Porsche Hospitality - Who actually gets it?
Discussion
I've been a Porsche owner for a few years now (1x used 2x new all from OPC's) and have enquired on several occasions about the use of Porsche hospitality at various events and been knocked back on almost every occasion.
1. 2014 Carrera Cup at Donnington. Huge hospitality tent. "Sorry, you can't come in. Invited guests only". Enquired at OPC afterwards about a future invite... "We never offer it to anyone. Porsche charges us a fortune".
2. 2015 Geneva Motor Show. Enquired before the show about use of Porsche facilities. OPC "Nothing we can do". Porsche GB "Nothing we can do as it's not in the UK". Later learned that Porsche GB had offered tickets/hospitality at this very event for UK GT4 deposit holders.
3. 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Emailed Porsche GB about the fib they told me the previous year. They apologised and arranged (via dealer principal at OPC) for access to hospitality suite (free food and drink) on Porsche stand. Success!
4. Off to Goodwood FoS this year. Porsche already announced their hospitality suite will be back with exclusive Grandstand. Mentioned this while at PEC late last year. Porsche guy there says "Don't pay for FoS tickets/hospitality. Get in touch with your OPC. They'll sort you out for free". OPC "We never offer it to anyone. Porsche charges us a fortune. Same goes for WEC at Silverstone"
I thought Porsche might consider me a fairly decent customer, but as I'm clearly not worthy, who the hell DOES get use of the hospitality at all these events?
1. 2014 Carrera Cup at Donnington. Huge hospitality tent. "Sorry, you can't come in. Invited guests only". Enquired at OPC afterwards about a future invite... "We never offer it to anyone. Porsche charges us a fortune".
2. 2015 Geneva Motor Show. Enquired before the show about use of Porsche facilities. OPC "Nothing we can do". Porsche GB "Nothing we can do as it's not in the UK". Later learned that Porsche GB had offered tickets/hospitality at this very event for UK GT4 deposit holders.
3. 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Emailed Porsche GB about the fib they told me the previous year. They apologised and arranged (via dealer principal at OPC) for access to hospitality suite (free food and drink) on Porsche stand. Success!
4. Off to Goodwood FoS this year. Porsche already announced their hospitality suite will be back with exclusive Grandstand. Mentioned this while at PEC late last year. Porsche guy there says "Don't pay for FoS tickets/hospitality. Get in touch with your OPC. They'll sort you out for free". OPC "We never offer it to anyone. Porsche charges us a fortune. Same goes for WEC at Silverstone"
I thought Porsche might consider me a fairly decent customer, but as I'm clearly not worthy, who the hell DOES get use of the hospitality at all these events?
I had free tickets to Goodwood FOS a year or two back along with free tickets to the Porsche hospitality tent-
Free food and drink all day........
Dr Frank -Steffen Walliser the head of 918 development and motorsport was in there with other Porsche bigwigs such as Mark Webber.........I'm not a big Porsche customer-I've only bought 1 car from an OPC but Porsche Sheffield kindly gave me the 2 hospitality tickets.......primarily because I emailed the manager of Sheffield Porsche to explain that their sales and service was absolutely crap and appalling............worst car buying experience I've ever had.
Free food and drink all day........
Dr Frank -Steffen Walliser the head of 918 development and motorsport was in there with other Porsche bigwigs such as Mark Webber.........I'm not a big Porsche customer-I've only bought 1 car from an OPC but Porsche Sheffield kindly gave me the 2 hospitality tickets.......primarily because I emailed the manager of Sheffield Porsche to explain that their sales and service was absolutely crap and appalling............worst car buying experience I've ever had.
AndrewD said:
Invited to the racing hospitality several times and also Geneva by private jet last couple of years (unfortunately work commitments got in the way)
Brilliant! With ref to the OP I think most OPC's have multiple customers that buy a couple of cars a year....you need to be spending some serious cash on cars to "get noticed" by the OPC and those cars you do but need to be high margin new cars probably. I doubt buying a Boxster S and a Macan Disesl every year would rank at all ( not saying that's what you've bought just an example). Most OPC's run days at Golf Clubs or Hotels etc...you prob need to be getting invitations for those before you'll qualify for Geneva!
Porsche sell cars, of which you have bought three and probably their lowest margin cars at that.
If you are regularly visiting, enquiring about a new potential purchase you might stand a chance of hospitality. It already seems you have done quite well with Geneva and Goodwood. Emailing to complain and your sense of self entitlement won't go down well.
Maybe if you were buying and chopping in cayennes, panameras and 911s every year you might stand a better chance but your not so get out and enjoy your car and stop expecting freebies.
If you are regularly visiting, enquiring about a new potential purchase you might stand a chance of hospitality. It already seems you have done quite well with Geneva and Goodwood. Emailing to complain and your sense of self entitlement won't go down well.
