And for a long time, that approach made sense. Couples were more likely to enquire earlier in their search, giving venues more opportunity to introduce themselves, explain what was included, and build a relationship before price became part of the conversation. But the way couples search for wedding venues has changed. And we think pricing needs to change with it.
It’s easy to frame “price on request” as a sales tactic, but we know that for most venues the reasoning is far more considered.
You might want the opportunity to explain the value behind a figure. Your pricing may vary considerably depending on season, day of the week, guest numbers or accommodation. Perhaps your weddings are particularly bespoke. Or you simply don’t want a carefully considered experience reduced to one number on a page.
All perfectly understandable.
The difficulty is that couples are now doing far more of their decision-making before they ever make an enquiry.
By the time someone gets in touch with a venue, they may already have looked at dozens of others.
They’re comparing location, style, capacity and accommodation. They’re checking dates and practicalities. And, inevitably, they’re trying to work out what they can actually afford. At this point, they don’t necessarily need an exact quote. But they do need enough information to know whether a venue is realistically within reach.
If they can’t find that information, they may not enquire to ask.
They may simply move on.
And that’s the important bit.
It’s very easy to measure the enquiries that arrive in your inbox. It’s much harder to see the couples who loved your venue, looked through the gallery, read about the spaces and then quietly disappeared because they couldn’t establish what a wedding might cost.
There’s another side to this too.
When there’s no pricing context at all, venues can receive more enquiries from couples whose budgets simply don’t align. That means brochures sent, emails exchanged and time spent responding, only for the conversation to end as soon as the figures are shared.
A little transparency earlier on can help both sides.
Couples can shortlist with more confidence, while venues have a better chance of hearing from people who already understand roughly where their pricing sits.
For most venues, it is.
We’re not suggesting you publish every package, supplement, and seasonal variation on your website. In fact, we don’t think that’s necessary.
A useful starting point might simply be:
The aim isn’t to provide a quote before someone enquires. It’s simply to give them a useful starting point.
“But won’t it put people off?”
Possibly. But if a couple discovers at enquiry stage that a venue is significantly outside their budget, that conversation was unlikely to progress anyway. The difference is that everyone has spent time getting there.
Being clearer about price isn’t about attracting fewer couples; it’s about helping the right couples recognise that your venue could be right for them.
“We need the opportunity to explain our value”
Absolutely—and publishing a starting price doesn’t take that opportunity away.
A £10,000 venue hire fee might mean something very different if it includes three nights’ accommodation, exclusive use and furniture than if it covers the venue for one day.
This is why context matters just as much as the number.
Tell couples what sits behind the figure. If accommodation is included, say so. If your starting price relates to a weekday in March, make that clear. If most couples spend considerably more once catering and accommodation are included, give them a realistic indication of that too.
Transparency doesn’t have to mean stripping away nuance.
On your Coco Wedding Venues listing, we’ve deliberately created space for both the number and the context around it.
You can share a starting figure and explain what it relates to—for example, a weekday wedding in March or a Saturday in July—before highlighting some of the key elements included in the price. That might be accommodation, food and drink, exclusive or multi-day hire, furniture or anything else that meaningfully shapes the experience.
We’re not looking for an exhaustive breakdown or asking venues to account for every possible wedding.
We simply want couples to be able to look at a listing and understand two things: roughly where this venue starts, and what I’m getting for that.
For many venues, that may be all the information they need to confidently take the next step.
If you currently use “price on request”, this doesn’t need to become a huge pricing exercise.
Start with “weddings from…” and add a sentence of context.
That alone gives couples something incredibly useful: a point of reference.
There was a time when withholding pricing helped create the conversation. Increasingly, we think a little more transparency helps couples feel confident enough to start one.
And ultimately, that’s the point—not to explain every possible cost before someone has even met you, but to make it easier for the right couples to recognise that they’d like to.