Dry-Hire Bartending: How to Keep Your Event Beverage Budget Clean and Predictable

If you are the one who approves the event budget, or the one who has to explain it later, this is for you. Dry-hire bartending makes your beverage spending as clear as any other line on your budget.

What Dry-Hire Means for You

You hire the bartending crew, and you buy the alcohol separately. Two line items, no markups hidden in the middle.

• Line 1: Bartending service. Crew, equipment, insurance, setup, and breakdown. A fixed price, quoted upfront.
• Line 2: Alcohol. Purchased by you at retail, receipted, and returnable if unopened.

That is the whole model. No bundled package where the margin is invisible. No beverage minimum that pushes you to overbuy. No per-drink charges that turn a casual happy hour into a $10,000 surprise.

Why Your Accounting Team Will Like It

• Clear cost allocation: The bartending service is a vendor expense. The alcohol is a supply expense. Clean coding, clean reporting.
• Accurate budgeting: The crew is a fixed cost and the alcohol has a known per-unit price, so you can model the total to within 5 to 10 percent before the event even happens.
• Control over variance: If your guests drink less than you projected, you return the extras and your final cost drops. With a catering package, you have already paid.
• A clean paper trail: Every bottle you buy has a retail receipt, and every bottle you return generates a refund receipt.

The Side-by-Side Math

Scenario: a 150-person company holiday party with a 4-hour full bar

Item	Catering Bar Package	Dry-Hire (Boomtown)
Bar service / crew	Bundled	Flat, quoted upfront
Alcohol	Bundled	You buy it at retail
Equipment/supplies	Bundled	Included
Insurance	Bundled	Included
What you control	One per-guest price, markup hidden inside	Two clear line items, no markup
Alcohol returns	N/A	Refunded on unopened bottles

With a bundled catering package you pay one per-guest price and the alcohol margin is hidden inside it. With dry-hire you pay a flat crew cost and buy the alcohol yourself at retail, so every dollar is visible and any unopened bottles come back for a refund. Run your guest count and hours through the live instant estimate to see your real crew quote.

Insurance and Peace of Mind

If you need to manage risk, here is what you get:

• Boomtown carries $1 to $2M in liquor liability and general liability insurance
• A Certificate of Insurance is available on request, naming your company and venue as additional insured
• Every bartender holds ABLE-approved training certifications
• A written responsible service policy is available for your legal or compliance team

Your Procurement Checklist

Here is everything your team needs from us:

• A detailed quote with line-item breakdown
• A W-9
• A Certificate of Insurance
• A written service agreement
• An invoice, with net-30 available

All of it is available within 24 hours of your request. We have worked with procurement teams before, so we know exactly what you need.

Built With Your Budget in Mind

"In a bundled package, you are also paying for someone to source, shop for, and prep all the supplies," explains Bar-Key founder Patrick Wilson. "We let you handle that piece yourself and deliver the same service and hospitality regardless."

That transparency is the point. Every line item is documented. Your alcohol is bought at retail with no markups added. Unopened bottles come back for a refund. Your invoice matches your PO. That is the kind of vendor relationship that makes your job easier.