Liability

Liability? Whaever for? Surely if your playing is that bad, they shouldn't let you play at all?

j/p - hopefully someone will be able to answer this seriously. as to who pays/should pay, what does your contract say? who organised the event? because imh(and limited)o, this should have been cleared ahead of time, and the venue should have informed the event organiser of this need for liability when the rooms were booked.

I agree - why we are being contacted about this now - when we were booked for this wedding in january, i have no idea. I dont think the bride and groom are aware the hotel have contacted us about this - so maybe its an oversight by the hotel - im not sure.

I have just come back from a wedding tonight, and they didnt care about liability insurance at all?? i wonder why??
maybe some venues have their own insurance which covers them having bands on?? I am at a loss with this, and very disappointed with the venue - i would hate to have to cancell this gig - i would feel terrible to cause un-needed stress for the happy couple, but i will have cancel to if we are faced with paying for this at such short notice.

Actually - deep down i would like to pay and play it anyway as it might get us more work through word of mouth - but i dont think the other guys in the band agree with me on this - and i have to go with the majority.

thing is, if you guys cancel, the wedding party will have a hard time finding a replacement band with liability at such short notice. maybe they could split costs with you (since I'm assuming getting liability means you're covered for 12 months or so, they could pay a percentage since this was a late expense?).

did they hotel say why they needed you to have liability? I can only speak from personal experience here, but I've never known a venue to ask for that to be covered in order to play there.

they just said it was their policy not to allow bands without it.
but leaving it this long is before contacting us is very poor on their behalf.

I don't know the legal issues. I'm in the wrong country anyway. But I do know something about contracts. Whoever booked the event (bride and groom, wedding planner, bride's parents?) signed some sort of contract with the hotel. Likely your band has no contract at all with the hotel. As Scrybe pointed out, your band should have a written contract with the person in charge of organizing the wedding. If not, you made some sort of verbal agreement. In my opinion, you should not be dealing with the hotel at all, except to check out where you will be playing. I would refer the hotel staff to the person in charge. That way the wedding organizer will know what is going on and maybe can work something out with your band and the hotel. Since the hotel apparently did not tell the organizer about this requirement, it's an unexpected expense that someone has to cover. If the hotel still insists that the insurance is required, maybe they can give the organizer a break on some other costs, leaving money free to cover your insurance for that day.

Some good points there, Hobson.
I guess that would fall under full disclosure . . . the contract between the hotel and the wedding party.
(I wonder if the kitchen staff has liability coverage . . . or the employees for room service?)
But the band is most likely considered a third party contracted by the wedding party.
Contacting the wedding party and informing them of the problem would be a good idea . . .
they might have time to find another hotel . . . or make other plans.
Although, if wedding invitations with info on the hotel as the reception site, have been sent to the invitees, this is not too likely.
Maybe the hotel has another band they could recommend.
That doesn't help this band . . . but this event is more important for the wedding party than the band . . . IMO.

yeah, its definately us that will get the boot, rather than the venue. I think ill have to personally call the venue and discuss why they left it so late. im sure they dont want the bride and groom to know it was the hotels fault they have last minute wedding re-arrangements.

ill let you know how it works out :-)

Maybe the hotel has another band they could recommend.

That leads to an interesting conspiracy theory...
Maybe they are hoping to be in a position to suggest a band that they just happen to know are available at the last moment... for an additional fee, of course. :evil:

It's probably just one of those details that fell thru the cracks, though.

A single night of liability insurance should not cost that much. Shop around and give the wedding party the best quote that you find. Let them know that you can't play without the insurance and the late nature of the venue's request. They will likely at the very least offer to cover some of it.

well we found a good quote of £55 for one nights insurance.

we had a tense arguement (but not too tense).
To sum things up i believed that as a band, who advertise themselves as organised, experienced and professional, it is our responsibility to know about insurance needs etc.

I also said that in future, when we get wedding bookings we should mention the possibility of this insurance occuring and that it might need to be added to the bill should the venue request it, but this time we should foot it ourselves.

i was out-voted and the bride and groom was phoned and agreed to pay the extra.

So in future we will give our quotes with a disclaimer that we might need to charge £50 more if the venue wants liability insurance.

Im still a bit bummed we couldnt agree to pay it ourselves this time though. i think pleasing the "employers" for the night can only be good for word of mouth.

thanks for the replies and advice guys.
AL