Ensuring 50 X £75 SWOD room use is achieved - Wedding Venue Swansea | South Wales | Wales, Craig y Nos Castle wedding packages, wedding receptions

The Wedding Package Tariff = 50 X £75 B&B target on night of wedding.

Important notes for staff and Brides.

1)   First 50 guests regardless of age are £75 per head. Additional guests above 50, where these are extras sharing a family room, are £30/ head, regardless of age (babies in cots are free).

Encouraging use of Accommodation

1)   Either B&B guests pay £75 B&B each, or if preferred, the Bride and Groom may SUBSIDISE some or all of their guests so they are on a lower tariff.

Example:  Bride and Groom may choose to subsidise guests - say - £20 a head. Reduces guests' tariff to £55 per person, B&B.  Bride pays a top up on their account of £1,000. Given savings under Wedding Package over regular tariff are > £3,000, Brides may consider a small subsidy to guests to encourage everyone to book B&B. Also discourages guests booking cheaper accommodation elsewhere.

2)   If a subsidy is in place, this is to be noted on our internal room booking monitor and in the 'observation field' of the client's file on database.

3)   If rooms are not fully used, the Bride will make a top-up payment of the difference.
 
4)   Any top-up shall be counted as 'venue hire' in the accounts and be entered into the Events Spreadsheet.

5)   There is no point guests paying for accommodation elsewhere if the Bride then has to pay for empty rooms. So it is very much in the interests of the wedding couple to encourage FULL use of the accommodation as this is central to the Wedding Package.

6)   Couples may wish to note that the local police park up between the Castle and Penycae, to pick up drink drivers travelling south on the A4067, so it is better to encourage guests to stay on site.

7)   Taxis are £30 - £40 each way to Swansea, as a premium is charged for coming so far away from town with no return fare likely in the other direction. Even staying two miles down the road can cost £12 each way, due to the taxi firms charging a premium for coming up the valley this far with no fare going back down the valley. A few trips each way wipes out any savings by staying elsewhere and using taxis.

Additional guests over 50 = £30 per head (children at same rate)

1)   Once above 50 minimum, subsequent guests added to en-suites (or any Atrium Block rooms) are £30 a head.

2)   This rate is irrespective of age. While the regular tariff has a reduction to £15/head for children, this reduction does not apply to the SWOD Wedding Package room tariff.

3)   The Excel Spreadsheet 'SWOD Wedding Package room use monitor' created for each individual wedding will automatically add £30/guest > 50 to the total sum due. So if more than 50 guests are staying, the spreadsheet auto-sums the total amount due for numbers greater than 50, multiplied by £30 / head.

4)    Any amount received that is less than the above automatically calculated total amount due is payable by the Bride as 'top up'.

Example: If 55 guests stayed, this would be £3,750 for the first 50, and £150 for the 5 over 50, making £3,900.00. Any shortfall is then paid by Bride and Groom. Technically a shortfall should not occur except where guests have been under-charged, subsidised, or allowed to pay less than the SWOD tariff for whatever reason.

5)   However at >60 guests, on the night of the wedding, the Bride and Groom do get the Bridal Suite free.

Setting the tariff for the family rooms
Bride to decide

1)   Since there are only 24 en-suite rooms (includes 'basic' rooms AB18,19,20 with a shared bathroom), ONE family room needs 4 X £75 in it to make the 50 @ £75 target.

2)   It is recommended AB15 be used for 4 X £75 tariff, as it has two separate bedrooms, whereas AB25 and AB31 are more 'open plan'. (When Theatre first floor rear rooms are renovated, this will provide a further 4 X £75 option.)

3)   Some weddings are putting singles into double rooms. This reduces capacity and can make the bride liable for a top-up.

4)   To avoid a top-up liability, singles in en-suites are £150 not £75, so the 50 X £75 target can still be reached.

5)   Some weddings are putting singles into the three more 'basic' rooms AB18-20, which again can reduce the wedding couple's chances of getting to 50 X £75.

6)   To avoid a top-up liability, if using AB18-20 for some single occupancy (@ £75 for the room instead of £150), then either AB25 or AB31 or both may need to be used for a 4 X £75 combination, in addition to AB15.

7)   It can be confusing for reception to know what to charge for the family rooms given the need to cater for singles, possibly, in AB18-20, or elsewhere.

