Avoid Peak Season For Booking Your Party And Save $$$
Book a Caribbean cruise during January and you’ll quickly learn the meaning of the term “peak season.”
Like the travel industry, the party and special events industry has its own peak times. And keeping these in mind is handy when planning your event.
Just like making the decision whether to book a Caribbean cruise in January or October, you’ll find you have greater availability and flexibility engaging events services if you can avoid times of peak demand.
Late Spring, early Autumn, and the December holiday season tend to be peak times for most special events providers in moderate climates. Weekends, particularly Saturdays tend to be in highest demand throughout the year. Mondays are in less demand than Fridays for weekday events.
Being aware of booking patterns has real consequences for your planning and you pocketbook. Book during times of high demand and your costs will be higher and choices will be fewer.
For example, a lovely venue in suburban Philadelphia will charge you double if your wedding takes place on a Saturday evening in June rather than a Sunday afternoon in April. And yet the grounds in late April are lovely, with trees in blossom and flowers in bloom.
But the reason for the rate disparity is obvious. The facility turns away many Saturday June clients and is anxious to fill openings on April Sundays.
Other services have their own peculiar booking patterns, but you get the idea.
Performers rates are unlikely to skyrocket for peak time bookings (New Year’s Eve is a notable exception). But their minimums may increase and desired dates are snatched quickly.
Some dates are peak only to certain specialized segments of the events industry. For example, my company is challenged to fill all of the requests for Tarot readers for the Saturday evening preceding Halloween.
And then there is the odd date that seems to be very popular for no apparent reason. There are just some random weekends when it just seems that everyone is planning a party.
So what is the most in-demand time for most vendors? Saturday evenings in December before Christmas when holiday parties for families and businesses are extremely popular.
If your event must be held then, plan early and expect to pay a premium … just as you would if you were traveling to a resort during its peak travel season.
Or postpone the event until January and have greater flexibility and more reasonable rates.
