What is a reasonable response time from a wedding venue?

Question

I am working with a wedding ceremony/reception site. When we first booked this venue, we couldn't reach them by phone. They were "so busy" we gave up and drove out there to get someone to speak with us.

Fast forward a bit, and I have found that it takes a very long time for them to respond to my calls. I am by no means a Bridezilla. I called on July 28th to simply ask some questions. I didn't receive a response until August 8th, a full 10 business days later. The real kicker is that they didn't call to answer my questions- they called to tell me they double booked! (I'm saving that for another post).

If you were planning a wedding, what do you think is reasonable turn around time for a phone call?

Answer 1

unfortunately, I think that 10 days is too much time.  I know you are going to have it but I would look for another venue.  They seem unprofessional to me and I would be concerned that would reflect in my big day.

Good luck and Congrats!

Answer 2

Wow...they must not want your business.

A reasonable turn around time for a phone call would be within the hour....by the end of the day - MAX!!!

Too bad you have booked this as they don't seem like very reliable business owners.  

Answer 3

Everyone on this board is really nice and I am a bridezilla I suppose.  At my venue, If I called them during business hours I would expect them to call me back before the end of the day.  If I hadn't heard back from them by noon the next day I would be upset.  Then again, my venue only deals with one room and the space itself (no food or rentals or stuff like that) so maybe they are not as busy.  Still, 10 days is ridiculous and I can only imagine how stressful that is going to be closer to the event.  How far away is the wedding, have you sent out save the dates or invitations with a date/place?  Maybe look at something else, particularly since they then double booked your room on top of that!!!

Answer 4

Yikes, doesn't sound like a reliable gang there.  I think 10 days is sort of long to wait for a reply.  Maybe you should think about if this place is really worth the hassles (and you're only just starting!!!  Imagine the possible disasters later!!??).  Is there another venue you can look into if you end up needing to find a back up??  Good luck!

Answer 5

No more then 2 days, 3 if the banquet manager is out, but there should be a back up.  Email and calls are generally returned no longer then 24 hours.

do consider that even though it may be the place you want, if they have double booked and are not retuning calls that you may want to reconsider given its a very important day.  

Answer 6

No more than 48 hours. You want to be sure that if you call about an emergency, your emergency will be handled. 10 days is outrageous.

Answer 7

Well, I may be overly particular, but I expect a return call within at least 2-3 days of my call.  When I was booking my destination wedding, if I did not get a response within a week of requesting info, they were out.  I am not very demanding in what I need, but I do need to be communicated with and I don't have time or patience to deal with people who don't think I'm important enough to at least call back and let me know they are working on something and got my request, even if they don't have the answer right way.  That is just common courtesy and decent business practices,  There are a lot of vendors out there and if they don't care enough about you to respond promptly, that is a bad sign.