How to Price Marquee and Event Equipment Hire

Marquee hire lives or dies on the per-square-metre rate, the flooring add-ons, and the weather clause. Here is how to quote it so your crew gets paid and the client still books.

Marquee and event equipment hire is an odd trade. The hardware is expensive, the jobs are weekend-concentrated, and the weather holds a quiet veto over every booking. A quote that leaves out the flooring, the install labour, or the weather clause can turn a profitable weekend into a breakeven headache. Worse, a half-built quote makes your business look like an amateur against the bigger hire companies who itemise everything.

This guide walks through how to quote marquee and event hire with a structure that protects your margin. It covers per-square-metre marquee pricing across frame, stretch, and pole styles, flooring and lining add-ons, dance floors, climate control, AV and lighting day rates, install and strike crew costs, multi-day discounts, site visit fees, overnight security, and the provisional sums for weather contingency that every event professional eventually learns to write in.

Per-square-metre marquee pricing

Marquees are quoted on footprint. Total floor area in square metres drives the base rate. A 10 metre by 15 metre marquee is 150 square metres, and every downstream line item scales with that number. Your per-square-metre rate depends on the marquee style, the duration, and the complexity of the rig.

For a three-day weekend hire including install Friday and strike Monday, realistic per-square-metre rates sit at $ 22 to $ 32 for a frame marquee, $ 28 to $ 42 for a stretch tent, and $ 18 to $ 26 for a pole marquee. These are all-in hire rates for the canvas and framework, not including flooring, lining, or labour.

It pays to run every enquiry through a free quote calculator first, then attach the per-metre rate. It keeps the quote consistent across every salesperson in the business and makes comparisons cleaner for the client.

Frame, stretch, or pole: which to quote

The marquee style affects the site, the labour, and the cost. Quote the wrong style and the install day goes sideways.

Frame marquees

The most versatile option. Pure vertical walls, no internal poles, works on concrete or grass, handles bad weather well. Slightly more expensive to hire. Good for formal weddings and corporate events with tight floor plans.

Stretch tents

Organic, flowing shapes. Look spectacular on grass and in garden settings. More challenging to price because the footprint shape is not a clean rectangle. Quote the footprint as the area inside the drip line, not the canvas span, and always add a 15 percent flexibility loading for the irregular layout.

Pole marquees

Traditional. Cheaper per square metre. Needs grass for stake anchoring. Internal poles reduce usable floor area by around 10 percent, so always quote net usable metres separately from footprint metres. Pole marquees require more install time because of the guy rope rigging, so build an extra hour per 50 square metres into the labour line.

Flooring and lining add-ons

Flooring and lining are the add-ons most first-time hirers forget to ask about, and most experienced event planners insist on. Your quote should present them as clear optional lines with per-square-metre pricing, so the client can scale up or down without redrawing the whole plan.

• Carpet flooring: $ 9 to $ 14 per square metre
• Solid timber-effect flooring (interlocking panels): $ 18 to $ 28 per square metre
• Raised subfloor for uneven ground: $ 32 to $ 48 per square metre
• Ivory pleated lining (roof and walls): $ 14 to $ 22 per square metre
• Pelmet valance and drapes: $ 6 to $ 11 per linear metre of wall

For a 150 square metre wedding marquee with timber flooring and a full ivory lining, the add-on lines can easily reach $ 7,500, almost matching the base marquee hire. See how to price a job by square metre for a deeper dive into layered square metre rates.

Dance floors and climate control

Dance floors are quoted by panel, not by the square metre. A standard parquet or black-and-white panel is 1 metre by 1 metre. Price at $ 28 to $ 42 per panel for a three-day hire, install included. A 6 metre by 6 metre dance floor is 36 panels at around $ 1,250 to $ 1,500 all in.

Climate control is a winter line and a summer line. In winter, patio heaters at $ 85 to $ 120 per unit, or a single large forced-air heater at $ 380 to $ 520. In summer, portable evaporative coolers at $ 140 per unit, or proper aircon for a 150 square metre marquee at $ 1,400 to $ 2,200 including the drop duct and generator if needed. Quote these as optional line items with a recommendation based on the event date.

AV and lighting day rates

AV and lighting are the most variable lines on any event quote because the gear tier is so wide. A small indoor corporate breakfast has different needs from an outdoor festival under a marquee. Quote AV and lighting as separate day rates, with the hardware brand listed so the client knows what they are paying for.

AV day rate tiers

Mid-tier AV covers a pair of QSC K12.2 speakers, a Yamaha MG12 mixer, two wireless Shure microphones, a lectern mic, and a small projector with 100-inch screen. Day rate of $ 480 to $ 680 including tech on site. Premium tier swaps in L-Acoustics line array, a Midas M32 digital mixer, lav mics for every presenter, and full HD projection at $ 1,400 to $ 2,600 per day. Always quote the tech as a separate line so the hardware cost stays clean.

Lighting day rate tiers

Entry-level uplighting with six Chauvet SlimPAR fixtures and a basic DMX controller runs $ 320 to $ 480 per day. Mid-tier adds four ETC Source Four LEDs for wash, twelve uplights, and a small hazer for $ 900 to $ 1,400. Premium lighting adds moving heads, truss rigging, and a full ETC Gio console at $ 2,400 to $ 4,800 per day, plus the install crew. Separate fixtures from trussing from operator time on every quote.

