Can anyone share their experience about renting out park’s clubhouse for events like wedding parties, birthdays, church meetings, etc.? What are market rates per hour or per event? Where do you advertise? What do you provide - paper cups, napkins, silverware, grill, what else? Do you have any problems with tenants/noise/parking?
We have a nice lakefront clubhouse in our park in Florida which tenants don’t use so we were thinking about generating some additional income out of it.
Cashew,
Why aren’t the residents using it? Is it not open for the residents use? Do you have anything set up? Do you throw community functions for them that are part of your monthly stuff?
We do activities throughout the year in our clubhouse to draw attention to our space and utilize it fully because otherwise its just wasted real estate.
We have parties for our all ages community. We throw a Valentines party where we do fun stuff for the kids, crafts and decorate cookies. We do an Easter party with the egg hunt and the whole 9 yards. We do a summer carnival, cinco de mayo, National Night Out, a summer bbq, a Fall festival, a Halloween bash, a Thanksgiving dinner, two movie nights each month, ladies night, mens night, football weekends, kids church camp. MMA dojo practice, school meetings, neighorhood watch, AA, video game playoffs, billiards games, bible study, taco tuesday, spaghetti friday, cooking classes, keggers at the pool ( 2 drink max), we open the pool up all summer long, see what I am saying you could use the heck out of that place 
So, since I veered off… we have a space for our residents, a gym, a game room with fooseball, air hockey and billiards, an outdoor pool, outdoor playground for the littles, and a laundry room. We have finite rules of use, so we are protected and can retain their deposit otherwise its fully refundable, for our location. You could increase your revenue by allowing private events. You could just do an hourly plus a cleaning fee. Here in WA the local is about $45-55/hr rental non refundable in a standard public space. But each market is different and so are each locations value, so yours would be different.
If you haven’t asked around, ask the local community center/city center areas what their hourly rental rate is and what all is included to get a local base line. What’s cool is that there are infinite possibilities…what do you want to do with it? We have event tents, folding tables, folding chairs, bathrooms, and an available full kitchen they can use included, as long as they take care of the space. we do not give out trash bags or TP or the vacuum for clean up, but we give a suggestion list of what they should bring for cleaning the space.
Just don’t forget your residents, in theory, should have first right of refusal to use it, and give a few weeks out for the booking so you have some time to plan your staff, and bump people out that can’t make the 2 week in advance minimum or whatever it is. You gotta train your residents to respect it. Retaining a refundable deposit or two when someone violates your stated rules… it will travel like wild fire, and make you extra dollars. Just be ethical about it you know?
If you start with your residents, advertise it for free in your newsletter and on your community board, and see what shakes loose. It will spread like wild fire, you can advertise for free all over town, just ask around where you want to throw up a poster, call the local photographers and planners, and just get the calls out there. .
Make sure the space is tight and right though.
I read through this and forgot something - you could easily increase your rental amount if you provide more than tables and chairs, just see what the neighboring event places offer and make yours better. But with that, it also brings more work to your staff to manage all of the materials you are providing, plus storage, plus rentals, etc.
If you have your rules in place and your staff that opens the party is going through them with the renter, at minimum on the rental day, it greatly reduces nuisance issues like parking and noise complaints. Be very black and white in what is allowed…
Some things to think about, is alcohol allowed at your venue? (We do not allow it for the obvious but also we do not carry insurance for that, or have permits for it)
Would you require that they are starting at a certain time and done at a certain time, without exception (15 minute grace period for starting late, but no grace on ending late or lose deposit)
Would you require that the person checking out the space be there the entirety of the event, plus be the person you check the space out to and collect it from at the end (we do so we have no possibility of “I didn’t know about this or that, or we didn’t do this or that” for damages. They have to inspect it with me on site, and sign off that the facility is clean and stocked.
Would you require that no children are to be left unattended in your space at any time?
Would you require that all guests park in certain areas / have special permits for the day?
Would you release keys for the residents / event hosts for the space or not? we do not, because - not to be paranoid, but we don’t want them making key copies or having access to doors they should not have access too.
We also, to remove confusion when its a private event vs. a community event in the space, we hang laminated typed sheets in the windows around the 4 sides of the building where access points are stating “Clubhouse Reserved Today” with our logo on it.
When we have a community event we put a huge Neighborhood Party banner up on the building and one at each entry on a sandwich board to in house advertise.
What did you end up doing with the space?