|
|
|
Bally Studio Rates Rehearsal Rooms Hire
Basic Rates
Detailed rates
Please note:
1) Daytime sessions normally run from 10am - 6pm, evening sessions from 6pm - Midnight. If you require any other times though, please contact us, as these can be arranged.
2) Cymbals are the only thing that we ask each band to bring, apart from the usually items. We have one set of very good cymbals, and 2 sets of cymbal that aren't very good, but they do the job. They are reserved on a first come first serve basis, so if they are not reserved, then there is a chance that they will not be available for your session, so if possible, please bring your own cymbals or if you cannot, please check with us to make sure that there are cymbals available for your session
3)
Cancellations are
charged at the following rates Less
than 48 hours notice – Full Price 2-5
days – 50% of session fee
5-7 days – 10% of session fee 7 days or more – No Cancellation fee
So if your session is booked for 7pm on Sunday night, please let us know by 7pm on Friday night, otherwise you will be charged the full amount if we cannot cover your session. If you cancel at 6:30pm on Friday night, you will be charged 50% of the fee, but only if we can't replace your booking. If we can, there is no charge, not even an admin fee. Some studios will charge a fee even if another band books your session, but we are only looking to cover our costs, and not get paid for the same session twice. Also, the main reason we ask for a token payment of 10% of the session fee if it is within 7 days is that, since bringing in this fee, we have found that bands tend to plan their rehearsals a lot more, at the end of their rehearsal. Probably about 70% of the bands that come here always come here on the same day, each week. We find that by having a small charge for cancelling 7 days in advance, bands will therefore decide on that day whether they need next weeks session, as in the past, many bands said they would think about it and call the next day, then they would forget to call, and suddenly on the day of the session, they would call in and say that they forgot to cancel their session!!! So since adding this small charge, we have found bands actually save more money than it costs them, and it also means other bands have more sessions opened to them when booking. If a band cancel 6-7 days in advance though, we generally cover that booking about 8-9 times out of 10, so the band is left with no fee.
Please note, this is simply due to the fact that for every session we can provide we have other bands wishing to book the studio, and simply to cover our costs
When a band cancels their rehearsal, we will always try our best to get a band to replace their rehearsal, and if we can, then there will be no charge. NONE!! In the past, we have been able to get a replacement band in at less than 2 hours notice, but please be aware that this is very rare, but we will always try our best to do what we can to find a replacement band to take your session. But when we cannot find a band to replace a session, we must always enforce the full cancellation fee. Sometimes, when it is a very late cancellation, we may be able to get a band in to cover 2-3 hours of the 4 hour booking. In this case, we will charge the band that cancelled the difference between what we would have got for a 4 hour session, and what we did get for the shorter session
If you're in a band that thinks you'll be available for last minute slots, at rates from as low as £10 for a 4 hour session, (that's £2.50 an hour) please e mail us at info@ballystudios.co.uk to let us know. This is for when we are finding it very hard to get a slot replaced, we offer it at a very low cost; so if w offer it for £10, and a band takes it, we take £10 off of the cancellation fee. So we still get exactly the same amount, but it saves the band that had to cancel a bit of money, and another band gets a cheap rehearsal. When we get a cancellation, we send out about 20 text messages, so it does cost us money to try to replace your session, so the sooner you can let us know, the better, as it gives us more of a chance to fill the slot.
At the studio, we have kept our rates nearly the same since 2005, (we have only put them up by 4% in 6 years) and in that time our costs have gone up by 40%, we've invested over £20,000 into the studios, and that isn't even accounting for inflation. There are 2 ways that we can keep the studios, running; one of them is to raise rates, which we'd rather not do, and the other to to enforce the cancellation policy as strictly a possible. We have an occupancy rate of over 95%, and that's pretty much 24/7. We need to keep the occupancy at above 90% to make the studio work for us. From 2005-2010, 16% of all sessions that were cancelled were cancelled later, so if we didn't charge for these sessions, then we'd only be at 80% of occupancy, and therefore we wouldn't be able to keep the prices at the rates that they are, so enforcing the cancellation policy wherever we have to is simply a way to keep our room rates down. Sometimes, on the day, we have bands asking if they can move the slot they have on that day to another day, in, say, a weeks time. This still means that we have a slot that day that isn't being filled and which is costing us money; we'll lose money on that session. Some bands say "Well, we're still doing the session, what does it matter when we do it?". But it's not a case of fulfilling a session, we need ALL of the sessions filled, over 90%, to keep our costs down. It is easy for us to fill slots at a weeks notice, at a days notice it is difficult.
Thanks for your understanding.
4) Penciling in sessions - sometimes a band asks to be penciled in while they confirm with the rest of the band members. When you pencil in a session, you are holding it for a maximum of 3 hours. If you do not contact us within 3 hours, then the session will be offered to other bands. Sometimes we'll get people penciling in sessions about 3 weeks before the session, and then call up on the day and say "Yeah, we'll take that session, see you tonight." By then, we'll have offered it to someone else. The whole point of it penciled in is that it is not confirmed, and can be rubbed out. A penciled in session is never confirmed until you call back to confirm the session, and we can only hold the session for 3 hours for you. We will send you a text message to let you know we are offering it to other bands though, but please be aware of what penciling in a session is regarded as.
Extra cables, drum sticks, amps and instruments can be bought at an extra cost. Please contact for details.
Storage
We also do secure storage at Bally Studios. Rates are approximately £26 per month for the average band, although each band is asked to contact us as the more equipment that each band has, the more the storage will cost.
|