Do your party on the cheap and your guests will know!

What is the difference between a classy restaurant and a tacky restaurant?

The food you might say, the location is important as well.

The ambience or mood goes a long way in ensuring the restaurant is of superior quality as does the service of its staff.

Most of all though it is through its décor.

That's right, the first thing you notice when you walk into a restaurant is its décor - the table and chairs, the furnishings, the way the table is set with elegant glassware and quality silverware.

The ambience is created from the décor, a fine candlelit table with elegant table decoration at its centre and the dimmed lights to create that all important mood and setting.

The crisp table linen, with coloured overlay and matching napkins complete the environment.

To the other extreme - you walk into a restaurant that has odd matching chairs and no linen covering the tables, the lights are an over bright white.

You sit at the table and unravel the cutlery from the white paper napkin, they have been wrapped in.

The single glass that is in front of you sits upside down on a tattered cardboard coaster.

You can still see the streak marks from where the table has been wiped, reflecting off the still unclean table surface.

I agree with your summised thoughts - sometimes the best food is served from the most tacky restaurants - but my point I am trying to make is simply this -

When you walk into each of the establishments mentioned above - you know which one is the cheap one and which one has a little more class about them.

First impressions impact on people and give them a preconceived idea of what to expect. Unfortunately at the cheap restaurant, your first impression is that the food and the service is going to be lousy.

When people walk into your party what first impression are you giving? Are their first thoughts focused on how lousy the night ahead is going to be - with cheap cask wine and pizza?

Are the old rented chairs and the wobbly trestle tables from the cheapest local backyard party hire company really doing your party and you any justice?

Is the old and faded tent that was $100 cheaper than the competitors - really worth the embarrassment of saving the one hundred dollars.

The mismatched cutlery, and the glassware that you have not seen since the seventies - heck why didn't you just ask for the complimentary cardboard coasters.

Unfortunately there are Party Hire companies out there that will offer you the cheapest of cheap rental products. They will promise free or very cheap delivery, they will probably even discount their prices even further if you use the line "I can get it a little cheaper down the road."

And why do they do this? It is because it is the only way that they can get the 'party rental' products that they offer out on hire. Sure there will always be a market for these companies and the products that they offer.

But ask yourself - are you that market?

If you do your party on the cheap your guests will know.

Now I am not suggesting that every party has to look like a 5 star restaurant. But I would hazard to guess that every party organiser does not want their party looking or giving the impression of cheap and tacky.

If someone is offering you cheap rental products - question why.

If someone is offering you cheap or free delivery - question why.

At Alert Rental Centre, we are not the most expensive company, but neither are we even close to being the cheapest.

We pride ourselves on the quality of party rental equipment that we provide - so much so, that we have a 100% guarantee offer. If you are not happy with any of our products simply return it before the party and we will swap it no questions asked.

At Alert Rental Centre we remind our customers, and people who ask our advice about parties, functions, and events this one piece of advice.

If you do your party on the cheap - your guests will know!

A little extra spent can be a lot of headaches saved and a party setting that was worth what you paid.


David Caruso is the principal and owner of Alert Rental Centre and has 16 years of party industry experience. He hasjust recently stepped down as The National President of the Party & Event Division of the Hire & Rental Industry Association.