Just a random musing on bookings...

I don't know why i bother with bookings sometimes....Here is how my weekend played out....

Saturday:
My 2pm which i had booked a month ago, moved their time forward to 11am which i could do. It still Kind of sucked because I had turned other work away for that 2pm time slot.... Anyway, had a great party and as i was packing up, I got a frantic phone call from another parent saying that their face painter had cancelled and they were desperate for a face painter for 2pm. Cool i can do this! Ended up painting a whole class full of kids and
got a great pay

Sunday:
10am party goes as planned.
2.30pm (repeat client, booked two weeks in advance) Get to the venue and don't see anyone. Give her a call and the party is postponed, but would like me for next weekend, same time, at same rate. Um thanks for telling me? Grrrr. I guess i'll ask her to pay a little extra next weekend for my trouble...

anyway, moral of the story. I guess you win some, you lose some and bookings are fluid!

I always contact the birthday parents 5-7 days before the event to verify times and directions.

I would be so upset if I showed up and no one was there! Grrrr!

CottonKandyClown wrote:I always contact the birthday parents 5-7 days before the event to verify times and directions.

I would be so upset if I showed up and no one was there! Grrrr!

This happened to me once! Lesson learned the hard way!

I probably should do that CKC, but luckily the majority of my clients have been so wonderful and reliable that i get slack about follow up.

I also couldn't get grumpy with the woman. She told me there had been a death in the family on the weekend. However she is an Indigenous lady and the term 'family' to Aboriginal people can encompass several different families and not just their immediate kin. So in reality the death in the family could have been her Aunty's sisters cousins third nephew type of thing. But who am I to question? I didn't even ask for a cancellation fee because i didn't want to come off an insensitive prat.... "hello, i had to cancel because X passed away" Me: "oh my condolences, that will still cost you $50 though" *cringe*

great that the extra party showed up, after you were messed around with!

Ha...funny how things work out! Bummer about being postponed though. I'd charge a little travel fee at least or something. One time my mom did a gig that she's done every year through another entertainment company at a country club...a whole group of them would spend hours getting all dressed into costumes, drive a long ways, and this one year they showed up only to find another whole group of entertainers were already there in their place! They had apparently hired some new guy to take care of the event and he just decided to go with someone cheaper without even telling them! Infuriating!

I call too. Sometimes, is funny! I have a party today, and I am thinking that CASH only should be what I ask, not that I could given my contract, but this is what happened:

Them Hello?
Me May I speak with First name, last name please?
Them: She just left, who is calling please?
Me: I am the face painter for her daughters birthday party on_______, calling to confirm the date, time, and place.
Them: Oh, she just walked in, let me go get her
Dramatic pause...footsteps...
Them: Hello? (same voice)
Me...(confirmed said party)

I do know that I sound like a bill collector...my mother taught me proper phone skills, and what I need to do is to say, Hello, this is the face painter calling...may I please speak to so and so about the birthday party for (blank)?

Now I am worried that I will be chasing this payment. Hate that.

At least I know that there will be people there when I get to the party! Lets just hope that it is only the 10 kids she says will be there.

CONTRACT!!!!!

My contract states: It’s the clients responsibility to inform entertainer of location changes and the client’s responsibility to have a same day back up plan for inclement weather. If your date or time changes for whatever reason, for example inclement weather, we will do everything within our power to try and accommodate to another open slot or provide a different artist(this may increase the cost depending on the fees of that artist).However, if a new date & time cannot be worked out the retainer is still non-refundable. Times & dates can be changed only once.

If I show up to an event that has been cancelled or postponed, the retainer becomes mine and it states that clearly in my contract. I have to be given notice of cancellations and that notice has to be given before I make my way to the event. The reason for the cancellation determines what I do with the retainer.

Contracts and retainers have been a huge help for me. I no longer get last minute cancellations---or the classic, when you call them to confirm, "didn't you get my e-mail, our plans have changed to such-and-such date"...which never ended up in "spam" cause it was never sent to begin with...