Maybe if you were buying and chopping in cayennes, panameras and 911s every year you might stand a better chance but your not so get out and enjoy your car and stop expecting freebies.
I've got tickets to Friday at Geneva this year, including return flight due to being a 'valued customer' at my OPC. Never even bought a car from them, never mind a GT one and only use them for servicing/warranty. Only thing I can think is that their genuine 'value' customers were all there anyway so they went to the bottom of the list and invited the likes of me, they're trying to butter me up for a new purchase (which of course won't be a GT car), or I'm sat in cargo hold and the entry ticket only gets me into the lobby.
I've attended 5 Porsche launches, carrera cup with breakfast and dinner and a few other events. I should probably get around to getting a Porsche some day as a thanks.
Mind you, I did Geneva with Ferrari, Aston and Lambo hospitality so perhaps I should add an Italian too.
Fish got all of the above, the OPC comes around to wipe his botty and a Porsche embossed wasp.
Mind you, I did Geneva with Ferrari, Aston and Lambo hospitality so perhaps I should add an Italian too.
Fish got all of the above, the OPC comes around to wipe his botty and a Porsche embossed wasp.
Neil, seriously 
What do you think would happen if they invited any Tom Dick or Harry to all of these hospitality events? If every boxster cayman and cayenne owner was invited the hospitality tent would be busier than the central line in rush hour!
You know the answer to your own question..........
What do you think would happen if they invited any Tom Dick or Harry to all of these hospitality events? If every boxster cayman and cayenne owner was invited the hospitality tent would be busier than the central line in rush hour!
You know the answer to your own question..........
Shnozz said:
I've attended 5 Porsche launches, carrera cup with breakfast and dinner and a few other events. I should probably get around to getting a Porsche some day as a thanks.
I should probably add this year will be my 4th consecutive visit to Geneva, 3rd with Porsche hospitality - worth noting there is sometime different levels of hospitality too, restaurant vs bistro for example at Geneva.
Also had tickets for Carrera cup, Festival of Speed, several drive events at Silverstone and numerous new car launches
Edited by n17ves on Friday 17th February 09:51
I got invited at Porsche Carrera Cup at Brands Hatch by my local dealer; was quite big, i'm pretty sure they just invited all customers.
I can't remember how, but i also got the tickets for Goodwood last year and the food was great!
At Geneva last year luckily a good friend had lots of hospitality passes for me. For the Porsche stand, i simply asked if i could go on and showed them a picture of my car on the phone!
I can't remember how, but i also got the tickets for Goodwood last year and the food was great!
At Geneva last year luckily a good friend had lots of hospitality passes for me. For the Porsche stand, i simply asked if i could go on and showed them a picture of my car on the phone!
Maybe a few of you misunderstood my initial thoughts. I'm very happy with my 'Porsche Owning Experience', and certainly don't think it gives me a sense of entitlement or a need for freebies!
I just wondered, if Porsche are going to the expense of providing hospitality at every Carrera Cup round, two weeks at Geneva, four days at Goodwood and however many other events I'm blissfully unaware of who was getting invited?
Glad too see some of you are. I clearly need to order a dozen GT's.
With that in mind another nice story from PEC last year. A group of people were all there together for a 'Just got a new Macan' driving day. Turns out their non-Porsche owning boss was desperate for a GT3 RS. OPC says he can't have one as he needs to have ordered at least 15 new Porsches before he'll be considered. So he does just that. Orders 15 Macan's on the spot. Gave away the complimentary driving days to his staff. Oh, and he also got the RS.
I just wondered, if Porsche are going to the expense of providing hospitality at every Carrera Cup round, two weeks at Geneva, four days at Goodwood and however many other events I'm blissfully unaware of who was getting invited?
Glad too see some of you are. I clearly need to order a dozen GT's.
With that in mind another nice story from PEC last year. A group of people were all there together for a 'Just got a new Macan' driving day. Turns out their non-Porsche owning boss was desperate for a GT3 RS. OPC says he can't have one as he needs to have ordered at least 15 new Porsches before he'll be considered. So he does just that. Orders 15 Macan's on the spot. Gave away the complimentary driving days to his staff. Oh, and he also got the RS.
neilf said:
With that in mind another nice story from PEC last year. A group of people were all there together for a 'Just got a new Macan' driving day. Turns out their non-Porsche owning boss was desperate for a GT3 RS. OPC says he can't have one as he needs to have ordered at least 15 new Porsches before he'll be considered. So he does just that. Orders 15 Macan's on the spot. Gave away the complimentary driving days to his staff. Oh, and he also got the RS.
All that story left me with, was the desire to now what happened to the 15 Macan orders! Surely he didn't just cancel them, as that would negate the 'criteria' for the RS...and what would he do with 15 Macans? Sell them on perhaps...?Gassing Station | Porsche General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff