What to charge for brief rentals?

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This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 9 months ago by carl-swanson.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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December 24, 2012 at 4:06 pm #76029

eliza-morrison
Participant

Are there any guidelines out there for renting pedal harps for less than a month-long period? Sometimes people wish to rent from me for a week or two, or a weekend or even a single performance. Any ideas or basic guidelines?

December 24, 2012 at 7:19 pm #76030

carl-swanson
Participant

It simply is not worth renting out an instrument for any period of time for less than the full month’s rental, and frankly I usually charge more. A lot of times these short term rentals also involve me doing all of the moving, and that charge can be more than the actual rental. Sometimes people think that if the cost of renting for a month is say $200, then a few days would be a fraction of that. But it just wouldn’t be worth it for the owner of the harp. The monthly rental fee on a long term rental is actually lower BECAUSE it is going to be rented for a number of months.

December 25, 2012 at 1:43 am #76031

stephen-vardy
Participant

Depends….. they can be a sh*tt*e experience.

Our most frequent request for a rental is for a friend coming to a wedding.
After several near disasters we chose a simple formula.
We treat it as a gig.
We charge full fee.
Arrive, prepare, setup etc.
The friend plays.
We take the harp home.
Zero risk and we do not lose $ and sleep..
The friend can practise prior at our house.
Filters out those unwilling to pay your normal gig fee and lowballing by using a “friend”.

Ditto stage performances.
We treat it as a gig in the same way.

With true professional hi calibre musicians we will deliver to and from performances etc on a cost recovery basis. plus a small extra.

The problem is in the post wedding / performance period all the promises break down and some distant relative is “volunteered” to deliver the harp back (complete change of plans) or the harp sits on stage for several hours while the elated performers unwind and the stage crew starts bumping into things etc.

Rental by the week or month is only in exceptional circumstances if they are not a student.
And only to advanced players.
We still deliver.

The common equation is they do not have a vehicle.
Otherwise they would have bought their own harp.

December 25, 2012 at 3:16 am #76032

carl-swanson
Participant

Stephen-Funny you should mention this. I usually end up telling people to contact a local harpist, have them bring the harp to the site, then let them stand by while you play for the occasion, and you pay the harpist her usual fee as if she had played. The biggest reason that I don’t rent to these one-off wedding requests is that most of the time the wedding is outdoors. Who is going to take responsibility for the harp? Who’s going to make sure it doesn’t fall over? And what happens if it rains? So I don’t do short term rentals at all.
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