Getaway Event Fees?

For what it is worth, I suspect that the bulk of the cost is actually set by the venue. Whenever our company does events/meetings the site where it is being hosted has predeterminded costs for everything. Cash bars come at a premium as do meals. We always try to negotiate the prices down but food and drink is the one area they never budge. The responses we get range from a) they have additional costs for staff, prep, etc... b) head counts change and they are hedging that bet c) sometimes it is all provided by a third party.