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[Ken Freeman]

A corking charge on A/V...What will they think of next?

Ken

[kevinnemrava]

we are having soem pretty significate issues ourselfs.

The best one is the "150$ " electric charge, "cause those speakers use a lot of electricity", .. all 500 watts

add another $250 for the "distro" that you have to find, and plug in yourself.

the one taht takes the cake however, is the "loading dock" charge. 1 dollar/3 lbs, what we loaded though the dock ....

We didn't inquire as to if people counted in the weight total.

I think the way things are going to start happening, is that peopel will do events, and just not tell the hotel that they are bringing in 3rd party. A few of my clients are doign this already.

[Stephen Snipes]

I work for a hotel currently and one thing I can say about the
outside vendor policy is that it actually does have some good
behind it.  Not all hotels have actual in-house AV some still
outsource it but where I work we actually have in-house AV and
we own our equipment.  One of the reason for the charge to have
an AV person "shadow" an outside vendor is because the in-house
tech is more familiar with the property and where stuff is located
should they need something ie. patch into the house sound, have
a distro set up, etc.  We do not allow for an outside provider
to hook these things up themselves.  We don't charge for the use
of a distro because it helps us more than it hurts us because if
you blow the outlets we have to have someone come fix it.  With
the distro there is less chance of that happening.  Also the AV
fee is to verify that the outside provider follows our safety
guidelines such as ensuring all cords are securely taped down,
outlets are not overloaded,  walls are not damaged etc.
Also speaking just how our hotel is setup the AV tech doesn't
get paid a salary I get paid hourly so if a client is using an
outside provider there has to be a charge to have me come in
just to make sure what I said above takes place.  
The fee for charging the house sound makes complete sense
b/c it is property of the hotel not the outside provider.  
If you order items such as a mic or laptop patch the sound
is included.

Mainly the charge is implemented when you have a event using
$1000 or more worth of AV per day.  Also another thing is that
when you bring an outside provider the guest don't know that
the AV is being brought in by another company.  They assume
the hotel set the entire room up so you have the issue of image.
We have had companies come in and use a fast-fold screen and
not add a dress kit to it.  The fact our fast-folds have dress
kits we require that the outside provider's does too to keep
the look clean and uncluttered.  Those are just a few reasons I
could think of there are a bunch of things that go into the
policy but they vary from hotel to hotel.

[Ken Freeman]

I work in a lot of hotels, not just here, but all over the world. I find that the $8.00 tech that you dare charge me $75.00 an hour for as a load in supervisor, is just the thing that makes me want to do without rather than call you for anything.  When I have to actually ask him or her for something and the first reaction is to pull out the Ipod buds, I get really annoyed. If you are going to charge me for a service that I do not need and did not ask for, at least pay attention.

Ken

[Will Lane]

I've kinda mellowed on this whole issue.  I used to be outraged by it...but hey the client chose the venue and these fees are just a part of that.  It just gets billed back to the client, just like a perdiem does, or an overtime charge does...

I have more issues with local outside firms underbidding me than I do with people going to in house over our group.