Event planners understand the difference. If you’re putting on a corporate affair, it’s not the same thing as a wedding, bar mitzvah, family reunion, and many charity events. The venue may be the same but the nature and flow of the evening will be different.
That includes how your guests get their cars parked. A Los Angeles wedding valet may be right for your affair, but it makes sense to interview your potential vendors in advance to see if they can adequately service guests and the event overall. A business occasion has special concerns around timing matters, VIPs, and the presence of clients. Car valet services also need to be in compliance with city laws and demonstrate the softer skills of managing partygoers who may have spent too much time at the bar.
Suffice it to say that parking attendants have first and last contact with guests. On that basis alone, the business event planner should vet their car valet service according to business considerations. Those can include:
Time constraints – The Los Angeles valet service provider should understand that, regardless if it’s a daytime or evening event, the attendees might well need to go somewhere next. That starts in the planning stages, identifying where the cars will actually be parked in proximity to the event venue. It also suggests investigating past client testimonials to find if the valet was able to sufficiently service their events in a timely fashion.
Clients present? – If the business event includes clients and customers, they probably need to be given the VIP treatment. That can happen in all kinds of ways at an event, including with preferred “close in” parking that will shorten their wait times (where available).
Awareness of the corporate hierarchy – As with clients, the VIP list includes company executives and other special guests. Those individuals can be discretely identified and provided fast in-out service similar to what clients receive.
Amateur hour (i.e., drunk attendees) – A good Los Angeles valet service will have a procedure for managing the guest who appears to be under the influence of alcohol or other substances. Exactly how this is to be handled should be discussed in advance.
Proper licensure – Los Angeles enacted regulations on the parking valet industry in 2014 that require both companies and individuals to be licensed, as well as meet a number of other mandates in terms of insurance, business practices, usage of the public right of way, and even uniforms for the attendants. Even though these things are required by law, it doesn’t hurt to ask to see documentation thereof to reduce liability risks for the party hosts.
Entrusting guests’ cars to a service is no small consideration in business as well as purely social situations. A thorough review of the valet service’s competencies and experiences is simply a smart management practice.