Top things to consider when booking a venue in Central London

Planning a meeting or event in central London can be quite a daunting prospect due to the number of venues available for all needs. When looking for or booking a venue, no matter where the location is, there are a number of things to consider – venues in Central London are no different, however the location being in the middle of a major city can make some things more interesting. Below are 4 of our most important aspects to consider when searching for your perfect venue.

Location & Access

Central London is one of the best connected cities in the world and you are rarely further than a few minutes’ walk from the nearest public transport station. Whilst this can make most venues an ideal situation you will have to consider if the location is viable for people that may be driving or if you have large amounts of props and items as part of your event. Not many venues in Central London have their own parking and when they do there is often an additional charge, so make sure your budget includes these potential costs.

The other aspect is accessibility and whether the venue is suitable for all of your delegates. You need to make sure that any needs of your delegates can be met by the venue and that everyone can be included in the event you are planning. Most venues now will be compliant with the accessibility requirements, especially if they are a modern or new build venue, it is more likely to be in older and more historic venues that there may be a problem.

Capacity – both minimum and maximums

Before looking at venues you will need to know the number of people attending the event. Once you know your attendance it is easier to find a suitable venue and a room that will not be too big or on the rather small side. Venues also have to work to fire regulations and capacities for each room, so if you book a room that can hold 250 people and you then have 500 people sign up the venue is unlikely to be able to assist you. There are normally minimum numbers required for costs and these are normally applied when there is catering included or if you are working to a delegate rate. These delegate rates can work out cheaper but you must ensure that the minimum required numbers are met.

What’s Included

Knowing what is included will save you a great deal of cost further down the line, whether it is through having to pay for additional services at the venue or from other third party companies. The key things for most events would be catering, staging, lighting and audio equipment, outside of this you are looking at more specialist events that may well need to supply some of the equipment themselves. Catering is an important aspect of most meetings and events, so it needs to be included in initial discussions to find out what the venue is able to offer and at what price. The same goes with staging, lighting and audio equipment, if you require it. Normally a venue will have this equipment or be able to source it and within their price they will include any insurance and set-up/take-down required, saving you a lot of time and stress on the day of the event. Details of what is included will normally be found in the contract but it is always worth confirming the details with a venue before confirming the booking.

The Small Print

This is the most important thing that every event organiser must read. There are too many stories of people being charged because they have not abided by conditions laid out in the small print, the most important thing is that the organiser reads these and knows exactly what their rights are. A lot of the time the small print that catches people out relates to cancellation clauses. These clauses generally impose a financial penalty for cancelling a booking and the amount increases the closer to the event date you get. A simple read of these conditions will inform you of your rights to cancellation and if you do not agree with them you are able to withdraw before signing the contract.

The small print does not only cover cancellations, it covers everything that could possibly relate to your booking. It will detail any charges that would be incurred for overruns or for additional people, as well as general conditions in respect of the expected behaviour of your delegates. Signing a contract without reading the small print can leave an event organiser red-faced if there are issues, so the simple way of avoiding these situations is by reading contracts first.

Taking your time to weigh up your options and reading through each venues terms and conditions will place you in a much better position to host a successful meeting or event. The above are some general points that should start you off on the right path, however each venue booking has its own quirks so apply common sense and double check everything as required.

Article provided by Mike James, an independent content writer working alongside events companies like Best Venues London – a FREE venue sourcing service helping to source Conference venues in London, who were consulted over the information within this piece.