Edinburgh business travel · NovaBid
How to brief and compare Edinburgh away day venues
The hard part of organising an away day is not finding venues. It is that the three quotes you get back are three different shapes: one per delegate, one itemised, one with the bedrooms priced separately and the coffee not mentioned. This is how to write the brief so that does not happen.
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What should go in a brief when asking venues to quote for a team away day?
Give every venue the same eight things: the date and whether it can move, headcount, whether it is a day or a residential, the room layout you need, catering including dietary requirements, any AV you cannot do without, your total budget, and the one outcome the day exists for. Then ask every venue to quote in the same shape, a total for the day and a per person figure, with bedrooms, catering and room hire itemised separately. Without that last instruction the quotes come back in incomparable formats and the comparison becomes guesswork.
The booking pattern we hear about
Three quotes arrive priced three different ways. One is a day delegate rate, one itemises room hire and catering, one bundles bedrooms in. Comparing them fairly means rebuilding all three by hand.
The cheapest quote is often the one that left something out. Screen hire, flip charts, a private space for lunch, parking, or a service charge that appears at the end.
A residential away day has two separate negotiations happening at once, the meeting space and the bedrooms, and venues quote them with very different flexibility.
Numbers change. You brief for twenty, eighteen turn up, and whether that costs you nothing or two thousand pounds depends on a minimum-numbers clause you did not ask about.
How NovaBid fixes it
01
Write one brief and send the same one to everybody
Date and whether it can move, headcount and how firm it is, day or residential, room layout, catering and dietaries, the AV you genuinely need, total budget, and the purpose of the day in one line. That last item is the one people leave out and the one a good venue uses to make a better suggestion than the one you asked for.
02
Dictate the shape of the quote
Ask for a total and a per person figure, with room hire, catering, AV and bedrooms itemised separately, plus VAT and any service charge stated. Ask for the minimum numbers clause, the release date on bedrooms, and the cancellation terms in the same reply. A venue that will not itemise is telling you something useful.
03
Compare on the same line, then decide on the things that are not price
Put the three quotes side by side on identical rows. Only once they match should you weigh the things that decide whether the day actually works: natural light, whether the room can be reset over lunch, how far the bedrooms are from the meeting space, and whether one person will own the day on the ground.
Pricing
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No markup on the rate. No subscription. No per-booker fee. The hotel covers everything as the cost of winning your business.
Frequently asked
What is a day delegate rate and should I ask for one?
A day delegate rate is a single per person price that usually bundles room hire, arrival coffee, lunch and afternoon refreshments. It is convenient and it hides the components, so ask for it alongside an itemised quote rather than instead of one. For small groups an itemised quote is often better value because you are not paying for a package built around twenty people.
How much should I budget per person for a residential away day in Scotland?
It varies too much by season, location and standard for a single honest number, and anyone quoting you one without asking your dates is guessing. The two things that move it most are the time of year and whether the date includes a Friday or Saturday. Set your budget from what the day is worth to the business, state it in the brief, and let venues tell you what they can do inside it.
What questions decide whether the day works, rather than what it costs?
Can the main room be laid out the way you need and reset over lunch. Is there daylight. Is there a second space for breakouts. Where do people go at coffee time. How far are the bedrooms from the meeting room. Who is the named person on site on the day. None of these appear on a quote and all of them are the difference between a good day and an expensive one.
What happens if our numbers change after we book?
Ask for the minimum numbers clause and the bedroom release date in writing before you commit. Most venues allow a reduction up to a stated point and charge for the original number after it. This is the single most common way an away day budget goes wrong.
Can NovaBid help with an away day?
Yes. You post the away day brief once and independent Edinburgh venues reply with private offers built to it, in a comparable shape, and you pick one. It is free for the business. Away day bookings carry a commission paid by the venue, agreed in writing with each venue, and nothing is added to the price you are quoted.
Should I use a venue finding agency instead?
An agency is worth it for a large or complex event, particularly one with a lot of moving parts or an unfamiliar city. For a straightforward Edinburgh away day for ten to thirty people, a good brief sent to a handful of venues gets you the same result and keeps you talking directly to the people who will run the day.
Written by Thomas Mellot, founder of NovaBid. He trained as a chef in France and worked front of house in Edinburgh hotels, as Chef de Rang at the Caledonian and the Balmoral. He built NovaBid after watching independents lose business travel to platforms that never set foot in the building. More about NovaBid.
Last reviewed 8 September 2026. We correct these pages when the facts change; tell us if something here is wrong.
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