WDYT about this for a birthday party?
I'm looking into places to have Eli's party in January, and checked into renting a room at the local coffee shop. They have 2 packages I'm interested in.
Package A) Party room for 3 hours, bring your own food, cake, decorations, etc. Customer does all setup & clean up. Must purchase some kind of beverage package from shop, no outside drinks allowed (cost varies) $89
Package 
Party room for 3 hours, includes cake and beverages, bring your own food & decor. Also includes setup & clean up and a party host. $135 for 10 children.
I plan on bringing my own cake, so I don't know if they'll come down on the price if I get B. 3 hours also includes set up & clean up time, so you really only will be able to party for 2 hours, but you can buy additional time if it's available. And B says 10 children, but I don't know if there's some kind of limit on adults. Most of the guests will be adults. There is an adult party package that says it's for 10 adults, and additional adults are extra. So I'm thinking we'll have to basically pay for any more people than 10, which could get really expensive. But A doesn't say anything about the number of people. I guess I need to talk to the manager and find out if we can customize a package. I would really like to have the clean up, I could care less about the set up. And I don't need a cake. Otherwise they're basically the same.
Does this sound like a reasonable price? I've never looked into renting party space before. Just wanted to bounce this off you guys. We also have the church fellowship hall for free, but I'm so tired of doing things there, and it can be a PITA for reasons I won't get into.
Re: WDYT about this for a birthday party?
Coming from someone who deals with facility rentals all the time, both options as they are are VERY reasonable (we rent our rooms for $40 and $75 an hour). But like you said, when you start adding people, that is where it can get expensive.
In all honesty, I would probably go with package A. Set up and clean up shouldn't be that big of a deal if you have people pitch in and chances are that if you have the coffee shop people do it for you, you are going to go in and change something/move things around anyways. And it doesn't limit the # of people you can bring so you will save lots of $ there. I hope it all works out for you. B-day parties are so much fun!
Wow! 12 extra pp. Thats a little steep. Hopefully they can help you customize it.
Look around a little more I bet you might find a few more options in the area. If I hear of anything Ill let you know. You have time on your side