10 Hidden Costs of “Free” Photo Booths
Free! Discounted! We know the feeling—the list of vendors for your event is getting long, and when one offers photo booth services for free, it’s tempting. It can seem like such a great idea to combine those services, especially if it’s cheaper. Right? Not necessarily.
Although some vendors, including photographers, videographers, and DJs, can tack on a photo booth at a reduced rate, here’s why you should think twice about taking them up on the offer:
It’s not actually free
Each vendor you hire is running a business, and as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The cost of a photo booth service has already been built into the services you’re paying for. Whether it’s considered a marketing expense or just a way to cause you to book with them instead of someone else, you’re paying for that booth. Why not get the best?
It can pull your vendor away from their primary job.
You have undoubtedly hired each vendor because they do their job with quality and excellence. However, should anything go awry with their photo booth (software or hardware), that vendor will be pulled away from their task in order to address the technical issue. Considering the myriad of fleeting, intimate moments that you hired your photographer to capture, it’s troubling to consider what they might miss while tending to their equipment.
It’s not the vendor’s area of expertise.
As a professional, your vendor has likely spent money, time, and effort perfecting the very task you hired them for. Therefore, they may not know the intricacies of a photo booth operation—and may not be able to keep up with responding effectively to troubleshooting issues or incorporating new trends in the photo booth industry. You’ll never run into that issue with MBP, as we have a cutting edge 360 booth to capture the trendiest events and a beautiful traditional photo booth to capture the classics.
It puts too much on their plate.
Asking your vendor to not only perform their primary job, but set up, oversee, and respond to an entirely separate operation at your event can divide their attention and fragment their thinking. If you want them to do their job well, only give them one job.
It can get shut down.
If an issue arises, your vendor will have one of two options: attend to the issue themselves until they fix it (and compromise the quality of the job you hired them to do) or shut it down. If this was indeed a free add-on, vendors will likely cut their losses and stop the photo booth operation in order to get back to their job. Having a photo booth company on-site guarantees that a trained professional is working on the problem and they won’t stop until it’s right.
It’s not the best quality.
Hiring MBP for a photo booth experience ensures that you will have the best possible equipment and software at your event. When other vendors tack on photo booth services as a secondary operation, it is unlikely that they have purchased the most reliable, aesthetically-pleasing, and highest quality inventory available. But we have done exactly that, and you can see our gallery of successful and wonderful events here.
It’s used to sell you something you don’t actually want.
Bundling services can be helpful if you do, in fact, want all of those services. Otherwise, you’re paying for something that isn’t a priority for you—and that’s costing you money (no matter how good of a deal it is). Look, if it’s something that cable companies do, then it’s something you should definitely think twice about. Right?
It’s hard to find reviews.
We all know the power of a positive review and the gratitude we feel when warned of possible pitfalls with a company. Looking to reviews can not only help you decide which vendor to go with, but can give you significant peace of mind prior to your event. As a free add-on, it can be more challenging to find reviews that mention the photo booth experience in particular. Take a look at our MBP reviews page and you can tell the difference immediately!
It’s more difficult to customize.
Most vendors that offer photo booth add-ons have basic, underwhelming packages that don’t exactly fit the bill. Customizing these packages can be tricky (offering strange combinations with services you’re not interested in) and pricey. Once you begin customizing these packages to incorporate services you actually want (boomerang or GIF, anyone?), the cost can quickly add up.
It’s less trustworthy.
Would you trust a free photographer? Free catering? Definitely not. We all know that you pay for what you get, and a free service likely corresponds with equipment, service, and an experience that leaves much to be desired. There are probably wonderful people out there trying to get started and offering their booth for free as a means of doing that. We definitely want to support events industry professionals, but leave that to someone who can take the risk of missing out on having the best photo booth in San Antonio at their event!
Our takeaway?
If you’re looking for an elite photo booth experience with trained staff providing exemplary service and a gorgeous product, we’d stick with the professionals.