Venue charging for 'outside' DJ

[musicology]

...Your friend can either negotiate the fee he pays and try and either eliminate or reduce the additional charge, or pay it (since he's saving money overall anyway).

Julian

I think a call to trading standards to clarify his position would be a better option before accepting any such arrangement.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I was thinking about this a bit more last night and it reminded me of an occasion when I had my first booking at a venue I'd never been to before when I was still relatively new as a business (I've been to the venue many times since).
A long time friend of the family asked if I could do her wedding for her at this particular venue and she was over the moon when I said I was available and yes, I could do it. She started stressing a bit though because she really wanted the venue and she really wanted me too.
I may have been relatively new but I did know the score when it came to resident DJ's and hotels using agencies or paying peanuts etc as I'd been working for someone else previously so I chatted with her and her husband to be about it and I told them what I've said previously about the venue not wanting to miss out on a few grand just because of the DJ.

I also told them that what they would be paying the hotel for the DJ as part of the 'package' would not be what the DJ would be paid because the hotel would want to make money out of them. They weren't impressed and I knew she wasn't one for holding back. I guess you could call her a bridezilla because she went to the hotel one evening (asked me to go along too) and kicked off. She was quite embarrassing actually but she got her point across and at the end of the 'chat' (ha!ha!) it was agreed that I could do the DJing. I was covered with PLI and PAT as the venue had requested and there were no problems.

On the night I got chatting to the (unfortunate) guy we'd spoken to and I found out a bit more about this particular hotels policy regarding DJ's and it was confirmed that they ALWAYS (still do) use an agency. I asked him if the agency DJ's did customer meetings and he said "not that I know of" and it became clear (to me anyway) that it was a case of the customer not knowing who they are getting. The guy said "There is always a DJ here on time and they've never let us down".

That same guy ended up working at another hotel that I do quite regularly and the pair of us worked together to get a better thing going. I am recommended by them (him) and I get most of the work but people DON'T have to have me. If they DO book me I meet them at the hotel and chat with them in advance so it is more personal. The guy also told me that when he was working at the other venue and their deal was with the agency, although he didn't know what the agency paid the DJ he did know that the agency charged the hotel £350.00 and the hotel charged the customer £450.00 and this was around 10 years ago.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

One of the local venues here charge any "out of the loop" suppliers who plug into the electric £75 for "insurance purposes".

I'm sure there are others but I just don't hear about it.

[Excalibur]

One of the local venues here charge any "out of the loop" suppliers who plug into the electric £75 for "insurance purposes".

I'm sure there are others but I just don't hear about it.

I'm thus waiting for some enterprising soul to turn up with a laptop, and battery powered speakers and lights. It's tricky, but doable.

[Nakatomi]

My residency don't charge for outside entertainment to come in, nor do they check PLI & PAT. I'm trying to change the latter 2, but I wouldn't see any money the venue got from charging a fee so I don't care either way.

I've told my own tale of wedding woe here before, where we weren't allowed to bring in our own DJ. More is the pity. We discussed it at length but I basically just shrugged & went "ah, it's a nice place - how bad can their resident possibly be?". Oh dear oh dear. He had ONE original CD (no laptop DJs way back then), and his mic work was abominable. I borrowed the mic at one point & I sounded just as bad as he did. I saw why immediately & tweaked the mic EQ nicely. I was then clear as crystal. I said what I wanted to say & gave him his mic back. He then turned the mic EQ back to where it'd been previously. I could've chinned him there & then, I swear.

Are residents any better or worse than disco X Y or Z? Probably not, but the point is customers should be able to get who they want. Hell, I'd love to be able to turn round to my venue & tell them I don't want to work with certain customers.

[mattydj50]

My residency don't charge for outside entertainment to come in, nor do they check PLI & PAT. I'm trying to change the latter 2, but I wouldn't see any money the venue got from charging a fee so I don't care either way.

My residency DO charge for using an external DJ and do check PLI and PAT. Some of this stems from one DJ who turned up one night with his private house insurance which included the clause "public liability" somewhere in the forty thousand sub clauses and he thought that was good enough. I was there that night and the manager brought me the paperwork to see what I thought! When I got up off the floor I told him he had two choices. Send him packing and ruin somebody's wedding day or grit his teeth, put the black cat, rabbit's foot and as much four leafed clover as he could find into a sow's ear and hope for the best that he didn't burn the Grade 2 listed building down. He chose the latter and the finger crossing worked.

That DJ had no evidence of PAT testing either and, when asked by the manager on duty that night, he got the reply, "well, everything looks all right to me and nothing's blown up yet"!

