Poor Service From a Wedding Venue

[Kilmington]

We hired a barn as a wedding venue for our daughters wedding. The barn was advertised as a wedding venue and had a wedding licence. The barn is used solely for functions with a kitchen, bar, hard carpeted floor etc.

 

The charge for hire for 4 days was £2900. On the surface the venue looked ideal and fitted in with the theme my daughter had decided on for the wedding.

 

We took over hire on the Thursday before a Saturday wedding - the first things we had to do was set to work on cleaning the toilets that were in a disgusting state, cobwebs adorned the walls of the barn and all had to be brushed down and then the floor cleaned. The area outside the main doors was covered in cigarette ends and the kitchen surfaces cleaned and disinfected. We laid out the tables and set places for the 70 guests and all was set by the Friday night. On checking the barn on the Saturday morning rat droppings were discovered on the tables and it was decided that all the cutlery should be washed again. also a box of chocolates that had been left in the kitchen had been eaten by rats.

 

During the evening the electricity supply to the barn was continually going off plunging our guests into darkness - the owners representative blamed our bands equipment but it was proved later to be a fault in the barns heating system.

 

Throughout the whole of the hire period the owners representative was unhelpful, arrogant, rude and showed absolutely no interest in providing any service whatsoever.

 

We have complained to the owner that we did not consider the barn was fit for purpose and he has apologised and offered us £300 in compensation. We don't consider this is sufficient - does anyone agree?

[stu007]

Hi

 

Have you considered contacting the local council to check who issues wedding licenses and reporting this to them as well as the power going off with all those guest left in total darkness is also a Health & Safety issue and i would inform the local council where the venue was.

[havinastella]

Firstly, did you take photo's of everything that was wrong?

 

Second, as it was a barn, was the venue in a built up area or somewhere you would expect mice/rats?

 

Thirdly, what do you realistically want in compensation? How much is real life (and not wedding land) did this affect the day?

 

As they have already offered over 10% it seems they are showing willing to negotiate. I know this is meant to be the best day of the Brides life, so the little niggles do get exaggerated and blown out of proportion and sometimes stand in the way of all the good points of the day.

 

You have to weigh up what you expect in compensation, what % of the day was really ruined and the hassle of issuing court papers.

 

Jogs

[havinastella]

And welcome to CAG

[Kilmington]

Thanks for the responses -

 

Yes we took photos of the rat droppings on the tables and the chocolates

 

The barn was on a farm that has diversified and lets out its buildings to other companies. The response from the so called manager on mentioning the rat droppings was "didn't know we had a problem". However this is a venue that has a drink licence and provides a kitchen for preparing food - there should, in our view, not be a rat problem anywhere near the barn let alone their running around on tables laid for food consumption.

 

In terms of the amount of compensation that's the question I'm asking this forum - is c10% realistic or fair given the amount of work that we had to provide to put things right and to endure rudeness beyond belief.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Kilmington
spelling

[havinastella]

Thanks for replying kilm,

 

As I stated earlier, as a Mum/Dad, you want everything perfect for your daughter. I know that if you book a wedding through a holiday company and it goes very wrong, you have greater comeback through law.

 

I'm really not sure if this is the same for a venue you hire (although I think it might me) I'll have to search for the right termanology, but it is out there.

 

Unfortunately we were not at the wedding, so really couldn't comment as to whether 10% refund would be appropriate. You have to stand back from being the parent and consider this amount for yourself.

 

Did you put this all in writing and enclose pics to the venue? Do the venue do other activities, like have a hotel etc, so you could ask for a weekend free for the 1st year anniversary?

 

From very personnal experience, your view will be more blinkered than normal due to being the parent (this is not a criticism ) Have you asked other party goers how the night was for them?

 

Jogs

[assisted blonde]

To be fair Rats and Farms go together like Bread and Jam they are always going to be around and if chocolate was left around it is a known fact that rats and Mice love it. Having said that once you had cleaned the property and rewashed the cutlery, did everything go off ok except for the electrics?

I would have thought that again this is a barn on a farm unless it was a complete new build things can go wrong (we live in house where we get a power cut at least once a week and no fault can be found) electrics do fluctuate but the owners have realised that there was a problem with the heating and have offered a partial refund. I am not sure that they could have known about the problem prior to the event as it could have only just happened so 10% dosnt seem unreasonable.

I am sure that it was a wonderful day, everyone enjoyed themselves and it wouldnt be a wedding unless there were a few snags it makes for stories to tell the grandchildren.

[raydetinu]

local council, maybe interested, enironmental health if food prepared for consumtion with rats etc.

Also if there is an electrical problem, test certificate may be required and has it got a fire certificate.

I would ask for more and see what they say.