Many young men have complained that most of the wedding places and halls in the city have increased rents by 15 percent. However, those operating wedding halls attributed this increase to the rising operation cost, especially for decor.
Muhammad Al-Shahri, a young Saudi, told the newspaper that the first thing he did after fixing his marriage was to raise money for renting a wedding hall. “I was in search of a suitable wedding hall at a reasonable rent for about two weeks. The rent for almost all wedding halls ranges between SR30,000 and SR47,000 in addition to the cost for meals that may cost another SR30,000, which is quite steep for me,” he said.
Abdul Ilah Al-Bukhari is also in search of an affordable wedding hall for his son’s marriage. “There was an exorbitant increase in the rents of most wedding halls. Some wedding halls charge even up to SR100,000 for a single night while rents of some other halls exceed SR100,000,” he said, adding that the cost for meals is also included in their package.
Al-Bukhari expressed surprise over the steady increase in rents even though several new wedding places and halls have sprung up. “Organizing a wedding party has become a big liability not only on bridegrooms but also on their families. A steep hike in rents has forced several young men to borrow money from their friends and relatives to meet their marriage expenses,” he said.
Wail Al-Sayyid, another man aspiring to marry, said that owners of some wedding halls resort to reckless hike in rents without taking into consideration the financial conditions of the young men.
Reacting to such complaints, Abdul Rahman Al-Othman, manager of Amasi Wedding Hall, admitted that there has been a hike in rents of wedding halls. “Some wedding halls that do not serve food have hiked rents exorbitantly comparing with the rent increase made by wedding halls that serve meals,” he said while attributing this mainly to a hike in the operation cost, including rise in prices of foodstuffs, salary of employees and materials for décor.
Al-Othman pointed out that several investors and businessmen are pumping huge amount of money into this vital sector. “They see this as a thriving business that could fetch them huge profits. This resulted in the building of two to three wedding halls in one single district or region,” he said while hoping that this would result in a healthy competition among the investors and a subsequent fall in rents in future.
Muhammad Ali, manager of another wedding hall, said the operators of these halls are forced to increase rent to meet the rising maintenance cost. “We have to set aside a huge amount of money to pay electricity bills, changing décor, disbursing salary of employees in addition to the cost of maintenance and refurbishing works. It takes five or more hours to clean up the hall after holding a wedding party, and for which we have to set aside a sizable amount of money,” he said.
Referring to the hike in maintenance cost, Abdul Jaleel, manager of a wedding hall at a hotel in Jeddah, said that there was an increase of 15 percent in the rental cost of a single chair. “The cost per chair has shot up to SR264 in January 2012 from SR220 during 2011,” he added.
