Hello everybody! I didn't really see a more applicable forum, so am posting this here. If I missed a better one mods feel free to move it or let me know.

Short Version (Because I can get wordy!):

Any suggestions on good websites, videos, blogs, books, etc to read on how to operate a moderately sized (2500ish sqft, full bar and commercial kitchen) event rental space?

Search results for things I tried to look up mostly brought up click baity, overly simple types of articles, or had info that didn't much apply to my situation. A few things were for if I was running some major event space, which is also not really applicable.

Are any of the websites for event rentals worth posting to? I did see some sites that allowed listing properties a-la Airbnb style, but for event spaces. I suppose I should do social media, despite hating it?

What about good offline ways to advertise/pitch it such as professional event planners, physical bulletin boards (They're still a thing around here!), certain organizations that regularly do events, anything else worth it? Any just generally clever ideas on how I could use/market/pitch such a space?

Pricing - $250 for a full day seem reasonable? Should I do less than a full day rentals too for less? Seems many places do add ons for extra equipment, plates, flatware use, etc.

Any other completely different ideas for how to utilize the space that aren't a bar/restaurant? I've thought home based catering companies might have some interest, but other than that not much comes to mind.

So any suggestions would be appreciated!

The long version ended up absurdly long, but since I'd bothered to type it out I guess I'll leave it be for any masochists out there. Haha. I mean there's stuff relevant to the situation, and some other questions in there I wouldn't mind getting answered... So maybe somebody will actually read it :)

Long Version:

So several months back I purchased a lovely old brick building, largely with the intent of using the basement area for my own business as I needed working and storage space... As a "bonus" I basically got a fully kitted out 2500 sqft bar/restaurant upstairs! Essentially everything, including a walk in fridge, full commercial kitchen, old school bar fridge, etc was there and working. Newer flooring. It basically only needed a couple very minor things to be tip top. I've already fixed the few minor things, so I'd say it's in the kind of shape most middle class or even upper middle class folks would consider "pretty nice," but not awe inspiring. It probably wouldn't impress a decamillionaire jet setter or billionaire, but that's not likely to be my clientele anyway! Basically at this point I need to throw a few more pictures on the walls and it's ready to rock.

Anyway, I got a fantastic deal on it because I hustled it up off market, so I don't NEED to bring in a ton from it since I'm already getting my money's worth for my own use... But everybody likes extra money, right? So in thinking of the best ways to monetize it I have mostly landed on trying to rent it out as an event rental space.

Why event space? Several reasons. Given the population and market dynamics around here, I don't think a full service/bar restaurant would really be likely to make it. They'd have to be a destination for the whole county, which somebody might be able to pull off, but not likely. I sure don't want to run one either, and although I think I could find somebody to rent it to who doesn't realize it will fail, who wants a series of failing tenants? Also, I would prefer to not be constantly day in day out sharing the building with somebody else. So converting to more office-y space loses that too, and would probably have modest prospects of success anyway. I like having it all to myself, which it still will be most of the time if I do events.

I DO think a coffee shop would make money there, especially if I added in a drive through window, which is doable with the layout. However I don't really want to operate one right now (too busy), and I lose having the building to myself if I rent it to somebody for that purpose. I would say this is my Plan B if I ever NEED to bring in more money from the property though.

Converting to apartments would be the most profitable thing really (huge rental shortage here), but it seems a shame to ruin a nice commercial space if I can find another way to monetize it. I'm going to look into costs on building a 2nd story onto an extension of the main building for an apartment anyway!

Obviously location is everything, and this is in the boonies, not downtown NYC, but it does have some tourist draw...

It's in a small rural town that is also pretty close to several other small rural towns that are fairly interconnected as far as people going back and forth. Total population within 20-25 minutes is about 13,000. Mostly pretty blue collar to middle of the middle class population. It has a bit of a tourist element in the summer for ATVs, motorcycles, offroading, etc. It also has a smallish ski resort in my town (Mullan, ID), another ski resort 20 minutes away (Kellogg, ID), as well as snowmobile/other winter activities draw in the snowy season too. Wallace, ID is not even 10 minutes and it has a tourist draw of its own just because it's a cool old cowboy era mining town, which my town basically is too, but not quite as many sweet buildings! It's 45-60 minutes away from Coeur d'Alene Idaho, which is a bigger town, popular tourist spot, has a fair amount of money floating around nowadays. Just a little further to Spokane, WA which is a proper decent sized metro area.