8)   As a general rule Reception should assume ALL rooms are charged at £150 for two, including AB18-20, and £150 for single occupancy, unless advised to the contrary by the Bride.

9)   Further, Reception will assume AB15 to be charged at 4 X £75 plus £30 per guest above 4, unless advised otherwise.

10)   Reception will assume the remaining family rooms to be charged at 2 X £75 plus £30 per guest > 2 unless advised otherwise.

11)   The Bride and Groom should ideally decide their guests' room allocation in advance, and determine the tariff applicable for each of the family rooms based on the spread of guests over the various rooms.

12)   Brides can then advise guests in their invites, which rooms to book and at what tariff.

13)   The doubles are all easy - being 2 X £75 - but a little forward planning is needed for full use of the four family rooms.

14)   The family rooms are AB15, AB16, AB25, AB31 and can be nominated for 4 X £75 or 2 X £75 depending on the split of occupancy over the other rooms including how AB18,19,20 (for singles or doubles) are to be used.

15)   The SWOD Wedding Package Room Use Spreadsheet assumes 50 X £75 = £3,750 as a base point. If there are less than 50, this amount still needs paying by means of a top up. If there are more than 50 - the spreadsheet automatically adds on £30 for each extra guest, to the total payable under SWOD Wedding Package.

How to record top-ups

1)   All top ups are to be treated as 'venue hire' and go on to Events Monitor and account as such. Donna has suggested the top up be entered in the Nicolini Room column so top-ups can be clearly seen in one column on the Events Monitor spreadsheet.

2)   If there are more than 50 guests, this is to be entered in the relevant cell of the SWOD Wedding Package room use monitor spreadsheet so the formula adds £30 for each extra guest above 50, giving you the total due.

3)   When having children in some rooms, if overall occupancy does not exceed 50, then any children can and must be increased to £75 (if necessary by bride on payment of a top up) to cover the shortfall.

Only guests resident on the night count towards the 50 X £75

This section is mainly for staff but may also be helpful for Brides to read.


1)   Only guests resident on the night of the wedding can count towards SWOD Wedding Package B&B £3,750 target total.

2)   If the wedding is out of season and an exception has been made to include some guests staying the night before, then this should be noted in the client's 'observation' field on the database and the contract must show this as a special exception. This exception will not normally be made and is a rarity, as counting room use the night before can severely reduce numbers at the wedding itself.

3)   To avoid too few staying on the wedding night, there is a limit on the number of rooms / people staying the night before that can count towards SWOD. The limit is 10 guests. As above, this is an exception and the standard rule is that 50 X £75 must stay on the night of the wedding.

4)   If guests staying the night before are on regular or any discounted tariff, then the bride needs to top up to 50 X £75 for any guests the night before until her 50 X £75 is reached.

5)   In the past SWOD weddings achieved £3,750 or more, but the charging was not correct because we had more than 50 staying.  As guests above 50 are added (on the night of the wedding) these are £30 a head irrespective of age.

6)   If there is a baby in a cot, this is not chargeable.

7)   Reception please do not include non-chargeable guest numbers within the 'number of guests' column in room monitor to avoid spreadsheet automatically charging £30 per baby. Make a note there is a baby in the room using the 'edit comment' function and put + Baby in the main text so in the event of an evacuation, this is correctly logged.

Free use of Bridal Suite

This section is mainly for staff but may also be helpful for Brides to read.

1)   Free use of Bridal Suite should not be granted unless > 60 guests (being 50 X £75 and 10 X £30 = £4,050) on the night of the wedding.

2)   If free use of bridal has been granted for whatever 'historical' reason, resulting in or accompanied by a shortage in the number of paying guests at £75, then a top up counted as 'venue hire' would still need to be paid (or you could decide to put the £150 in the room monitor against the Bridal Suite after all).

3)   An exception may be made to grant free use of Bridal when there is substantial B&B use the night before AND full use of SWOD Wedding Package rooms on the night of the wedding. If around £5,500 of accommodation is achieved over two days, free use of Bridal may be granted.

4)   Because there are limited en-suites, granting free use of Bridal reduces the Bride's ability to get to 50 X £75 paying guests, causing a top-up to be required. So it is better to stick with the rule that free use of bridal only applies > 60 guests on night of wedding, or in exceptional circumstances such as at least £1,750 of B&B use the night before in addition to £3,750 worth (the minimum) on night of wedding.