Shared vs Exclusive Hire — Which Is Right for Your Team?
This is a common question with a simple answer. The cheaper option is shared hire, and the more expensive option is exclusive hire. With a tight budget, select shared hire. While this is common sense, it glosses over the intricacies of the choices.
When choosing your correct hire options, the most important question is, what type of party do you want? What level of control do you want?
Three Venues, One Party
A shared hire party means the venue sells the party to more than one hire. You book a block of seats, and the companies sharing the hire book the rest. Everyone shares the venue. This means everyone shares the floor, the bar, the drinks, and the music (the DJ is venue selected).
This hire format is common and most have been to a shared hire party. Including: hotel ballrooms, three courses, and Mr. Brightside (who doesn’t like Mr. Brightside?) played on repeat. These events can be done well. However, poorly run events feel like school dances in a place that should be better than that.
There are many benefits to shared hiring: costs are lower, room rentals are omitted, entertainment is provided, and the venue is very experienced with the event. Teams that are under 30 usually benefit the most from shared hire, as costs for hiring a room are steep, and hiring the whole venue can be exorbitant.
What does exclusive hire mean?
Your group has the whole venue to yourselves. The room, the staff, and the timeline are all yours.
This type of control is very helpful. You get to choose when food is served, and decide if there is a DJ, a band, or a playlist for entertainment. You pick the timeline and schedule; if you have team members that have to leave the event by a certain time, the event can be scheduled around that.
There is a more specific quiet when you have the whole venue to yourselves. There is no ambient noise because there are no other guests. Conversations become more seamless and easier. If the meal is what your team is looking for instead of one of the early activities to get people on the dance floor, that is important.
There is an obvious drawback to this option — the cost. Booking small exclusive venues begins around £1,500 and goes up quickly. Whether or not the venue is full, you are still paying for it. Because of this, exclusive hire becomes cost-effective the more the headcount increases. For groups of 50 or more, the costs of exclusive hire equal (or can be lower than) the costs of the venues with the shared party nights.
The questions that actually settle it
How many people? For under 25 people, the shared party nights are more worthwhile. For over 60 people, exclusive hire nights are more worthwhile. For people counted between 25 and 60, the final decision depends on what is important.
Would the team really like to be with unknown people? Lots of companies like to experience the shared party nights with other companies. Other companies won’t be able to talk with their staff when the other companies are hosting a DJ and the other companies are in the room too. If this is your situation, and you staff only get to see their colleagues at their Christmas exclusive parties, then exclusive hire is an expense that you should consider.
In what ways is the team wanting to have a party? A shared party night will have you dependent on the entertainment their venue is organizing. For a team of half peers who want to dance and half peers who want to have a good meal and then head home, an exclusive venue is a great way to achieve what will work for both groups.
Is your budget set in stone? If an exclusive hire makes your per-head budget impossible, leaving you with no choice but a cut in drinks or catering, consider shared hire, and use your budget to a venue that excels in shared parties. A quality party in a shared space is always better than a hire in a bad and exclusive space.
The honest summary
There is a certain level of contempt surrounding shared party hire, almost like it is budget hire or being chosen because of a lack of other options. Shared events have a certain quality in these dedicated spaces.
Hire is only justified to you and your company if you feel you need an event to be completely yours, if you feel you cannot have a good dry or corporate event or if you have a company that prefers to have a quiet, structured desires at a lively event. Most companies probably do not have to feel constrained to a poorly dedicated private hire, and would feel a good hire to be good enough.
If your desired hire is an exclusive private hire, consider the company office party hire are budget office parties. We value per-head offices across our partners in both options.
