Construction
6 reasons why you should hire instead of buying a marquee
September 5, 2023
By Trafalgar Team

Marquees are great for when you need more space. They can be put up, and taken down, quickly. They do virtually no damage to the surface you put them up on and they have a really low carbon footprint. But if you are going to use a marquee for a long time, or multiple time a year, would it not make sense to buy one, rather than hire one? These are the reasons we believe it is better for you to hire instead of buying a marquee. 

Frequency of use 

If you know you are going to be using a marquee multiple times, you may consider buying a marquee.  If you have already looked into the costs of buying a marquee, may we make a suggestion: use our Cost Calculator to see how often you can hire one for the same cost. Click here to use the calculator

Installation 

If you buy a marquee, you’ll have to erect it, and take it down whenever you need to.  Do you have the equipment, the skills and the people to do this? Obviously the bigger the marquee, the more complex this operation becomes. 

When you hire a marquee from us, we will do this for you, as often as is needed. We recently took down a marquee to allow some filming, and then put it back up the next day! 

Opex vs capex

Buying a marquee is a Capital Cost and so it joins your asset list and its cost is added to your balance sheet. Over time, you will depreciate its value. When you hire a marquee, it is an operational cost and is therefore a direct cost that is immediately tax deductible.  

Maintenance 

A brand new marquee, when erected properly, looks great. Bright white (most marquees are this colour) PVC, perhaps with your branding added, makes a real statement and supports your business branding. However, over time, this can fade. Weather and usage mean your marquee gets dirty, moves (by wind and people) and can be damaged.  If you own your marquee, you have to deal with all of this. 

If you hire a marquee, this all becomes our issue. We regularly renew our portfolio to keep it in tip top condition. All marquee sheets are cleaned regularly and we respond quickly whenever a client reports an issue. 

Storage 

If you have a family tent, you know how much room they take up in your garaPVCge or your loft. So imagine how much space a marquee takes up when you aren’t using it. The PVC sheets can be folded and stacked. The poles can be stacked, or lined up against a wall, but they still take up a lot of space. Space that you could make much better use of for your business. 

When hiring a marquee, we take everything away at the end of your hire period and then bring it back when you need it again. None of your storage space is used up and you don’t have to worry about telling your insurance company about the big metal pieces that could, if not stacked and secured properly, cause problems. 

Requirement changes 

We provide marquees for many of our clients year after year and event after event. Some of them have the same size marquee every year, but many use different sizes each time.  

Imagine you buy a marquee and then host a wonderfully popular event. Next time, you want to run a bigger event, but that means buying a bigger marquee, or at least an extension.  Why not keep it simple and hire instead and enjoy the flexibility? 

So, if you have spare cash, plenty of space, trained staff and confidence that you will have the same needs for some time, you may be better buying a marquee. In the meantime, we believe you will be better off hiring. To find out how much it costs to hire a marquee, choose one of these links: 

For events and other short term hires, click here 

For long term hires: click here

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Brand Tudgay
The Bespoke Furniture Company

Fantastic support to us
Trafalgar Structures have been a fantastic support to us since we reopened after lockdown. The provision of a high quality marquee to help facilitate our opening strategy meant we could cater for adult and child classes whilst following the required government guidance. The service and workmanship from the team was first class and the team were always happy to help out if any issues arose and amendments to the marquee were needed. I look forward to working with the team again and would fully recommend for any marquee needs

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The Lid on the Lawn
‘The Lid on the Lawn’ installed by Trafalgar Structures enabled us to reopen safely after the July 2021 easing of the government guidelines, within 10 days we had a fully operational table service outdoor restaurant. Such has been the successful transformation of the outside space, we have kept the marquee for a longer term hire. The demand for outdoor dining and eventing has increased exponentially and the marquee has enabled us to confidentially offer weather proof ‘outdoor events’. This is now a permanent fixture with an additional full takeaway facility for visitors to the estate. Team Trafalgar are always on hand and have also reacted extremely quickly to the last minute nature of corporate event enquiries. Many thanks.

Jeannette Simpson
COO, Denbies Wine Estate LTD

I cannot find fault in anything they did

We used Trafalgar Structures at the start of lock down. We were very fortunate to be able to remain fully working however, as everyone did, we had to make some major adaptions on our site to accommodate the 2m distancing. I came across Trafalgar Structures and I found them to be extremely helpful, knowledgeable and helpful. We had constant changes to the brief but that didn’t matter to James and his team, they were very accommodating and continued to be very helpful and help fulfil the works we required as well as give a lot of suggestions to make this work. The team that erected/ dismantled the marquee were extremely professional and friendly and helpful throughout the 2 days. I would highly recommend Trafalgar Structures and I would certainly use them again. I cannot find fault in anything they did. Thank you all so much for your help and guidance

Logistics Manager
Clipfine Limited

Trafalgar Structures came to the rescue when the school needed additional outdoor teaching and testing facilities during the Covid pandemic. The cost of hire was extremely competitive and more than reasonable, particularly when you consider their services are much in demand. From the MD to the installers on the ground they were easy to deal with – nothing was too much trouble. Even last minute changes, and their after sales service was just as good. Its not every day you hire a marquee, but if I have to in the future, Trafalgar will be my first port of call. A huge thank you to James and the team!

Neil Lowe
Lady Eleanor Holles school