Pricing and
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Feastivities
We have created this to assist you in planning
your special event. If you have any further
questions,
please call our office at
(905)
994-7979.
1. Client
price: Before a price is
determined, there are my variables as per normal
with any service business. The following factors
are taken into consideration when your banquet
consultant gives you final pricing.
a) Location:
Location is the largest factor when determining
your price. Factors we must consider is if the hall you are looking to book has a kitchen
fee? Do they have a clean up fee? The actual
location is also important in the degree of
difficult in our catering services. If you have
chosen a hall in which we are familiar with or
have worked with in the past, the degree of
difficulty is then lower. Another factor to consider with the location, is the equipment.
Is the kitchen facility fully equipped, do we
need to provide additional equipment (i.e.
ovens, dishes and in some cases our complete
mobile kitchen). Does the hall have 20 stairs
to climb or walk up or is it level loading? Example of this would be the Knights of
Columbus in Niagara Falls, they have 28 stairs,
so we would then require at least 1 additional
staff member to help load and unload. N.O.T.L
Court house, has one oven and all equipment must be loaded in an elevator to be
taken up to the third level.
Location is the most important factor in
determing the price.
2. Type
of Meal : Buffet, Single
Service or Family Style Service. Does each
style of service have a different price? This
is a common caterer myth.
a) Food
End:
When preparing food, our chef's order for the
number of guests. Although your guests may consume more food on a buffet it is offset
to the number of waitstaff required. Therefore
there is NO price difference comparing the same
menu to different styles of service.
b) Service
End:
At Feastivities by Home Style Catering, we have
a very high standard of service. The majority of our service staff has been with us for well over
3 years and a few for over 10 years. Our
standard is the following: 1 server for every 25
guests. Buffet, 1 for every 30 guests With the
only exceptions being considered, if the menu is
of fine dining single service nature and the
degree of difficulty of the menu, this ratio may change to 1 server for every 20 guests, or in
extreme circumstances 1 server for every 10
guests.
3. Date
of Catering:
Next to location, the date is also a major
factor in quoting a menu price. We presently
have 3 teams that we have put together to
serve our clients. We name them Team A,B,C. Not
to worry though, each team is created equally.
Team C is not worse than Team A, and vice
versa. Although each team has its own specialization. That specialization may be
Weddings, Barbecues or our Defense Contracts.
When it comes to our yearly con- tracts with
Golf Clubs, Department of National Defense and
our exclusive halls, we reserve duties for each
of these contracts.
After a date is booked with our contracts, we
then proceed to book at "other locations."
There are many dates, possibly 100 a year, when
we cannot book another event on a particular
date because of our exclusive halls or
contracts. They are and will remain our #1
priority. There are even some dates and
locations, like an outdoor wedding or a corporate event for 1000 that two if not all three of our teams will come
together. That is why we only book one outdoor
wedding or corporate function per day.
4. Can
we get a better price if we book our
wedding/event in your off season?
What is your off-season?
Because of our contract catering and film
productions, we are kept busy year round. But
specifically for our wedding clients, of course there is an off season.
Wedding High Season ( usually dates are booked
well in advance from 12 months to 18months in
advance) High Season is from April 15 to
November 15.
Low Season is from January 1 to April 14.
Christmas Parties keep us busy from November 15
to New Years.
Weddings that are booked in this low season, can
expect a discount for all there business, be it
limo, floral, dress, tuxedo of at least 10 to
25%. However, most business will not disclose
this information to you as we are doing.
Weekends are of course high season. The most commonly asked question we have from all of our
clients is how can we get your service and
quality less expensive? The only factor that we
would consider date discount is once again from
January 1 to April 14 or from Monday to Thursday
year round.
5. What
is the service charge of 15% for?
A service charge is a percentage added to your
final total and yes, it is GST taxable. The
service charge is charged by all catering/hotel
banquet facilities although it may vary from 15%
to 21%. Our 15% service charge is based to the
following items:
a) Waitstaff. Every year at our Christmas
Party, our staff vote to receive a percentage of
the service charge or a higher hourly wage. By
choosing a higher hourly wage, the staff knows
exactly what they will be making or by choosing
to receive a portion of the service charge, they receive minimum wage plus the service charge.
We also pay for our annual summer staff party
and Christmas party from this portion.
b) Banquet Consultant. The person you meet with
and plan your event spend in many circumstances, hours with you making sure that
your event is perfect (i.e by coming to your
home, doing the office and paper work and
dealing with other suppliers), also receives
a percentage of the service charge. As you may
have noticed at this time we have not charged
an additional consulting fee for our services,
where as others in our industry charge a fee for
this service.
c) Overhead. A very small percentage goes to
vehicle maintenance for our fleet. If this cost
is added to your menu price, it would increase
the menu price across the board.
6. Is
the service charge always 15%?
The answer to that questions simply stated is
NO. The service charge is determined on your
final contract price. Any event over $15,000
the service charge is decreased to 10%.
7. What
are your deposit requirements? Is your deposit
refundable? Our standard
deposit for catering a social event is the
following:
Catered event under$1000.00 is $250.00
Catered Event $1000.00 and over is $500.00
Catered Event over $10,000.00 is based on a
percentage of 5%
When you sign your contract with us, it
specifically states that all deposits are
non-refundable. The ONLY time we will consider
a partial or entire refund is if we can book
another event on that specific date for the same dollar amount or higher.
8. Why
will you not allow us to pay Cash and eliminate
GST/PST?
a) It is highly illegal.
b) Honestly, we probably lose 15 events a year
because we refuse to take cash as a payment.
Some of these events that we refuse, are
contracts for over $20,000. We have been in
business since 1971 and have worked hard to
become a leader in the Niagara Region. If we accepted the contract, if one, or all, we
would jeopardize our reputation and thus risk
penalties and investigations.
9.Why
does some of your competition cater for $2.? or a % less a person that your catering company?
a) Licensed. As with any service business, there
is competition that is not licensed, and work
out of their home, garage, etc. We do not
consider these businesses as competition. We
are fully licensed and carry proper liability
insurance, $2,000,000., a member of the chamber
of commerce. We currently hold many
National Department of Defense Contracts/Standing Offers, these are highly regulated and watched
over to ensure our business is fully licensed and insured. And our owner, Peter
Van Helsdingen, is a member of Catersource.
Peter also speaks at international catering conferences on the subject of service and sales
in our industry. Peter is also a member of
the Advisory Board of the Special Events
Management Program at Niagara College and in the
past has taught several programs at the college
level within the context of hospitality
industry.
b)
75% of our phone calls for new business is based
on past customer referral. This is our proudest
achievement.
c) Delivery. Many clients and potential clients
we have are amazed when they gain knowledge
that, at present, are the
only caterers in the Niagara
Region with mobile refrigeration. Although not
all events require refrigeration,
we are required to secure foods at proper tempertures when cooking, storing, and transporting. When calling around for a perspective caterer, ask, "How will you
transport my food at safe temperatures."
c) Our mission statement is simple and is based
on 30 years of experience and a second
generation of family in the catering
industry...........
At Feastivities
We strive through our commitment
To provide quality food, outstanding service,
and unbelievable presentation
To achieve 110% customer satisfaction.
We are only as good as our last event.
