Someone else has commented that they insist on a PAT certificate for any electrical items brought in by hirers. Not a bad idea.

Lots of helpful points being added here - all will be noted for the next update of this article. Thank you for all received so far - keep them coming.

I guess we live in particuarly price-sensitive times just now so we need to watch our tariffs carefully. But beware leaving them as they are for some years and then trying to catch up as people notice big jumps.

On VAT this should not be a problem unless the church has a considerable turnover in trading activities which some may. Thanks, Phil, for all the information provided - delighted someone is doing all the work! Anyone else have input on this?

Business rates should not be a problem but I am picking up that some Councils are now out to get whatever they can and this may become much more of an issue in the future. Any experiences on this from anyone would be helpful.

And on doubling up pack up and set up, fair point and I will add a caveat when I update. Much depends on the type of activity and whether cleaning is necessary inbetween. Thank you, Hilary.

Thank you - this is such a helpful article, coming at a very helpful time for us as we overhaul our bookings policy and the vision behind it. It was reassuring to read though and know we're already doing a lot of things mentioned, and that the remainder are achievable.
One minor tweak I would suggest - pg6 - when bookings are back to back then please don't overlap one group's set up with another's packing away. I have seen arguments and resentments start here because both parties felt pressured. Also remember that the last bit of clearing is usually hoovering up, and this can't be done effectively if someone else is getting things out. And it's never fun starting off in a biscuit-crummy room! It is also worth knowing if you can offer the opprtunity to set up well ahead (ie first thing in the morning for a lunch time booking) if you know there is nothing going on in the interrim. Don't necessarily advertise this, but be ready for the question.

Nice job, John. On lettings forms Stewardship also have some letting form examples and resources for sale. On the business side there may also be implications for VAT threshold, and for rates. These are complex areas, I have been trying to accumulate an understanding of them. To the best of my understanding the issues are as follows, but anyone please correct me, I would love to know more detail. Church buildings are rates free, but once you are trading then I understand they could be potentially liable for rates being applied proportionally? Re VAT all trading contributes to turnover to be checked against VAT threshold unless its zero rated. Room hire per se is zero rated, but if chargeable services are added then they contribute to assessable turnover. Any services which are necessary for the letting and so always included, can be considered zero rated, so if you always have a cleaner and a receptionist then they are not a chargeable service and having them present doesnt alter the zewro rating for the room hire. If you always provide a PA operator for a certain class of hire then that is zero rated. If however PA operator is an extra, then it is VATable. If you do a new or major refurb that gets zero VAT status because you are a charity, then its on condition that business use is less than 10% for the first 10 years. 10% can be by time or space. One of our group of churches was pursued over this (after a multimillion pound development thats a lot of money at stake), but they argued that the trading was majority community use and otherwise merely to offset building costs so was not business use as no profit was generated. In the end the VAT office withdrew their challenge and subsequently in a later budget issued a statement that they would not pursue the 10% rule provided that charity buildings were built in good faith with the purpose of charitable use and there was genuinely no intention at the time of building to subsequently develop substantial business use. In my view this is a grey area where the VAT department havent figured out how to assess the way churches are diversifying their trading activity. Having spoken to various churches most of us seem to keep lettings wrapped into the main accounts, but I dont feel that I have enough of a paper trail to fully justify that, and will be doing some work with Stewardship soon to back up that position. Phil Hicks. Westbourne Grove Church W11

Lots of ideas; and the clear structure makes it easy for the reader to pick and choose the ideas which most suit our resource. thank you for that.

Thank you John for this very comprehensive guide. I'd thought we had a pretty effective arrangement with our Community Hall but I've still picked up loads of good ideas from your article.

Very comprehensive. Just wish we'd had this document when we started hiring out our premises! Am scheduling time to review its contents with our Hospitality manager this month - as there's a few symptoms that we're experiencing that this article highlights the causes. Needless to say, the more attention you pay to setting something up right, the smoother the ride you're going to have.

We've put up our rates up again for this year, and are quickly backtracking as the market has changed and price-competition is the name of the game in the current economic climate. We're also underway with a large restoration project to the building as the wear-and-tear is making us an unattractive venue.