nottingham, UK.