Install crew, strike crew, and labour

Labour is a major cost on every event hire job and it should never be folded into the equipment rate. A 150 square metre frame marquee with flooring and lining needs a crew of four for install, roughly six to eight hours of work. Strike is faster, four to five hours. Rates vary, but $ 52 to $ 72 per crew member per hour is standard for event rigging.

Quote install and strike as separate lines, with the crew size visible. Clients appreciate seeing that four people are working on their setup, not a vague labour charge. For a typical mid-size wedding marquee, the labour line lands between $ 1,400 and $ 2,100 all in.

Event setup crews say the clearest labour line on a quote is a simple table: crew size, hours on site, hourly rate, and total. Nothing fancy. Clients read it once and approve.

Site visit fees and multi-day discounts

A proper marquee quote starts with a site visit. The ground condition, access width, overhead cables, and surface level all change the install and strike time. Charge a site visit fee of $ 120 to $ 220, credited against the booking if the event proceeds. See how to charge for a site visit for a deeper breakdown of how to word it without losing the job.

Multi-day discounts reward the client for keeping your gear on their site. A single-day hire is priced at 100 percent. Two days at 140 percent. Three days at 160 percent. Week-long corporate hires at 220 to 260 percent of the one-day rate. The maths favours you because the expensive bits, install and strike labour, only happen once regardless of duration. Pass a portion of that saving back to the client and both of you win.

Overnight security

Overnight security is a line most first-time event hirers forget to budget for. A tent full of speakers, moving heads, and a dance floor is a target. For multi-day events on public or semi-public sites, a security guard is not optional, it is insurance. Overnight guard service costs $ 380 to $ 620 per night depending on the region and whether alcohol is on site.

Put overnight security on the quote by default for any event with AV or lighting gear staying on site overnight. Flag it as optional only when the site is fully fenced and locked, like a private school hall or a corporate headquarters.

Weather contingency and provisional sums

Every outdoor event quote needs a weather clause. Wind over 35 knots means a frame marquee is at structural risk. Rain during install adds two hours to the schedule. Extreme heat means you need extra water for the crew. A good quote lists a provisional sum for weather contingency, explains what triggers it, and what the money pays for.

A workable provisional sum is 5 to 8 percent of the total contract. The wording sits in the terms and reads something like: "A weather contingency of $ 620 is included as a provisional sum. This covers additional rigging time, emergency sandbag anchoring, or early strike if wind speeds exceed 35 knots. Any unused portion is refunded on invoice."

This protects you on the install day and shows the client you have thought about it. Most clients accept the provisional sum without question because the alternative, a marquee collapse, is unthinkable on their event day.

Worked example: 150 square metre wedding marquee

Here is a complete quote for a 150 square metre frame marquee wedding on a private property, three-day hire, install Friday and strike Monday, with full flooring, lining, dance floor, AV, lighting, and overnight security.

• Site visit fee (credited on booking): $ 180
• Frame marquee 150sqm at $ 28 per sqm: $ 4,200
• Timber-effect flooring 150sqm at $ 22 per sqm: $ 3,300
• Ivory pleated lining 150sqm at $ 18 per sqm: $ 2,700
• Dance floor 6m x 6m, 36 panels: $ 1,350
• Pelmet valance 50 linear metres at $ 8: $ 400
• Mid-tier AV package, one day: $ 580
• Mid-tier lighting package, one day: $ 1,150
• Install crew, 4 people at 8 hours, $ 62 per hour: $ 1,984
• Strike crew, 4 people at 5 hours, $ 62 per hour: $ 1,240
• Overnight security, 2 nights at $ 480: $ 960
• Weather contingency provisional sum: $ 1,090
• Subtotal: $ 19,134
• Deposit on acceptance (40 percent): $ 7,653
• Balance due 21 days before event: $ 11,481

Common mistakes to avoid

• Quoting before a site visit. Access and ground conditions rewrite the labour line every time.
• Folding flooring or lining into the per-square-metre marquee rate. Clients want to see the options.
• Skipping the weather clause. A single blown-out Saturday erases a month of profit.
• Bundling install and strike into one labour line. Two crews at different times need two lines.
• Ignoring multi-day discounts. Clients who book three days deserve to see savings over one day.
• Not quoting overnight security on sites without a lockable perimeter. Stolen gear is not recovered insurance.
• Forgetting climate control on shoulder-season dates. A freezing May wedding needs the heaters on the quote.

The bottom line

Marquee and event hire quoting is about layering. A per-square-metre base rate, then flooring and lining, then climate control, then AV and lighting, then install and strike labour, then the site-specific lines like security and weather. Each layer has its own logic and its own pricing, and the client deserves to see all of them before they sign.

Build this structure into your quote template once, and every enquiry becomes a ten-minute scope exercise rather than a two-hour rewrite. QuoteGenio has ready-made free quote templates and supports the wider events and hospitality trades, tying the site visit, layered pricing, and deposit schedule into one workflow.

If this is your day-to-day, QuoteGenio handles free quotes and invoices for marquee hire. Branded PDFs, WhatsApp send, deposits, and online acceptance are built in.