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Email templates · Arts and entertainment venue

Email template to ask a theater or venue for a rental quote

You want to hold an event somewhere with more character than a hotel ballroom: a corporate reception in a museum gallery, a recital in a small theater, a product launch in a music club, a fundraiser in an art center. Most of these venues rent their space on nights they are dark, and their rental office is used to outside events. What they need from you is the date, the headcount and a clear picture of what you will do in the room.

Ask in writing because venue rentals have many separate charges: the room, the staff who must be on duty, the technical crew if you touch the lights or sound, security, cleaning, and sometimes a required caterer. A phone call gives you the room rate; an email gives you a proposal that lists the rest, and that is the number you actually budget against.

Before you send

  • The date, a backup date, and the hours including load-in (when your vendors arrive to set up) and load-out (when everything is gone). Venues bill the whole window.
  • The kind of event and the headcount, and whether guests will be seated, standing, or both.
  • What you need technically: a stage, microphones, a projector, stage lighting, a piano. Each may mean a crew member you pay for.
  • Food and drink plans: your own caterer, theirs, or none, and whether alcohol will be served.
  • A budget range for the venue portion. Rental offices will tell you quickly whether you are in the right building.
Subject Rental inquiry for [event type] on [event date] 
Hi [venue rental office or manager name],

I'm planning [a short description of the event, for example "a 100-person cocktail reception for our company's tenth anniversary"] and would like to know whether [venue name] is available on [event date], with [backup date] as an alternative.

Some details:

- Guests: about [number], [seated / standing / a mix]
- Hours: event from [start time] to [end time], with load-in at [time] and load-out done by [time]
- Space: [the room or area you have in mind, or "whichever space fits this size"]
- Technical needs: [microphone and speakers, a projector and screen, stage lighting, none]
- Food and drink: [an outside caterer / your in-house catering / light refreshments only], [with / without] alcohol

Our budget for the venue itself is around [budget range]. Could you send me a rental proposal that includes the space, required staff, technical crew, security, cleaning and any other fees, so I can see the total? We're hoping to choose a venue by [decision date].

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Organization, if any]
[Your phone number]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • A rental office usually replies within a few business days with availability and a proposal or rate sheet, often with an offer to tour. Take the tour; sightlines and loading docks are hard to judge from photos.
  • Add up every line, and ask about the ones that say "TBD" or "based on final needs." Technical labor and security are the lines that grow between the proposal and the invoice.
  • If the venue requires its own caterer or bar, ask for that menu and pricing now. A cheap room with an expensive required caterer is not a cheap room.
  • Send the same inquiry to two other venues of a similar size. Comparing all-in totals, not room rates, is the only fair comparison.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Get me venue rental quotes for an event 
Hi StandIn,

Please get rental proposals from venues for my event and compare the all-in costs.

The event: [what it is, seated or standing, expected headcount].
Dates and hours: [date, backup date, event hours, load-in and load-out times].
Technical needs: [sound, projector, lighting, stage, instruments, or none].
Food and drink: [own caterer, venue's caterer, or none; alcohol or not].
Budget for the venue: [range].
Venues to ask: [names, or "theaters, galleries and event spaces near CITY that hold this many"].

Contact three or four, get proposals that include staff, crew, security, cleaning and any required catering, and bring me a side-by-side with the total for each.

Thanks,
[Your name]

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