Renters or Owners? What Should I Do?

We mentioned in our previous post the question of companies renting vs. owning the equipment they use for events. While many companies may rent if they book an event much larger than they're accustomed to, or that may only happen on rare occasions (making the expense of purchasing the equipment unreasonable), others do business only with rented equipment. So what does that mean to you? It means you should dig a bit deeper by asking some tough questions.

If the company is renting their equipment, be sure to ask if they're renting enough extra equipment to backup all the primary equipment they rent. This adds another large expense to the renting company, so in many cases they try to keep backups to a minimum or not rent them at all. Keep in mind, this question should be asked of companies that own their own equipment also, but it is very common for equipment owners to also purchase backup equipment or have 100% redundancy much like Firefly Audio did when purchasing our equipment.

A properly drafted contract, which we'll talk about later, should address any issues concerning the stoppage of entertainment during your event. This is fine for recurring events such as birthday parties and the like, but is of little consequence for once in a lifetime events such as wedding receptions or milestone anniversaries. Be sure that if you're planning one of these once in a lifetime events that the entertainment company you choose has complete redundancy to ensure that your event's entertainment continues from start to finish without interruption.

Last but not least, never accept "Don't worry, if something happens you get a full refund" as an answer. It's YOUR event, so in the end it's up to you to ask the tough questions and make the best choice for you and your event!