So my thinking is essentially make it a very reasonably priced event space for locals and people from CDA/Spokane who want to do things on a budget, or like the idea of intentionally doing whatever in the mountains.

I am thinking maybe a $250 a day "basic fee" for the space all day/into the evening. This seems reasonable to me. It's enough to be worth spending the time letting people in to do their thing and locking up afterwards, but also hopefully low enough to entice people out here on price. Likewise, it's low enough that locals can afford it for some semi-casual events where the alternative might be just doing it at their house or a local bar/restaurant without privacy. Also, when looking at the afore mentioned event rental websites, I think around that price point was literally the cheapest thing listed anywhere in north Idaho. I don't think those were even for a fully private building, but rather for private rooms within operating bars/restaurants/hotels etc. I'm sure there are cheaper places, but they're "you just gotta know about them" type situations.

I can obviously raise it if I am getting booked more than I desire, or I guess contemplate lowering it if I'm not getting any traction... But does $250 seem like a good place to start? High, low? Somebody I was talking to the other day also brought up potentially doing 3-4 hour blocks for less. Think like a kids birthday party for just the afternoon or whatever. The "time overhead" of having to deal with it and only getting $100 or whatever seems unappealing... Also, seems like you may cannibalize people booking it for all day by offering it for the shorter period... But if anybody runs a space and finds this to be where they make a ton of money maybe it'd be worth it? The place is all of 2-3 blocks from my house after all...

Other than the broad strokes above, I do have some more specific questions...

It seems like a lot of places have incremental up charges. There's a basic fee for the space, usually a cleaning deposit (Unless you just force everyone to pay for cleaning as part of the basic fee. I'd think maybe $50-75 deposit is reasonable as I could get it cleaned for about that, depending on how messy it was left), but then add ons. For instance if you want to use real plates, silverware, etc that would be an additional charge. Use our pots/pans/cooking utensils, add on charge. You want a cook or bartender, add on charge. You want a PA/stereo system, add on charge. You get the idea.

If this is indeed the standard way as it seems to be, any general guidelines on how one should price these add ons out? Obviously with bartenders/cooks, I will have to see what some of the ones I know would want to make to work an event, and then add on markup for my time of arranging it (Or would I be better off having the client directly book people after I merely send them their way for liability reasons?)... But what about table service for 40? How much for the PA? $50? $100? Stuff like that would be nice to know. Any other add on services that have worked out well for people running similar spaces?

Other than the stuff above, one of the only other questions I had was permitting/insurance. I don't think one needs a business license per se to rent out a property they own for an event, right? So I can skip that unless I want to for my own legal/tax reasons? My town doesn't have any STR laws of any sort, so I think I'm in the clear on that. In theory I believe alcohol permits are only applicable if an event is open to the general public. So really I shouldn't have any permitting/licenses needed in general as far as I can tell, other than if I want to for legal/tax reasons. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of that...

As far as insurance, if I get people to sign a liability disclaimer as part of the rental agreement, will that hold up, or will I still be on the hook and the property at risk even with a disclaimer? Because sadly the sanctity of contracts is overridden by a lot of so called consumer protection laws nowadays...

In other words, should I definitely cover myself with a policy every event one way or another? I'm sure I could get a general policy of some sort added onto the building insurance I have that would cover an event rental usage. Would that be a pricey thing, or maybe a small difference compared to just covering the building?

I also saw some online companies offer 1 day policies nowadays for events. IIRC some were like $30-40 bucks. Should this be something I get and pay for to cover myself from accidents during events and just eat it as a cost of doing business? Should it be something I direct people to purchase at their discretion? I guess the cost of a permanent policy and whether or not a liability disclaimer will hold up kinda makes these decisions for me, as I don't like the idea of getting sued for a million bucks because some drunk person trips and breaks their back.

That is enough of a novel for now. LOL I hope it's not too detailed to dissuade people from responding, as I would love some pointers in the right direction on this.

Here are some old pics of the place from the Facebook page of a business that used to be in there.