[hopsterdufus]

I am a first time competition organizer for a rather large homebrew competition in Florida.  Our awards ceremony has always been held in a restaurant owned by a member of a local club who hosts their meetings or in a local macro-brewery's hall.  We have outgrown both spaces and am looking to have the ceremony and the final judging in a hotel.  This has many advantages but there seem to be many roadblocks to securing a hotel for these purposes. 

Many hotels require that they cater and provide alcohol. We are obviously going to be drinking homebrew at the awards ceremony and also for the judging of the beers.  Has anyone got any good advice on how to secure a hotel for these purposes and allow them to let us serve our own beer and possibly provide our own food?  Would this require securing insurance? 

Thanks!

[blatz]

not sure where you are, but I could put you in touch with the organizers of the sunshine challenge and commander saaz, both of which have usually been in hotels in the past.

[tumarkin]

You need to talk to any prospective hotel management and let them know exactly what you're planning. They will likely be open to your bringing alcohol, but will want to charge a corking fee (per bottle). You'll almost certainly need to use their catering/food. That's actually you're leverage. You need to explain to them that you'll be having XX number of people for the dinner (that's where they'll make their money) but that you'll be using your own beer & paying a corking fee is a deal breaker. They may or may not go for it. If they balk, let them know that many other competitions in FL have arranged that sort of deal, and that you'll go elsewhere.

If you want to provide your own food as well as your own beer, look for some other sort of venue. Our club, Hogtown Brewers, moved from hotels for our comp to holding it at Kanapaha Gardens primarily so we could have better food than you get at most hotels for the same money. Good luck

[Jimmy K]

Good advice above. Just get a list of venues and be prepared to quickly explain what you want to do over the phone. If one isn't interested, move on to the next. Prepare yourself with stats about how many will attend. Surely somebody will prefer some business over no business. I agree that you probably can't get around food though. I wouldn't bring up corkage unless they do, and if they do explain that you'll take care of serving homebrew.