Vendor Rate Card Comparison Tool for Event Planning Companies
Why This is an Opportunity
Event planners are essentially running procurement operations with email and memory as their database. The solution is a vendor directory with structured pricing: each vendor has rate cards broken down by service type, event size tiers, and date-based pricing (weekend vs. weekday, peak vs. off-season). When building an event estimate, the planner selects parameters (date, guest count, services needed) and the app pulls matching rates from their vendor database, showing options side by side. CRUD for vendors and rate cards, a filtering/comparison engine that's just database queries, and a simple estimate builder that sums selected vendors into a client-facing proposal. Straightforward relational data model.
Key Pain Points
- •Vendor rate cards are stored as PDF attachments in email threads, making it impossible to search or compare programmatically
- •Pricing received six months ago may no longer be valid, but planners have no system to flag stale rates or prompt re-quotes
- •Building a cost estimate for a single event requires opening 10+ vendor emails and manually entering numbers into a spreadsheet
- •Comparing two caterers requires normalizing different pricing structures — per-person vs. flat rate vs. tiered — by hand
- •When a client changes the guest count from 150 to 200, the entire estimate must be manually recalculated across all vendors
Original Discovery
Event planning companies maintain relationships with dozens of vendors — caterers, AV companies, florists, photographers, rental companies, venues — and each vendor's pricing changes seasonally, by event size, by day of week, and by package tier. When a client requests a proposal for a 200-person corporate event, the planner digs through email threads and PDF rate cards from six months ago, unsure if prices are current, then manually builds a cost estimate. A centralized, structured vendor rate database where planners can input and update vendor pricing, filter by event parameters, and instantly generate cost comparisons would transform their quoting speed.
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