What to charge for pitches at shows.

[User name]

Moving on from my previous thread of "Monetising spare land" and getting the excellent suggestion of hosting car boots, I am just looking for a little more help on what to charge.

As for actual car-booters I think its fairly set rate while looking around it's £8 a car, £12 a small van, ramping up depending on the vehicle space taken.

Visitors £1 each, kids (u13) free.

Now, where I'm not so sure on for the commercial entities that will want a plot, EG Burger vans, inflatables etc.

Obviously they will attract a significant premium, which I suppose should be weighted on how busy the event is expected to be.

Anyone have any experience with pricing this sort of thing at events?

[User name]

cbmotorsport said:

You'd be surprised how little money you might make from a burger van at something like this.

Majority of people bring food and drink with them to these sort of events, you can't compete with Tesco. Only a small percentage of people will buy a burger from you.

If you price your burgers sensibly to sell to the sort of people that frequent car boot sales, you won't be making much money per burger sold.

Overheads are quite large.

I'm not selling burgers i'm selling pitches - so in a way "That's not my problem" !!!

[User name]

cbmotorsport said:

Thanks. :-)

My point was that you talk about charging a 'significant premium' for a burger van pitch, yet you may well not be able to justify it. If you don't have decent facilities because you charge too much, nobody will come back ....so sorry chap, it's definitely your problem.

As has been said, charge a nominal fee, get the footfall, assess the situation after the first couple and increase prices if they're doing a roaring trade.

ok sorry, wrong end of your stick...

I see your point - and certainly need to see what the footfall is going to be like before setting an ongoing rate.

I certainly dont want to be charging them the same as regular booters, as they will create noise, smells and litter, so need to think about how to proceed.

[User name]

NewNameNeeded said:

Who pays to go to a car boot sale?

ALL of the ones near me do.

[User name]

48k said:

NewNameNeeded said:

User name said:

Visitors £1 each, kids (u13) free.

Who pays to go to a car boot sale? None of the successful ones near me charge, and if they did I'd be inclined not to bother. Fair enough charging those selling for their pitch, but you might want to think again about charging your visitors.

This

I've never been to a boot sale that charges for visitors. Let the visitors in for nothing and make the money on the pitches.

Hmm... I disagree.
If every other local boot sale is charging visitors, and they are VERY busy, i'd be foolish not to charge, as people expect it.


Another option that I've come across is an "early bird" fee, whereby they are charged (for example) £2 entry for the first hour, then free after that.

Edited by User name on Friday 20th July 10:16

[User name]

Another way to look at it is people who have paid to park/get in are significantly more likely to be genuine buyers instead of time wasters.

I'd rather have 200 genuine people pay £1 to get in than 800 time wasters in for free.