I’ve never done it before, but you have to see it from the other people’s perspective in that there really isn’t an easy place to go to to find yourself a reputable venue – after all, how many online reviews of venues are there? Most venue referrals (at least for weddings?) are word-of-mouth references too, so you can see the dilemma some may have when booking a venue.

I feel relatively confident that we’re going to have our location. Its outside, we know the people that own the place, so we should be okay. Even still, there is a slight bit of hesitation – the “what if”.

I feel like double booking is taking advantage of that fear. Its like,”Oh no! What are you going to do? You’d better double book JUST IN CASE!!” But really, it probably won’t happen. They’re just playing off your fear. My question is – who profits from double booking? The venue? The people who do the booking – just because they get peace of mind?

It was a church fellowship hall! Plus they did not even bother to contact us! A close family friend who attended the church had planned on coming to the reunion. She just happened to overhear someone discussing the other event that was going to be there and called my grandmother 4 days before the date to ask if we had changed our plans and were holding the reunion elsewhere.

What a disaster it would have been if we had shown up, covered dishes and casseroles in hand, to discover that another that another event was also being held there!

An aunt and I called virtually every Church and community center in the area before we found one that had the day open. Then we had to contact the far-flung family to tell them of the change and give the driving directions. All in 4 days!

But even after this near disastrous experience, I would not feel right about double booking.

I try to live by The Golden Rule. If I would not want this done to me (and I don’t) then it would be wrong for me to do it to them.

I think booking two venues “just in case” is sleazy. It’s preventing another couple from booking their wedding (what if your #2 was their #1 choice?) and it’s wasting the time of venue #2, as well as wasting your own money in the form of the deposit. It’s the same if you did it for business gatherings instead of weddings – someone suffers because you’re being greedy (and it might be you!).

As other have said, if this became common practice, venue #2 would routinely start overbooking to make up for all the people playing this game.

As to what happened to your friends, simply spread the word. If venue #1 gets a reputation for overbooking and dropping paying couples, fewer people will book with them, and their business will suffer as a direct result of their own sleazy actions.

Hiring two contractors and turning one down at the last minute is even slimier. These are (for the most part) honest, hardworking men and women who do it for a living, and they may have turned down another job, only to find themselves as your “backup” and end up with no job at all.

If everybody did this… let’s say you have 100 brides for the year, that’ 2 weddings a weekend. Instead of choosing your #2 venue (if #1 was booked), you could be looking at your 3rd or 4th choice.
If this becomes a standard for people I can also see it costing significantly more, because there would be a 50% cancellation rate among these venues.

This happened to our friends too, but they didn’t read the contract… people should clearly read the entire contract and ask questions. We used the Crowne Plaza and I took me 45 minutes to read it, and I didn’t care. They want my business then they should be able to explain & help me understand the necessity for the some of the clauses or how they would be applied. (We all understand acts of God/natural disasters.) If they aren’t helpful the day they take your deposit money, will they suddenly be on your big day?

It’s crummy for all invovled. For me, honesty, understanding and developing a firm relationship with your vendors made everything 100% perfect. (Pictures went fast, so we even had the meal served 30 minutes early!)

What about for other contractors? Hire two guys and send one home? I don’t like the idea but it’s intriguing to think about at the very least.

The cancellation that happened to your friend is a rarity. I just don’t see tying up unnecessary bookings as a standard practice is the right solution to that problem. While this might have helped your friend the one time, what if 99 other people had done this and had no problems?

Most places are going to live up to their commitments and not drop you. A reputable place will know that to drop someone for a bigger event might pay in the short term, but will end up catching up to them in the long term. The best way we found when doing our wedding was trying to find places that friends and family had worked with before and trusted.