Any tips for talking to the hotel?

[happyout]

wowow! just starting out with the plans..have spent the last 2 wks emailing our hotel over and back about everything we could think of...thought we had covered everything... until now!!!!

great help..thanks so much x

[mrsnobby]

Has anybody ever haggled on the evening buffet and got anywhere with it?

[MrsEL10]

We got the evening buffet included in the price that they had given us for the meal so didn't have to pay anything extra

[Bridester]

Hey girls,

Reading this topic and it got me thinking. How will you know if there's a service charge? Will it say it in the wedding package documentation? What normally happens with un-used wine? Surely it is returned to the bride and groom?

Thanks.

[willbeoriordan]

Hey,

Regarding the service charge it should be in the fine print but my advise would be to just straight up ask about it! That way you can be like '12%? Is there any wiggle room on that??'
As for the unused wine be very careful, at my fsil wedding they brought in there own wine and they were told (the next day) by one member of staff that it was all gone. About an hour later my fmil spotted another member of staff carrying a full box of the wine through reception. Turns out they had 20+ bottles left, the staff were trying to nab the lot!!!!!

[Gra]

Yeah, I'd definitely agree that you should be careful about the wine that is unused. Ask them to keep corks from all the bottles opened. It's not going to stop some staff from trying to help themselves to some during the night, but at least it'll stop anyone from walking away with a case of it.

[Bridester]

So am I right to say u'd also be charged corkage on all the bottles too? Shocking stuff!

Also to clarify any wine brought in like this only served during the meal - not afterwards as well?

[shirk]

Hi, my bf got us some great deals, sometimes the packages can work out more exp, most of the normal hotels will be quite flexible but as an example we got free chair covers, bar ext and corkage, we also got 2 nites in the bridal suite, i had my heart set on 1 venue that were doin great packages but they wouldnt budge 1 cent so I just couldnt go wit them

[Scampi]

I actually enjoyed haggling with venues. One hotel had a price for our numbers at €8000, after a while he eventually came down to €6200, with all the same things still included on it. We decided not to book with that particular venue, but it was shocking to see how much room there was with regard to price.

My H2B and I had a bit of a system, anything we didn't want, we just put a pen through it, which helped us see at a glance what we did and didn't want included. If a price was put in front of us, we'd say something like "Right..." then pause. It's amazing what offers come on the table when they know you're not impressed.

Rule of thumb is never to take the first offer. We know one couple that paid for chair covers, bar extension and decor extras but we're getting them all for free, just be negotiating.

[Lorraine78]