Hotels, unions and load-in rules

Downtown hotels and convention centres have union load-in, drayage, exclusive AV and dock schedules. Budget for them or be surprised.

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Hotels, unions and load-in rules.

Downtown hotels and convention centres have union load-in, drayage, exclusive AV and dock schedules.

Budget for them or be surprised.

The building has rules you do not set.

A downtown hotel or convention centre is a machine with its own operating manual.

The dock runs on a schedule.

Union load-in.

At union venues, specific trades do specific jobs.

Stagehands set staging and lighting; electricians run power; teamsters or the house crew move freight from the dock.

Drayage and exclusive AV.

Drayage is the movement of material from the dock to your room and back, usually charged by weight or by piece, usually by the venue or its contracted handler.

At convention centres it is a significant cost on anything shipped in advance.

Dock time and elevators.

Book dock time the week the contract is signed. Docks are booked in windows, often 30 or 60 minutes per vehicle, and shared with every other event in the building and the hotel's own deliveries.

Get the freight elevator dimensions and load from the site visit and send them to every vendor with a case bigger than a suitcase. Staging decks, a grand piano and a large illusion prop have all failed to fit elevators in this city.

Budgeting for it.

Every one of these is quoted before HST.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Plan load-in at a union venue
• Budget drayage and exclusive AV
• Book dock time and elevators

The building has rules you do not set

A downtown hotel or convention centre is a machine with its own operating manual. The dock runs on a schedule. The freight elevator belongs to engineering. The people who carry cases from the truck to the ballroom may belong to a union with rules about who touches what. The AV company may hold an exclusive contract for the building. None of this is a problem if you budget and schedule for it. All of it is a problem on event day if you did not.

Union load-in

At union venues, specific trades do specific jobs. Stagehands set staging and lighting; electricians run power; teamsters or the house crew move freight from the dock. Your vendors may be allowed to hand-carry what one person can lift, and nothing more. A band that expects to wheel its own cases from the van may find the cases wheeled for them, on the clock, at a rate with a four-hour minimum. Ask the venue for the current labour rules and rate sheet and send it to every vendor who is loading in. Rates and minimums vary by building; do not quote them from memory, ask for the sheet.

Small acts are mostly unaffected. A close-up magician with a case and a mentalist with a bag walk in through the lobby. A production with a stage, a lighting rig and a backline is where union labour becomes a line item.

Drayage and exclusive AV

Drayage is the movement of material from the dock to your room and back, usually charged by weight or by piece, usually by the venue or its contracted handler. At convention centres it is a significant cost on anything shipped in advance. Ask for the drayage rate sheet and plan deliveries to arrive on the day, direct to the dock, so they are handled once.

Exclusive AV means the building’s AV contractor is the only one who may supply sound, lighting and video in the room, or the only one who may touch house systems. If you bring outside AV, expect a patch fee for connecting to house sound, a requirement that house technicians operate house gear, or an outright no. The in-house price list is often higher than the outside market, but it includes the people who know the room. For a program with speeches, a screen and one act, in-house is usually the cheaper total once patch fees and labour are counted. For a full production, get both quotes.

Dock time and elevators

1. Book dock time the week the contract is signed. Docks are booked in windows, often 30 or 60 minutes per vehicle, and shared with every other event in the building and the hotel’s own deliveries.
2. Get the freight elevator dimensions and load from the site visit and send them to every vendor with a case bigger than a suitcase. Staging decks, a grand piano and a large illusion prop have all failed to fit elevators in this city.
3. Write the load-in schedule in 15-minute blocks: vehicle, contents, dock window, who meets it, elevator slot, where it goes in the room. Send it to the venue and every vendor.
4. Confirm the overtime rules for the dock and for the room separately. They are often different.
5. Plan strike the same way. Everyone wants the elevator at 11 p.m.

Budgeting for it

Every one of these is quoted before HST. Add 13 percent.

Worked example: the Harbour Gala

The gala’s load-in is light, which is the usual shape of a fundraising dinner. The hotel’s dock runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in 30-minute windows. We booked 2:00 for the florist, 2:30 for the signage and silent auction materials, and 3:00 for the photographer’s booth kit. The mentalist arrives through the lobby at 4:30 with two cases and goes straight to sound check; the strolling magicians arrive at 5:30 with nothing bigger than a jacket.

AV is exclusive in-house. The quote for a podium mic, two wireless handhelds, one lavalier for the mentalist, house sound, a projector and screen for the paddle raise, 16 uplights and two gobos, with a technician from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., came to roughly $3,400 before HST. An outside supplier quoted $2,600 for the gear, but the hotel’s patch fee plus a required house technician added back about $900, and the outside crew would have needed dock time we did not have. In-house won on total cost and on the fact that the technician knows which breaker trips.

House labour: none required, because nothing is rigged and the staging is house staging set by banquet staff. Drayage: none, because everything arrives on the day and is hand-carried from the dock. Strike is included to 11:30 p.m. We booked the freight elevator for 10:45 to 11:30 the same day we booked the dock.

Common mistakes

• Telling a band “load in at 4” without a dock window, and finding a catering truck in the bay.
• Quoting a client outside AV without the patch fee and the house technician.
• Shipping materials a week early to a convention centre and paying warehouse and drayage on every box.
• Not sending the elevator dimensions to the vendor with the biggest case.
• Assuming strike is included in the room hours. Ask.

Put dock windows, elevator slots and technician hours into the timeline generator so they appear on the production schedule next to the vendor arrivals.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet, complete it for your own event (or the running gala example), and keep it in your course binder. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)