Deciding whether to rent or buy event equipment? Expo Hire breaks down the pros and cons to help you make the most cost-effective choice for your next event.
Deciding whether to rent or buy event equipment? Expo Hire breaks down the pros and cons to help you make the most cost-effective choice for your next event.
Expo Hire provides event equipment hire across England and Wales. For most events, hiring equipment makes more sense than buying it outright. You avoid storage issues, depreciation, and gain access to a wide range of furniture, catering gear, and specialist items that would be impractical to purchase for occasional use. Here is a comparison of hiring versus buying across common event equipment categories.
Commercial catering equipment represents a significant capital outlay. A quality commercial fridge might cost £2,000, a professional gas range £3,000, and a set of bain maries £500. After the event, this equipment requires cleaning, servicing, and storage space, which can be substantial. For example, a commercial oven can be over 1 metre wide and require dedicated ventilation.
Hiring catering equipment from Expo Hire eliminates these concerns. You receive well-maintained, commercial-grade equipment for the duration of your event, and we collect it afterwards. For one-off or annual events, the hire cost is a fraction of the purchase price. Even for recurring events, a long-term hire agreement with a single supplier is often more cost-effective than buying, especially when you factor in storage and maintenance costs. A typical commercial fridge might cost £100 per week to hire, compared to a purchase price of £2,000.
The variety of equipment available for hire also surpasses what most individuals or businesses would justify owning. From BBQ hire for outdoor gatherings to street food equipment for market-style events, you can select the precise equipment needed for your occasion. This includes items like 20-litre soup kettles (£20 per week hire) or 10-litre rice cookers (£15 per week hire).
Purchasing furniture for events means committing to a specific style and finding storage space between uses. The furniture you buy for one event might not suit the next. Hiring provides access to a much broader selection of styles. You can choose Chiavari chairs for weddings, poseur tables for networking events, or Chesterfield sofas for hospitality areas. We also offer outdoor furniture for garden parties, such as rattan seating sets or picnic benches.
Storage is a practical consideration that often determines the decision. A set of 150 chairs, for instance, requires considerable space. Hiring means the furniture is delivered, set up, and collected, disappearing after the event. For a wedding with 150 guests, hiring 150 chairs might cost around £300, whereas purchasing them could cost upwards of £2,000, plus storage.
Hiring a gazebo or marquee allows you to create a defined event space almost anywhere, without the significant capital investment of owning a structure. Marquees and gazebos are available in various sizes and configurations. For example, a 6x3 metre gazebo provides 18 square metres of covered space. Professional setup and takedown are included, which is particularly useful for events at private properties or outdoor venues lacking permanent covered areas.
The ability to adapt the size and format of your event space from one occasion to the next is a substantial advantage over owning a fixed structure. A 9x6 metre marquee, suitable for 50-70 guests, might cost £500 to hire for a weekend, including installation. Purchasing a similar structure could cost £5,000 or more, plus ongoing maintenance and storage.
The ideal seating configuration changes with every event. A conference requires rows of chairs, perhaps 200 chairs for a large presentation. A gala dinner needs round tables with banqueting seating for 10 guests per table. A cocktail reception might use poseur tables and bar stools.
Buying tables and chairs for all these scenarios is impractical. You would need to store numerous table sizes, such as 1.8-metre round tables (seating 10) and rectangular trestle tables (seating 8). Hiring allows you to select the exact number and type of tables and chairs needed for each specific event. For instance, hiring 200 conference chairs might cost £400, while hiring 20 round tables and 200 banqueting chairs could cost around £1,000 for a weekend. Purchasing these items would represent an investment of several thousand pounds, plus the ongoing cost of storage and potential repairs.
Choose from our vast range of catering hire, furniture hire and exhibition hire products. Select from the categories listed below or use our great search function above.
