How I'd choose an event venue without paying for the chairs twice

If I were choosing an event venue, I'd split every quote into the room, the food and the rules, then work out what each guest who actually turns up costs me. I think most of the paying twice happens because those three things arrive as one friendly number.

The free room isn't free

One bride in a 2017 RinggitPlus piece paid RM80 a head for a thousand guests at a convention centre. "There are no venue charges as it was included in the catering package," she said.²

I don't doubt her. I'd just say the room was inside the food. Nobody's hiding anything, but you can't compare that quote with a hall's until you've turned both into the same unit.

Nearly all the numbers I can find are for weddings, so that's what I'm using. For a company dinner I'd guess the shape is the same and the amounts aren't.

What one guest cost, in ringgit

The first bar is iMoney's 2025 example: a municipal hall from RM2,000 for the day and two dishes and rice at RM15 a head, for 500 guests.¹ The last is its top hotel price, RM2,000 for a table of ten.¹

The restaurant bar comes from a 2019 piece, first run by a services platform, at about RM60,000 for forty tables of ten.³ The same piece puts a hotel dinner at up to RM120,000 for those forty tables, which is RM300 a head, so the hotel bar is the lower of two top prices, and I've gone with the newer one.³

And two dishes and rice is not a ballroom dinner, so I'm not saying the cheap bar wins. I'm saying now you can see what the ballroom is charging for.

Where the chairs come in

Chairs are a good test because they turn up inside so many prices. That same bride's separate RM2,000 canopy package, for another event, came with 160 chairs "fully decorated".² Another couple's restaurant package included decorations, invitations and favours.²

So here's how I'd expect the double payment to happen. You book a room whose price includes chairs, tables and some sort of dressing. Then you fall for a decorator with a look you love, and they bring chairs too.

The first bride's venue offered a selection of daises, and she went to a planner for one that matched her theme.² The piece doesn't say whether the venue's dais was already in her price, but that's the question I'd ask before saying yes to anyone. If you're adding a planner as well, I've done that sum separately.

A minimum spend is a bet on your guest list

The only minimum spends I could find sit on undated venue listings, so this is my reasoning, and the figures are made up. As I understand it, a minimum spend means you owe that amount however many people come.

Say the room has a minimum spend of twenty thousand ringgit, and you've planned a hundred guests at two hundred a head. That looks the same as a per-head deal. Then eighty people show up, you still pay twenty thousand, and each of them now costs two hundred and fifty.

The usual advice is to take the all-in package because it's simple, and they're right about one thing. One bill and one person to complain to is worth real money on the day. I'd just want to price that simplicity, not assume it's free.

The rules are part of the price

The corkage and overtime terms I could find were on undated hotel and venue listings too, and I found nothing on cancellation, so these are questions and not prices. I'd want every answer in writing before the deposit.

• What's the last date I can lower my headcount, and by how much?
• What time does the room end, and what does each hour after that cost?
• Is there corkage, and does it apply per bottle?
• Can I bring outside suppliers, and is there a fee when I do?
• What happens to my deposit if I cancel, and does that change closer to the date?

Then ask about tax, in one total. Customs' 2024 service tax policy took most taxable services to 8% and left food and beverage services out of that rise.⁴ I can't tell you how a given venue's quote splits between them.

So I wouldn't try to work it out. I'd ask for the number with everything on it.

This is worth an awkward conversation. A 2025 Sinar Daily report on a study by Future Studies Berhad says the Malaysians it surveyed were planning to marry, and most were spending between RM20,000 and RM40,000.⁵ A professor it quotes blames "steep hall rental and catering prices" alongside inflation.⁵

When I'd walk away

I'd leave if a venue wouldn't tell me what's inside the per-head number, or wanted a deposit before showing me its cancellation terms. Neither makes it a bad room. It only means I'd be finding out the rest later, and that's when it costs more.