Book flexible, professional meeting spaces for interviews, training, and business gatherings with Fraser Bond.
Two things about hiring space are counter-intuitive. First, room hire is usually VAT exempt as a supply of land — but bundle in catering or enough services and the whole supply becomes standard rated, which changes the cost by a fifth. Second, from spring 2027 Martyn’s Law applies at 200 people, and the headcount includes your staff and contractors, not just your guests.
Straight room hire is normally exempt as a supply of land. Add catering, or enough services that land is no longer the predominant element, and the whole supply becomes standard rated. On a recurring booking that is a 20% difference nobody flags until the invoice arrives.
From spring 2027 Martyn’s Law applies where 200 or more people may reasonably be expected, and the count includes staff and contractors alongside guests. A venue with 750 seats and 60 staff on shift is 810 — enhanced tier, not standard.
AV and its support, wifi bandwidth and whether it will carry a video call, room set-up and turnaround time, catering minimums, whether you may bring your own, and the cancellation window. These are where a cheap headline rate stops being cheap.
Our fee is paid by the operator or the landlord. No fee to you and no booking commission — and no reason to steer you toward the space that pays us better.
A board meeting, interviews, training, a client presentation or an event with catering. The format decides the layout, the AV, the VAT treatment and whether any licensing question arises at all.
Capacity by layout rather than a single headline number, what the rate includes, the VAT position, access and set-up times, catering rules, and the cancellation terms.
Whether the wifi will genuinely carry a video call, whether the room is acoustically separated, where the nearest accessible toilet is, and whether the building has step-free access from the street rather than from the car park.
The default is that hiring out a room is a licence to occupy land, and supplies of land are exempt from VAT. So a straightforward meeting room booking usually carries no VAT — unless the owner has opted to tax the building, in which case it does.
The exception that catches people is the predominance test. Where the main element of what is being supplied is not the land itself, the exemption fails and the whole supply is standard rated. Room hire bundled with catering is the classic case; so are packages where the venue supplies staffing, equipment, entertainment and services such that nobody could sensibly describe the supply as land with a few extras attached. Wedding and event packages have repeatedly failed on exactly that reasoning.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025 with an implementation period of at least 24 months, so the duties are expected to bite in spring 2027. There is no legal duty to comply before commencement. The regulator is the Security Industry Authority.
There are two tiers. The standard tier covers premises where 200 to 799 individuals may reasonably be expected to be present at the same time: the responsible person must notify the SIA and put in place appropriate public protection procedures. No physical security measures are required. The enhanced tier starts at 800 and adds a duty to take appropriate measures to reduce vulnerability, with procedures documented and submitted.
Meeting room and event space is supplied under a licence. You get permission to use the space for a defined period; you do not get exclusive possession, and you get no security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. That is entirely appropriate for a booking measured in hours, but it means the terms are contractual rather than statutory and you should read them accordingly.
Three provisions repay attention. The cancellation window and what percentage is retained at each stage. The substitution clause allowing the operator to move you to an equivalent room, and what ‘equivalent’ means. And the liability cap, which is usually the value of the booking — so if the AV fails during a client pitch, the remedy is a refund of the room hire, not compensation for the pitch.
Compare on the total, not the hourly figure. The usual additions are AV and technical support charged separately, catering minimums where the venue requires a spend per head, restrictions on bringing your own food and drink, set-up and breakdown time billed as part of your booking, and overrun charged in blocks rather than by the minute.
Then the things that are free until they are not: wifi that is included but throttled, parking that is available but chargeable, and a room described as seating twenty that seats twenty boardroom-style and twelve cabaret-style. Ask for capacity by layout, because a single headline number is describing the most optimistic configuration.
Serving alcohol needs authorisation. A venue with a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003 can cover it; where there is none, a Temporary Event Notice can authorise a one-off, subject to limits on attendance and on how many can be given. Establish which applies well before the date — a TEN has a notice period and can be objected to.
On accessibility, a venue providing a service to the public owes duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments, but ‘accessible’ is used loosely. Ask specifically about step-free access from the street, lift dimensions, accessible toilets on the same floor, and hearing loop provision, rather than accepting the word.
Usually not, because straightforward room hire is a licence to occupy land and supplies of land are exempt — unless the owner has opted to tax the building. But the exemption fails where land is not the predominant element of what is supplied. Room hire bundled with catering is the classic example, and event or wedding packages combining space, staffing, equipment and services have repeatedly been held to be standard rated in full. If you are not VAT registered the difference is 20% of your cost, so ask for the position in writing at quote stage.
Not yet, and possibly not at all. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 received Royal Assent in April 2025 with an implementation period of at least 24 months, so the duties are expected to apply from spring 2027 and there is no obligation before commencement. The standard tier covers premises where 200 to 799 individuals may reasonably be expected at the same time; the enhanced tier starts at 800. Critically, the headcount includes staff and contractors as well as guests, so a 750-capacity venue running 60 staff is at 810 and falls into the enhanced tier.
A licence, not a lease. You get permission to use the space for a defined period, without exclusive possession and without security of tenure. That is appropriate for a booking measured in hours, but it means your protections are contractual. Read three clauses in particular: the cancellation window and what is retained at each stage, the substitution clause letting the operator move you to an ‘equivalent’ room, and the liability cap — which is normally the value of the booking, so a failed AV system during a client pitch gets you the room hire back and nothing else.
Because a single headline capacity figure usually describes the most optimistic layout. A room quoted at twenty may seat twenty theatre-style, fourteen boardroom-style and ten cabaret-style with room for a screen and a catering table. Always ask for capacity by layout and specify which you need. The same applies to fire and licensing capacities, which are maximums under specified conditions rather than comfortable working numbers — and which, from spring 2027, are also the figures that will decide your Martyn's Law tier.
Sooner than most people expect — often around one to two days a week of regular use. Meeting room hire is priced for irregular demand, and once you add AV charges, catering minimums and set-up time the effective daily cost is high. A small leased office, a serviced office membership or a fixed monthly allocation of room credits will frequently beat it. We will run the comparison on your actual usage pattern and tell you if hiring has stopped being the right answer, because we would rather do that than keep booking rooms for you.
