How to Recommend an AV Company to Your Hotel Clients

When a client books an event at your venue, the AV recommendation is often one of the first practical questions they ask. Who do you use? Can we bring our own? Is AV included? The answer your events team gives, and how they give it, shapes whether the client perceives the production as something the venue is genuinely confident about or something they are trying to extract commission from.

A confident, specific recommendation for a supplier you actually trust is worth more than a preferred supplier list handed over with no context. It also reduces the client's anxiety: they came to you because they trust the venue, and extending that trust to the production company removes a decision they did not particularly want to make.

The recommendation works best when it is specific and grounded in something the client cares about. Not "we have a preferred AV supplier we work with" but "the production company we work with knows this room well. They have rigged the ceiling structure here many times and they know what works in the ballroom acoustically because they have dealt with the reverb issue that catches other companies out."

The specificity matters. "They know the room" says something a client can act on. "We recommend them" says nothing.

Some clients, particularly corporate event managers who work with a production company regularly, will want to bring their own supplier. This is a reasonable request and usually comes from a good place: they have a relationship that works and they do not want to introduce an unknown into the event they are responsible for.

• ✓Acknowledge the request first — "That's fine, we work with external suppliers regularly." Do not immediately push back. Resistance before you understand the reason is a negotiation, not a conversation.
• ✓Explain the practical case for your preferred supplier — They know where the power distribution is. They know the loading restrictions. They have a relationship with your banqueting and facilities teams. An external supplier arriving for the first time takes longer to set up and runs more risks on load-in day. This is true and a client can appreciate it.
• ✓Offer a contractor pack for external suppliers — If the client insists on bringing their own, provide a thorough venue technical pack that the external supplier can use. This protects the event quality even when you cannot influence the supplier selection. It also demonstrates that your venue takes production seriously, which reinforces the case for your preferred route next time.