STR as Wedding Venue

[Kevin Boyd]

Who uses their STR as a wedding venue? I have one property that, while we haven't advertised it as a wedding venue, we have hosted several wedding there. I have another property that I may sell, but I am considering making it into a wedding venue. Its a big house, very remote, with awesome views.

I would be interested in hearing other views on this strategy.

[Jon Crosby]

Sounds like an awesome opportunity @Kevin Boyd!  Sounds like you already  have experience hosting weddings at one of them but my biggest fear would be finding myself in the wedding planning industry more than real estate investing.  

I would think you would need a lot of onsite infrastructure in place to handle catering photography, parking, etc. to meet the demanding needs of those that would be booking (strangers not friends).  We actually were married at a beautiful private residence that converted their barn into a full blown reception hall.  

The beauty was you had to do all the catering thru the property so they made hand over fist on every wedding, which they pumped out 2-3 per weekend all spring summer and fall.  But it's a tremendous amount of time and work from what I saw.  

Best of luck, and love to hear what you decide! 

Cheers!

[Kevin Boyd]

Thanks Jon,

With my other property where people have had weddings, we didn't do anything except rent them the house. They brought in everything. Maybe I should team up with a couple wedding planners if I decided to do it?

[Julie McCoy]

I don't have any experience with wedding planning, so take my opinion for what it's worth, but it strikes me as the sort of thing where you could scale it to the level of work you're interested in putting in.  e.g. you could continue to just rent the location and let the renters handle the rest of the logistics, OR you could start taking on some/all of the responsibilities a la @Jon Crosby's wedding venue.  The level of income would probably roughly scale to the amount of work you're doing.

If I were in your shoes, here's how I'd approach it: I would talk to some local wedding planners about the desirability of your house as a venue.  After all, it's POSSIBLE to hold a wedding anywhere - but the better logistics, spaces, etc. that are fundamental to the property, like parking and setup space, will make for a much more desirable venue.  If they think it's got what it takes to handle the average wedding, great!  On to the next step:

Find what relatively simple/low cost steps you can take to actually start advertising it as a wedding venue.  Network with local wedding planners, let them know it's out there; put listings and/or advertisements on the major wedding websites; have a simple yet professional-looking website made for the venue (with GREAT photos).  Reach out to the couples who've already been married there and see if they're willing to let you use some of their photographs (clear it with the photographer too, in writing!!).  

It's a little work up front, but you're making huge progress in increasing your bookings, but not actually upping your workload per booking - the guests are still handling all the event logistics.  AND - of course it's not just weddings that can be held there, but other events like fundraisers and corporate parties, etc.

Once you've put these things into motion, you can decide if you want to try and up your revenue by requiring guests to use preferred vendors, etc.  But by focusing on being just the venue at first, you're not overwhelmed with creating this logistics monster that you may not have the time or inclination to deal with.  

So, in closing, I think it's definitely worth exploring making that house an event space, and in the San Diego area I'm sure you'd make a killing.  But if the feedback you get is iffy, well, maybe it's time to move on to the next thing.

[Manolo D.]

I'd say keep it simple and simply rent it out. This way planners will work around the "kinks" of shortages in the facilities. Offer commissions, have a high rental rate to make room for them to earn. Take the money with the least possible interaction at first, let them take the test of market, after your first 10-20 bookings, you'll here feedbacks like "oh it would be awesome if these guys catered", then you could start moving around.

[Karen Margrave]

I have a house where I considered doing that too. However; the local zoning would require it to be zoned for "events". However; if renting it as a vacation rental or setting up as a B&B, and the renters hold a wedding there, it doesn't fall under the same zoning scrutiny. You may have the same issues, and advertising specifically for weddings may cause you problems. I'd check with the local planning department on general policies so as not to red flag your specific property. Sounds like you already have a good thing going there.