Over here at Sinclair Park, we are going to assume that the overwhelming volume of emails and calls regarding Christmas Parties has something to do with the weather outside. We know that it's making everyone consider what their plans are for Christmas, and the number of calls and emails we have received over the past 48 hours have truly been staggering. While we are absolutely thrilled and humbled that so many people wish to host their family events with us this holiday season, the sudden influx of individuals contacting us has created a few issues on our end. There are a couple of things that we need to remind people about: - We only have one staff member who answers the emails. She is not in the office all day, every day, but does do her best to answer emails as soon as possible. Please give her at least 24 hours to respond to your emails. Please don't send multiple inquiries through the website, since they bog down the email inbox. Feel free to check in with us if we haven't replied in 48 hours, but responses do take time. - Since we do operate rentals in two different ways (phone and email), it can take time for us to confirm that spaces are available when calling by phone. If we are discussing a rental via email with someone, it may not be something that our office staff are aware of. We do have to take the time to confirm that the date is available prior to promising it to a phone inquiry. We want to ensure that double bookings never happen! It is far more expedient for renters to send inquiries through our website (sinclairparkcc.com) as this avoids the need to wait for a return call from our staff. - Our website (sinclairparkcc.com) is updated as frequently as possible, but we do not guarantee that the availability calendars are 100% accurate at all times. The website is updated by one person, and they cannot update the website from anywhere other than our office. Please do not become abusive to our staff because the information on the website is not 100% correct. We are doing our best, but it isn't automatic, everything is updated by hand. We are aware that many people appreciate the ability to place dates on hold with us. The holds give renters time to come in and sign their contracts, without having to worry about the date being taken by another group. We do not want to take this flexibility away from groups, but we have been running into a number of groups that have been, quite honestly, abusing the hold policy. These are groups where they will place a date on hold, not come in and sign their contract, ask for extensions and still not come in, and then either yell at the staff when we finally cancel the hold on the date, or simply never come in at all until we have lost the ability to rent the date out. This isn't fair to our staff, nor to our other potential renters. Our staff don't deserve to be yelled at by renters, and the other groups do not deserve to have their events turned away because of an indecisive renter. To this end, we will be making several changes to our hold policies: 1. Standard holds on dates will only be valid for 72 business hours. This does mean that days where our office is not open will not count towards your hold. We understand that this is shorter than the current one-week window, but it has become necessary. Holds for wedding socials will remain at one week. 2. Holds for rentals in December will only be valid until the end of the business day when you contact us. This does mean that if you call us on Monday at 2:00 PM, you will have until Monday evening at 8:00 PM to come in and sign your contract. We will not be offering holds that are longer than that. *If you are inquiring by email, and we answer your email after we have left the office, the hold will be valid for the next business day. We aren't going to punish groups because we didn't respond until after the end of business hours. PLEASE NOTE: Calling and leaving a voicemail message does not constitute placing a date on hold. Holds are not placed until you have spoken with a staff member, either by phone or by email. 3. For groups that wish to extend their holds on a date in December, this can be done by providing us with a credit card number over the phone. We will charge a non-refundable portion of the deposit to the card, and this will allow groups an extra 48 hours to come in and sign their rental agreement. This amount is non-refundable if the renter does not come in and finalize their rental contract within the 48 hours, but it will get credited towards the deposit amount for their rental when they do (i.e. If your deposit amount is $150.00 to secure the date, $50.00 of this can be paid to extend the hold, with the remaining $100.00 to be paid when you sign your rental contract). 4. In order to conveniently facilitate the signing of rental contracts, we are amending our office hours. We will now be including some time on weekends where renters can come in and finalize contracts. We will be making weekly posts regarding our office hours, so potential renters can easily see when our office will be open for contract signings.
We do understand that the new changes will not be welcome to everyone, and for that we do apologize. We are doing our absolute best to ensure that all of our renters receive the best possible service from Sinclair Park, and these changes are necessary to make that happen.
We appreciate your understanding,
-SPCC