So they term this an "administration" charge to check the certification and they also reserve the right to inspect equipment supplied. I don't know whether external DJs are required to complete the 16 page risk assessment and "entertainment supply" document that I have had to (needed 3 months in advance too)! I have my doubts.

There is also the fact that the venue's price to the client will probably have VAT added whereas most of us will not be registered of charging VAT. So, if I am charging £250 (with no VAT) to the venue for a night's work, just to break even then, they will have to charge the client £300 including VAT, plus any "commission" they will almost certainly add.

[ukpartydj]

One thing I always say to my customers is that they don't have to have the resident DJ if they don't want to. A venue won't want to miss out on a booking simply because the customer wants to bring in their own DJ.

I appreciate that it's slightly different but I'm booking things for my wedding next year and when we were looking for a venue some insisted we used many of their services. Considering we want a marquee wedding and we were essentially hiring the grass the marquee would sit on it came as a bit of a shock to me that they insisted we used only suppliers on their reccomended list, another told us we had to pay for their PA system to be installed and their sound engineer if we wanted a band or DJ and hire their security guards... Nightmare, luckily we sacked that off and found a much much better place where the owner has been extremely helpful and resonable giving us free rein on suppliers.

On the night I got chatting to the (unfortunate) guy we'd spoken to and I found out a bit more about this particular hotels policy regarding DJ's and it was confirmed that they ALWAYS (still do) use an agency. I asked him if the agency DJ's did customer meetings and he said "not that I know of" and it became clear (to me anyway) that it was a case of the customer not knowing who they are getting. The guy said "There is always a DJ here on time and they've never let us down".

I've worked for an agency (not done one for a long time now though) which is exactly the same - nobody ever meets the couple, I don't think that's a terrible terrible thing but when they also don't know my name, the venue didn't realise it'd be me and I have a short list of requests it becomes a bit more interesting. Luckily I only really work with the one agent (infrequently) currently and e's been alright .

[Corabar Entertainment]

Putting things from the other side of a coin: we work very closely with a marquee site and have done for a couple of years now. When they first started, they just hired the land and people could book whatever suppliers they wanted. However, due to numpties, things have gradually changed. When EH got involved because of noise complaints is when we got involved (we were booked privately by a B&G, and there weren't any noise complaints that night), so since then, we've been providing the PA for every wedding, and it's actually written in to their licence from the Council that we supply it.

These days, the fee for the hire of the land includes some basics - ie toilets, generators, and our PA, and a list of recommended suppliers (that the clients book direct, so no fee taken by the venue). However, as of next year, they are going further: there will be an admin fee of £100 if they want to choose a DJ that isn't on their recommended list (which includes us and a few other local DJs that we recommended to them). Why? Nothing to do with wanting to make money, but everything due to the fact that we've had some right idiots there who haven't got a clue and end up spending hours and hours with them bitching, moaning, complaining, chasing for documentation, sorting out their 'issues', teaching them (what should be) basics, etc. These issues haven't happened with any other types of suppliers, so there is no surcharge if they don't choose off the recommended suppliers list for other suppliers, but both we and the site owners are fed up with dealing with the issues from bands and DJs, so the surcharge is being imposed to at least compensate us a little for the time we spend if they do choose someone not on the list.

It may be unfair on decent DJs (and we've been on that end too, where a client wanted us but the venue refused), but after seeing what the venues have to put up with, I can't say I blame them wanting to minimise those issues.

[yourdj]

The venue use a DJ that is most probably charging £200. They add it too the package at, lets say £350, and then charge VAT on top of that. Sooner or later you are looking at a £410 DJ. i used to work for a venue like this i remember people saying "we paid £400 for you". I felt like saying, no you did not you paid £400 for a £250 DJ".

Yes they then charged clients that difference if they wanted their own entertainment as its probably classed as a loss on working capital. The only venue i am in occasionally get clients that book the complete package and don't like what we do and book someone else (happened once or twice as they have a VERY good deal getting us). The venue add my charge plus VAT (not sure about any mark up??), but have not charged them as in my opinion it takes the mic.

On the one occasion I remember, I thought the meeting went very well, but they took a real dislike to me (completely the wrong end of the stick). The guy they booked in the end was pretty bad (I had a meeting on that night there and peeked). More fool them, but clients should be entitled to choose what entertainment they have without ensuring penalties!!

[ukpartydj]

Putting things from the other side of a coin.

I can understand the logic however there are ways of combating those issues without restricting the client.

I may be way off here making generalisations but I personally see it as a money spinning venture only.