Budget Calculation

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Saving in the wrong place? Calculated incorrectly? A national holiday reception consumes about as much budget as a state visit. A flat rate of around 95 euros per guest must be expected. This usually includes room rental, cloakroom, electricity, buffet and drinks. The rest is negotiable. Whether event technology is included varies depending on the location. Flower decoration should not be forgotten, but it is usually an extra item.

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Price Negotiation

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Embassies are not event agencies. The interlocutors in hotels quickly notice this when they negotiate with the organizers of receptions. What is routine for event agencies must be explained in detail to embassy staff. Because they sometimes come to the conversation with pretty misconceptions. Embassies often come to hotels asking them to make concessions with sponsorship. The hotels' answer is the classic quote: “CHEAP THING NO GOOD, GOOD THING NO CHEAP. ”

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Dumping Price

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Embassies repeatedly ask for price reductions when they book a hotel for the first time. However, hotels are not doing themselves any favors. Because the second time, the embassy naturally expects to be sponsored in this way again. The hotels will therefore not respond to such requests.

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Fingerfood Mistake

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Misconception number one: Finger food or canapes should be cheaper than a real buffet. Quite wrong. Apart from the fact that you expect a lunch or dinner buffet at the reception in Berlin and don't want to go home hungry, finger food is simply not suitable for a national holiday. The production of small tartars or patties is much more complex than a salmon pan at the buffet, which also fills the guests up.

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Flying Buffet Mistake

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Mistake number two: A flying buffet should be very cheap. Also completely wrong. The high production costs for small items that you won't get enough of and, above all, the very labor-intensive distribution make a Flying Buffet relatively expensive. A large contingent of hostesses and waiters whose trays are quickly emptied must constantly remove empty bowls and deliver new ones. The food is never enough, but everything takes a lot of time.

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Personnel Costs

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That is mistake number three: It is not the kitchen products that are expensive, but the service provided by the staff. This may surprise diplomats from some countries, which have different working time laws and works councils than in Germany. Additional services over the length of the reception are expensive; they are never provided by a hotel as a charity, but are charged to the customer.

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Number of Guests

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This leads to mistake number four: You let many more guests come to the reception than agreed with the hotel, in the opinion that this puts costs into perspective. The fact is that not only is food and drink running out, but the service is also getting worse. This is because the number of waiters is divided according to the number of guests. At peak times, hotels have to deal with acute staff shortages anyway. During trade fairs, it is barely possible to get any staff, even through recruitment agencies. This is where hotels compete with each other.

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Time Frames

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The organizers should also stick to the agreed times. If a reception lasts longer than specified, each connection hour must be calculated with drinks and personnel costs. Each connecting hour at the hotel costs extra.

Vin d'honneur

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If you want to save costs during the reception, you should state in the invitation that it is a beverage reception with pretzel sticks. However, “Ehrenwein” or vin d'honneur is less common at national holiday receptions in Berlin.

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Flat and extra costs

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Jan Martensen, who is responsible for managing the ambassadors at the former Maritim Hotel Berlin on Stauffenbergstraße and now at the Hotel Waldorf Astoria, advises a realistic cost comparison between locations. Some calculate differently: Does the price include not only room rent, drinks and buffets, but also cloakroom staff, technology, electricity and flower arrangements? What extra costs can be added to the package price? By the way, Martensen is familiar with the problems of many embassies, for which the head office in the home country approves the budget at extremely short notice. After these tips on costs, unpleasant surprises should be ruled out and the preparations should be enjoyable. Whatever the cost.

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Additional hours

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Every additional hour at the hotel costs money! Once the beverage allowance has been used up, no hotel will continue to serve wine to 300 guests. It is not the product that is most expensive, but the service. If, for example, 20 waiters have to stay longer, they have to be paid.

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