Renting Chair Covers Vs Renting Chairs

One of the issues many event organisers face when selecting and booking a venue space is the seating arrangement.

If your event is a standing room only cocktail affair then it's no problem at all, but the challenges arise when you need to find a venue to seat your guests either banquet style in round tables or on communal long tables.

Why?

Because chairs help theme your event and create an instant atmosphere of the look you are trying to create. But your venue may not supply the chairs you like.

An event which features elegant yet rustic wooden Bentwood chairs feels very different from one that employs glamorous clear acrylic Ghost chairs.

You can see how very different the George Ballroom in St Kilda, VIC looks with different style chairs hired for the occasion, and (hint) there's not a chair cover in sight.

Most venues, except the high-end ones, supply standard office-style oval-shaped grey or dusty pink dining chairs that don't align with your vision.

So what you do? 

Rent chair covers, rent chairs, or do you look for a venue which matches your needs for capacity and location AND provides attractive chairs in a style you like (in an admittedly higher cost package)?

Let's have a look at some things to consider:
* Chair covers often make a venue space look like a tired, generic wedding reception, especially if they're white - and for the love of all that is holy, avoid adding coloured chair sashes unless you are going for an ironic 80s The Wedding Singer look.
* A sea of white (or any other colour) chair covers is surprisingly overwhelming.
* However, white chairs, and especially white Tiffany chairs, are particularly "bridal" whether that's your intention or not.
* Lycra chair covers are "somewhat" more modern looking than satin-style loose chair covers.
* Lycra chair covers are surprisingly stiff at the bottom where they stretch over the chair feet and have an odd "blocking" effect where guests cannot easily put their feet easily against their chair and women cannot easily place their handbags under their chairs.
* On average, it takes an event hire assistant about an hour to put on 50 loose chair covers vs 35 lycra chair covers - and this labour fee is additional to your chair cover rental fee.
* If your event hire company is spending time putting on chair covers, they need more time before your event starts to do anything else ie lay cutlery, arrange centrepieces, table numbers, hang lighting and florals, put up signage, display placecards and guest favours and so on.
* Many venues give you only 60-90 minutes before your event starts to "bump-in" and charge an early access fee if you need more time to set up.

So let's imagine an event at a venue for 150 guests and you can either hire lycra chair covers or chairs and you have 90 minutes to bump in or you can pay extra to get early access.

Hire 150 x lycra chair covers @ $4 = $600 (Remember, this takes 3 hours @ 50 lycra chair covers)
Labour cost of $35 per person per hour for 150 chair covers = $105
Average delivery cost @ $250
Early access fee to venue @ $200
Total = $1,155 approximately for 150 lycra chair covers

Hire 150 x Tiffany chairs @ $11 = $1,650
Average delivery cost = $750
Total = $2,400

Clearly, the chair cover rental costs less - but do you want your corporate event to look like a wedding?

Before you commit to selecting your venue, check out their chairs.

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