Access times, liaison with venue operations staff, cable management through active service corridors, and how to handle a same-day turnaround between events.
AV load in hotel venue protocolA purpose-built conference centre or theatre is designed around the assumption that production teams will be loading in. The loading bay is separate from the public entrance. The goods lift is sized for flight cases. There is a clear demarcation between front-of-house and back-of-house.
A hotel is designed around guests. The goods lift is also used by housekeeping, F&B, and maintenance. The corridor between the car park and the ballroom passes through the kitchen, which is operational throughout the day. The event room may have a wedding breakfast in it at noon and need to be reset for a conference dinner by 5pm. Every stage of production planning has to account for the fact that the venue is running a hotel around your event.
The single biggest source of friction between AV companies and hotel venues is disagreement about access times. The AV company needs the room empty and accessible. The hotel needs the room dressed and ready by a time that is often tighter than the AV company expects. Getting this agreed in writing before load-in eliminates the discussion on the day.
Flight cases staged in the loading area. Lift access confirmed with facilities team. Room not yet accessible — previous event still breaking down.
AV crew move equipment to the event space. This window overlaps with venue cleaning and table setting — clear zones must be agreed with the head of banqueting.
Rigging, PA positioning, and screen structure in place. Power tails run and tested. Venue stylist has clear access to their zones.
F&B team out of the room. Cable management complete — all runs taped and covered across service routes. Show calling team on comms.
Joint walkthrough with the hotel's events coordinator and the AV floor manager. Any snagging resolved before first guests arrive.
All crew in position. Ambient audio and lighting running. Show script live.
In a hotel, cables cannot go through walls or under carpets without permission, and they cannot be run where food is being served or where guests walk. Every power run and signal cable needs to be flat, taped, and either covered with a cable ramp or run against walls and under furniture where guests will not encounter them.
A venue incident during a load-in — a safety complaint from a member of hotel staff, a cable run that blocks a kitchen exit, equipment staged in a fire egress route — reflects on both the AV company and the hotel that brought them in.
Some hotel events rooms run two events in a day: a conference or wedding breakfast at midday and a gala dinner in the evening. The turnaround between them is managed by the hotel banqueting team, but the AV company is in the middle of it. Production that is still rigged from the morning event may need to stay in place, be moved, or be stripped and rebuilt depending on whether evening clients have different technical requirements.
If the same AV supplier is covering both events, this is a scheduling and logistics conversation that must happen in the pre-event meeting. If the morning and evening have separate production companies, the hotel's events manager needs to referee access times between the two. A same-day turnaround with two separate AV companies and no clear handover protocol is a reliable way to make both events late.