Let's be real: Hotel AV is incredibly expensive and the options are limited.
When planning an event at an NYC hotel, the time will come when you must decide whether to use the in-house hotel audiovisual department or hire an outside A/V vendor.
There will be a few factors in determining your decision. The important factor will be your relationship with the hotel and what pricing you are offered. We know that with each event you plan, your intention is a flawless execution that excites the audience.
In our many years in the industry, we have worked closely with many hotel AV departments. We have even hired hotel audiovisual staff as our freelance technicians. We have found many skilled technicians with amazing personalities and great customer service and many technicians without The main difference between an audiovisual department or a third-party A/V vendor are their customer service and price.
An in-house hotel’s A/V department often gets overwhelmed and cares less about the client’s wants and needs. They have very little invested in how well the show goes because their clients often fall into their laps. Hotels and their A/V departments are often connected by contracts. While many hotels will allow you to bring in a third-party vendor, many hotels are trying to run third-party vendors away.
Clients are choosing outside A/V vendors often based on their past experience with using the in-house department. While in-house audiovisual departments are often providing A/V services for many events occurring simultaneously, a third-party vendor will staff your one event with technicians that are only focusing on your one event at that time. Our employees have a thorough understanding that our client’s satisfaction is of most importance. Secondly, they understand that our existence relies on repeat business.
The second difference is the price! If the in-house hotel audiovisual department is required to ‘kickback’ a fee to the hotel, which many are required to do, then they will never be able to beat the pricing of an outside A/V company. If a kickback is not required then the hotel is setting the audiovisual prices and paying a portion back to the in-house audiovisual department. Either method leaves the in-house department with little flexibility to discount. A client often decides to go with the in-house hotel audiovisual department based on a false level of confidence that the in-house is located on the property so their response time will be immediate. If you do enough shows in a hotel you quickly learn this is not true. However, if our technician is on-site during your event then our response time is absolutely immediate.
In closing, we always advise event planners to get comparative quotes between our pricing and that of the hotel. For a fast easy quote please contact us today.