Most businesses, especially those just starting up in the banquet/wedding event business, want to keep tight control of their investment and expenditures. And at some point they are going to need to determine if they want to appeal to the higher end of their customer’s tastes.
When it comes to the subject of seating, the decision that must be made is: Do I keep investing in cheap folding chairs, or should I invest in better stacking chairs such as the fine Chiavari chairs that are so popular for nicer events and banquets? While there are several types of Chiavari chairs for sale, they are generally quite a bit more expensive than folding chairs. That results in many banquet centers and wedding planners simply deciding to rent them instead of purchasing.
To rent or purchase, that is the question! There are valid arguments to be made for both. A good rule of thumb about renting…. if you rent a seating item 3-4 times, you could have bought it! And in purchasing them, you would be earning more over the longer term. And perhaps have gotten more customers to upgrade to the high quality chair for their event. In many years, I have never hear an attendee at an event say “this chair is too comfortable” or “this chair is too good for this event”. But I must say, I have heard complaints many times about uncomfortable chairs, or that the folding chairs seemed cheap for the event they were attending. In fact, I’ve even seen people angry about uncomfortable chairs. As an example, below, which would you rather sit on for two hours?
compared to
This isn’t to say that you can’t have good reasons to rent. For instance, maybe someone wants to have a specialty Chaivari chair that is clear/transparent such as the crystal models that are popular in some areas of the country like Miami or Los Angeles. Or perhaps they want an unpopular color that happens to work well for them. This is the time to rent. Otherwise, be wise and don’t rent the same chair three or more times! You could have purchased Chiavari chairs wholesale from BanquetChairsXpress.com and they would have been yours to make more profit with for years.