Travel Fee
 

For those who do charge a fee to travel to an event such as a wedding, do you charge a fee for going to and from the event such as 0.65 cents per mile Or say the event is an hour away do you charge your hour rate and if you do charge the hour rate I assume you wouldn't charge them for the drive back to your home. Any suggestions? I have been charging per mile to and from the event. I would like to how others charge wether it be by your hour rate or mileage. Thanks in advance.

Re: Travel Fee
 

I don't charge that but have it included in my package price, I live in a small country and have to travel max 175km single to a wedding, it has made a big difference in the numbers of bookings I got as I get asked a lot on the otherside of the country from where I live. In the past I have had requests for a quote where they found the travelfee to high and didn't book me, now that is not a discussionpoint anymore.

Re: Travel Fee
 

I don't charge mileage up to about 60 miles away. That's largely because my largest metro area (200,000 people) is exactly that distance.

For real travel, I book it per mile, plus hotel and half day costs. So, a couple just asked me to travel 350 miles (each way) for a Saturday wedding. IF they had been booking for next summer, I'd have charged:

$400 for gas/travel
$250 for 2 nights hotel
$300 for the travel day prior...since we'd have to travel on Friday to be ready for Saturday morning.

Since my actual quote was for in 6 weeks, I didn't charge the travel day fee. There is no lost opportunity fo me.

Re: Travel Fee
 

I include travel in my prices within a reasonable area which for us is 60km North and South and 40km East .... West is the Ocean so that's no issue.

Anything further than that normally attracts a travel cost but it's a flat rate which is enough to cover fuel and accommodation if I want to stay over ...we actually have a big blank area after 60kms South and the next area is maybe 200kms out which justifies an overnight stayover. If you are in a huge area with no real "zones" I guess what you need to do is decide "How far away am I prepared to drive after shooting a tiring wedding?" If you work until midnight, I would stay over as it not safe to do a 2 hour drive home at that time of the morning. We finish around 9:30pm so driving home at that time is probably a lot safer than doing so at midnight!

Re: Travel Fee
 

Yup. Plane ticket, rental car and hotel costs.