Hi Lorna,

AT Walthamstow, we have five rooms for hire.  Two are hired out on a long term basis and are booked for the whole year.  One pays in one lump sum and the other pays quarterly.

The other three rooms we hire out by the hour, with a minimum length of one hour.  So long as the hour mark is breached, we allow the hirer to book for any length, i.e. 1 hour and 15 minutes is fine.

We also offer a couple of discounts.  Both are worth 10%. One is applicable if you book for 10  weeks or more and pay in one lump sum upfront and the other is available if you book for the whole year and pay by standing order.  These discounts only apply to the pay by the hour rooms and are designed to reduce admin time.

We used to have various rates available; charitable, community, and commercial.  However we scrapped these for various reasons.  A chairy can be extremely well off, a commercial group can be barely scraping by, a community group can also be a charity, etc, etc.

We don't in general allow groups to book morning and afternoon sessions with an hour off in the middle.  There is one group that does hire on a Saturday that does but they book from 10am to 7pm, so we allow them not to pay for their lunch break.

We also charge for any set up and tidy away times.  Essentially, you pay for any time that you are using the room such that no one else can.

All the best,

Ceals

Pronouns: she/her
Building Manager
Walthamstow Quaker Meeting House
020 8521 2363
 
Tel 020 8521 2363
 

Account name:  Walthamstow Quaker Meeting (Premises)
Account number:  00010329
Sort code:  40-52-40


On Fri, 4 Jul 2025 at 18:43, Westminster Wardens <westminsterwardens@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,

I'd love to know what structures you use for hire charges, please, and what advantages or problems you have with the systems you use.

At Westminster, the building is open for hire between 7 am and 10 pm.  We have ten hireable rooms (one out of commission at the mo), and loads and loads of different hirers, and so for ease of admin we have generally offered hires in three ways:
  • Three big ground floor rooms are offered by session: morning, afternoon and evening.  You hire the whole session, regardless of how long your event is.
  • Five smaller rooms are offered by the day or half-day:  7 am to 3 pm/3 pm to 10 pm.
  • Two rooms are hired exclusively by two hirers, so are on a separate charging system.
However, we're now looking at different ways to hire the five smaller rooms, as there's now so many exceptions to the standard pattern that we'd like to simplify things.

So, my questions: 
  • If you hire by the hour, even with a 2-hour minimum, do you do anything to prevent people just cherry-picking the "best" slots and leaving unuseable patches of time in between?  Eg a therapist paying for 11am-1pm, then 2pm-5pm, and not paying for lunchtime.
  • Do you charge less for less popular times?
  • Have you got any different ways of structuring hire times?
with all my best,
Lorna.


Lorna Richardson
Premises Coordinator

Westminster Quaker Meeting House 
07897 591961
Please note I am part-time; I don't expect anyone to respond outside their own normal working hours.
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