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20th May 2009
The ISES Qld chapter, has slammed the decision by Sofitel Brisbane Grand Central to charge external events suppliers and contractors for the use of the ‘loading dock’, ‘goods lifts’ and ‘electricity’ when setting up & removing equipment from events that are held for and on behalf of their clients, who chose not to use the Sofitel Brisbane’s preferred in house supplier.
ISES Qld have been advised by several of its members and industry colleagues of correspondence received from Sofitel Brisbane General Manager, Goran Aleksandrovski., stating that event contractors will be charged $75 per hour during setup and pack down. The letter states that the “reason for the charge is to better client and contractor experiences in the venue, as well as needing to cover costs due to the economic climate”. ISES Qld believes that a client booking a Sofitel venue space has an expectation that access to the venue by the client’s choice of staging or audiovisual contractor or supplier is part of the contract.
We are of the firm belief that the Sofitel is merely putting in place impediments to a client against using their own contracted audio visual supplier, thus ensuring that commissions paid by the in-house supplier to the Sofitel which is not declared to the client are maximised. It is a well known fact to event suppliers and contractors that many hotels and venues are paid commission on turnover in the vicinity of 25% to 40%.
ISES Qld also believes that such charges not declared are not in the spirit of the law in regards to Queensland Fair Trade Laws. Creating a monopoly of supply within a hotel or venue and cutting out the external event supplier or contractor is not fair competition and is not what the industry needs in the current economic climate.
Advice to our members and industry peers is to “refuse to pay any charges for access to loading dock or use of electricity during event set-up or de-rig, from the Sofitel Brisbane or for that matter any hotel or venue and refer the matter to their client”. It is our belief that a contract exists between the venue and end user; “the Client” – not our members who are contracted by our clients.
ISES Qld calls on the Sofitel Brisbane and the Accor Group to abandon plans to charge these fees at the
Brisbane
property and any other properties they are considering.
The Sofitel letter...
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