Selsdon Park Hotel/golf Club

[scdj 0]

on the 5th of september we were booked to dj for a wedding at selsdon park croydon, on the morning sent happy text to wish them a happy day etc, they sent back a text confirming the room( grasham suite)on the first floor, the warning bells should have gone off then however we left for venue in plenty of time, having arrived went to reception to find out where the room was, only to be told by a rude receptionist to look on the board, went in search of somebody with manners only to be told it was up 2 flights of stairs :scared: or we could use the lift as the room was near it, so sent my wife / roadie to lift and started off loading speakers trussing and heavy stuff for her to take up in lift, 15mins later with her nowhere in sight and still loads of kit by the lift, i went up the stairs in search of her, only to find her carrying the speakers along the corridor her face bright red and almost in tears, from lift to room was about 150 yards up and down steps and around a corner( she's only 5 feet) and the speakers are quite heavy, to cut a long story short it took us 40 mins to carry all the kit to the room and another 40 to setup up and that was at top speed setup ,then a child was sick on the floor and it took 20 mins for them to send a woman to clean it up with a dustpan and brush!!!!!!!!! then they soaked the floor so nobody could dance till it was dry (about 30 mins) the electric's kept tripping everytime somebody jumped on the floor 3 times the lights went out blowing a bulb, so all in all in was pretty crap, hence we left asap without leaving a card even though they asked for them,so not dj friendly never ever again!!

[Dukesy 0]

Please don't take this as a dig - it is not. I would hate for you to have to experience something like this again! ;thumbdown:

 

You'll probably agree that a wedding is a very special occasion. It's a one-off event. You are of course providing a service and will likely want to sell your self, after all, you are in the biz and especially for word of mouth bookings which can of course end up anywhere and not just Selsdon Park, you are not providing a Wedding Disco for mere fun and i think many will respect you for taking the time out to provide a wedding disco service which is not like other functions. Great!

HOWEVER

I think, in hindsight, it will pay you to take more time in preparation and check EVERY wedding venue out you provide a wedding / disco service at, even if you only pick up the phone and speak to someone from the venue the week before, especially if

 

a) you have never been there and

b) you can not do a site visit prior to the Bride & Grooms BIG day!

 

Thanks for sharing the info about the venue and I hope your fantastic wife / roadie has given you a good clip around the ear for being so nice for 15 mins by, and I quote" off loading speakers trussing and heavy stuff for her to take up in lift". :nono:

 

Hope your next wedding is better. smile icon

 

Anyone else has similar experience at this venue?

[McCardle 1]

There was a thread somewhere a few weeks ago, which discussed the aspect of asking venues to produce their electrical certification in the same way as we are occasionally asked to provide them with proof of our PAT testing. Maybe in your case it would have given you an indication of whether the venues electrics were dodgy or safe. Remember that all of the PAT testing of electrical equipment in the world, won't save YOU or prevent you from being injured or killed if the venue is incorrectly wired or the socket you are plugged into is unsafe. It makes some sense to expect a duty of care by the venue, and we are no less important or dispensible or a lower lifeform, than any other visitor or guest to the premises just 'because we are the deejay'.

 

In relation to the comment about the stairs, then I suspect that this wasn't done on the night just to spite you, and the architect wasn't sat there drawing up the plans with thoughts of irritating and annoying the entertainers of the future!. Sometimes it pays to ring the venue, check out the website or do some research before you actually give the client the quote. This way, you can either refuse point blank to accept the booking, or factor in extra costs for additional roadies or time required to lug the gear up the stairs or other access difficulties. If you are opposed to working in venues with stairs, do you clearly point this out on your websites or to clients when speaking to them?, or make it clear that you will make extra charges for this?. The onus is on us to convey this information, and to do the research and legwork to the point of knowing the layout of the venue. Some deejays even choose to visit the venue with the client prior to the function, in order to know the layout of the venue and so obtain the information on where to set up, vehicle access, parking etc.

 

Have you written to the owner and general manager of the venue personally to voice these complaints?. Staff who are rude to contractors and whose job forms important front-of-house first impressions to visitors are not good investments, and the owner - managers need to know or be informed about poor / untrained staff giving the wrong impressions for their businesses, directly, as they don't often read DJ forums.

Edited September 11, 2008 by McCardle

[scdj 0]

yes i know what your saying, and we do ring venue if we can't check it out, but the room was on ground floor,when we'd spoken to wedding planner, but as i said groom text on the day it was now on first floor, and they we're over moon with our service and said they would diff use again and we did take another booking off the back of of this so it was'nt all bad, and yes my wife/roadie is a diamond without her i am sure are business would'nt be doing so well , and i know the other dj's who work for us would agree she is a great girl, maybe i should let her choose my bookings as well as theirs lol!!