Venue deposits: what you pay, what comes back

The word "deposit" is doing two completely different jobs in most venue contracts, and the difference is several hundred dollars.

Two things called the same word

A booking fee (sometimes "retainer", sometimes "non-refundable deposit") takes your date off the market. It is not refundable and it is not applied to your bill at some venues — read that clause specifically.

A damage deposit is security against the building being returned in worse shape than it was handed over. It is refundable, in full, if nothing is wrong.

Plenty of venues charge both. When you compare two quotes, work out which of the two numbers you are looking at, because a "$500 deposit" that never comes back is a completely different proposition from one that does.

Here there is one number: a $500 damage deposit. It holds the date, and it comes back within two to three weeks after the event if the building is undamaged. There is no booking fee on top. The balance is due one week before the event.

What deposits are actually lost to

Not what people expect. In rough order of how often it happens anywhere:

1. Cleaning that did not get done

By a wide margin the most common. The contract says the hall is left as you found it; at one in the morning nobody feels like finding out exactly what that means; the venue does it and charges for it.

This is entirely avoidable and it is why our $250 after-event cleaning is the most-taken add-on we have. Buying it converts an uncertain deduction into a known line.

2. Things attached to the building

Tape, staples, pins, tacks, adhesive hooks — anything that takes paint, plaster or finish off with it. Decorating damage is the second-biggest cause and it is always a surprise, because the person who taped the bunting to the trim did not think of it as damage.

The gazebo counts too — the lattice, the deck and the bulbs are part of the building in exactly the same way the trim is.

Ask what you are allowed to attach things to, and to what. Then tell whoever is decorating, because at this hall it will not be us and it is probably not you either.

3. Running over

A hall booked to midnight with guests still in it at half past is time the venue may charge for, and it comes out of the deposit because that is the money they are holding. If you think the night might run, buy the late-night extension up front — it is $200 here, and it is already included on the Saturday of a whole-weekend booking — rather than discovering the hourly rate afterwards.

4. The kitchen

Specifically: a fridge left full, a dishwasher left loaded, and bins left inside. In a hall with no in-house catering the kitchen is entirely your responsibility, and "we ran out of time" is the usual story.

5. Actual breakage

Last, and rarest. Dishes get broken at every event and no reasonable venue charges for a few plates. What gets charged for is a chair, a table, or a hole.

What to ask before you pay anything

1. Is this a damage deposit or a booking fee?
2. If it is a booking fee, is it applied to the final bill?
3. When is the damage deposit returned, and by what method?
4. What specifically is deducted for, and at what rate?
5. What is the cancellation position, and at what notice?
6. Can I buy the cleaning rather than leave it to chance?

If the answer to (3) is vague, ask again. "After the event" is not a date. Ours is two to three weeks, by the same method it was paid.

The short version

• A damage deposit comes back. A booking fee does not. Find out which you are being asked for.
• Ours is $500, refundable, back in two to three weeks, with no booking fee.
• Most lost deposits are cleaning, not breakage. Buy the cleaning.
• Film the room at both ends.
• If the night might run late, pay for late in advance.