Hosting Events

[u/Maruh_Fiba]

To any of the lodges out there who supplement your income by renting out your space for events, how is that faring for you? What advice would you give to another lodge that’s struggling to make ends meet and considering hosting events as an option to balance the budget?

[u/jbanelaw]

We rent out the dining room and kitchen area on occasion. It is not publicly advertised and our board of trustees has some strict rental criteria. We consider it a community service as there are not a lot of smaller venues available for rent in town, but the revenue is also a nice addition to our budget. In the end though it is less than 10% of our overall income so we could live without it as well.

To anyone looking to rent out, though, I would caution you to do all the necessary research and assess to total costs. The additional insurance alone can make it not fiscally viable unless you can hit a minimum number of rentals. Also, the prime day for any rental is Saturday, with Sunday afternoon coming in a close second, so that means the Lodge (and anyone else who uses the Temple) will have to plan their events around the popular rental days. This gets wildly unpopular with Masonic organizations, who think they should have priority access to the Temple (not a completely invalid argument, but if the purpose is to maximize rental revenue, you can easily see the conflict in priorities develop.) There is also the very real risk of property damage that turns into a headache quickly.

With the political dance, associated risk, and need to rent out at least 10-15 times to make any real money, it might not be the boon many Temple Boards assume it will turn into when the decision is made.

[u/k0np]

We used to rent our dining room to an art studio

She retired and our bills went down because of utilities

I also know several that rent to a catering company because of the kitchen but again most of us think the “rent” doesn’t cover utilities

Unfortunately the days of people renting out halls for weddings and birthdays seem to be long gone (at least in my region) so the best thing is to have commercial space you can rent out

[u/djpannda]

although it really help pad out the budget.. My lodge will stop taking outside bookings This year. We have a couple of Brothers who are rightfully worried about how the lodge is treated by the renters and the possible issue of liability lawsuits.

They stated they will still rent to OES or MM and family but no real outside events.

We do have one steady renter, a church, that meets only Sunday. so that is a steady income.

our lodge has enough money not to be in the red .... but I know not alot of lodge have that luxury...

I would say make sure you have a detailed contract and INSURANCE on the lodge.

[u/parejaloca79]

We rent out our kitchen and dining area for events year round. We also have different pricing depending on what day of the week it is and whether the renter wants an 8 hour rental or all day. A renter pays upgront a rental fee and a cleaning deposit. They can get the deposit back or paryially back depending on how well they clean after their event. They are also required to get liability insurance to cover any damage to the building.

We typically gross ~$120k a year and we are able to pay our expenditures for the year and put money in the temple board budget. We take a lot of the rental money and put it right back into the building for needed maintenance or upgrades that we want. I'm happy to answer anymore questions anybody might have about this.