What is your first consideration when you come to buy a product or service? For many of us, it’s the price, and that’s what today’s article looks at – cheap chair hire. At least, certainly when it comes to branded products or commodities. If you want to buy a tube of Pringles, for example, it probably comes down to price. Where are these cheapest? That’s why supermarkets use milk as a ‘loss-leader’ – in other words, the milk is cheapest in supermarket X, so that will attract customers who will, most likely, also buy some other products whilst they are picking up their milk.
When it comes to a service, however, for many, price ceases to be the primary consideration. Of course, it’s always a factor – we all like to feel as though we’re getting a good deal, after all! – but other factors come into play, and rightly so.
For our sector, when it comes to chair hire, here are 3 reasons why you should not choose cheap chair hire, however attractive it might appear!
Did you ever hear the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’? Well this applies to chair hire as it does anything else. Also, what about this one? – If something seems too good to be true, it usually is’. That’s not to say that there’s not some great deals to be had out there.
However, when something is cheap or ‘the cheapest’, then maybe you shouldn’t be giving yourself a pat on the back for finding it, perhaps more so the alarm bells in your head should be ringing! When it comes to chair hire, you’ll want to be paying a competitive price for a quality product, not a cheap chair hire price for a cheap chair hire product.
The reality is that if you choose cheap chair hire, you’re probably going to end up with a poor quality product. And it’s fair to say that if you’re a professional event planner or bride and groom who have spent months (or sometimes years) planning their special occasion, the last thing you need is for your chairs and furniture to let you down. OK, so it’s only a small element of your overall event and look, but poor quality chairs will certainly get noticed. Let’s face it, rental chairs get scratched and worn whilst out on hire, and the most popular chairs such as chiavari chair hire, for instance, are always available.
It’s really important, therefore, that your chair hire company ensure that the chairs undergo regular maintenance in between hires whether it’s a paint touch-up or complete respray, to get the chairs looking like new. The reality is that if you hire from a cheap chair hire company, then this won’t be the case, as it’s a question of ‘pile them high, sell (or in this case, hire) them cheap’.
By the same token, there’s the question of where the chairs originally came from. Many chairs are made in the EU, and conform to certain standards. However, cheaper imitations do arrive from the Far East, as well as other places. Yes, the look the same in appearance, but are certainly not the same quality. The purchase price for the chair hire company in the first place is cheaper, and so potentially more profitable. However, not so great for you when the chair breaks or snaps.
And finally, the question of service. When you buy a product, whether it’s for £10, £100 or £1,000, this price consists of many elements. The cost of producing the item in the first place, of course, but also the shipping costs, warehousing and distribution and so on. In the hire industry, it’s slightly different to that as a hire company buys a piece of event furniture and then hires it out many times over.
Suffice to say that within the hire price of a chair, you have some of this value plus some warehousing and distribution costs and maybe even a cost for the customer service you receive when you are hiring chairs from this company. Choose a cheap chair hire company, and the service you are likely to receive could leave you out in the cold.
We started this article by talking about the old adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ and it’s certainly true in this instance. As a professional event planner, you’ll be looking to hire chairs of good quality at a competitive price, and work with a chair hire company that will deliver and collect the chairs on time, in the right place and in the right quantities. It’s not too much to ask, is it?
