A fair hospitality rider: what’s normal, what’s not

A fair hospitality rider asks for what keeps an artist rested, fed, safe and on time: a quiet room, a hot meal, water, a lockable space for gear, transfers with a sober driver and a few guest list spots. On one page, in order of importance, with numbers. A promoter reads a rider like that to the end and says yes to most of it. Three pages of brand names get skimmed, and the allergy on page two gets skimmed with them.

This guide is for both sides: artists and agents writing a rider, and promoters deciding what to agree to.

What a hospitality rider covers

The hospitality rider is the artist’s standing list of needs off stage. The tech rider covers the stage. Both are defaults: the rider says what the artist needs at every show, and advancing confirms how this particular show meets it (which hotel, when the pickup is, who drives).

For a DJ or live act in European clubs, it usually has six parts:

• Travelling party. Who comes and needs a room, a meal and a seat in the car. A solo DJ is one person, or two with a tour manager. A live act with its own sound engineer is at least two.
• Hotel. Standard, number of rooms, beds, breakfast, check-in and checkout.
• Food. Number of meals, timing, dietary needs and allergies.
• Drinks. Water and soft drinks in the booth or on stage, and anything else.
• Backstage. A dressing room or green room, or at least somewhere to sit, change and leave bags safely.
• Guest list and transfers. The number of spots and the deadline for names; ground transport between airport or station, hotel and venue.

Write one rider per act: a DJ set and a live show by the same artist need two, because the party and the timings differ.

What is normal and what is too much

The table describes clubs and club stages of roughly 300 to 1,500 capacity in Europe. Headliners at large festivals get more; a first show in a 200-capacity basement gets less. The numbers are rules of thumb, not a standard.

Whether “too much” is still fine depends on the fee and the size of the club. A festival paying €8,000 for a headliner on a 1,500-capacity stage plans a different hospitality budget from a 300-capacity club paying €800, where a €60 bottle is a real line in the night’s costs.

Late checkout is a normal request when the set ends after 04:00, but the hotel decides. If the flight home is in the evening, put a day room or a second night into the offer, not into a discussion at reception.

Food, drinks and backstage in practice

Timing matters more than the menu. A hot meal at 20:00 does little for a set that starts at 03:00. Say when the meal is needed, and for late sets ask for something after the set too, or for a buyout so the artist can eat when it suits them.

Name dietary needs plainly: vegetarian, vegan, no pork, gluten-free. Allergies go at the top of the rider, marked as essential, with the severity in a few words (“nut allergy, severe”). Share only what the promoter needs to act on. A rider goes to many people; it is not the place for a medical history.

In the booth, ask for still water at room temperature, a few soft drinks and nothing in glass near the players or the mixer. A modest alcohol line (“six beers or one bottle of wine for two”) is normal. Brand lists are not, unless there is a real reason behind them.

Many clubs of 300 to 600 capacity have no dressing room. A lockable office, or a corner of the backstage with seating and a mirror, is normal. What matters is that bags, a laptop and a record bag are safe from arrival to departure, and that there is a toilet the artist can use without joining the queue.

Hotels, transfers and the guest list

Ask for a hotel standard and a room count, not a hotel name. Promoters often have rates with one or two hotels, and a good one near the venue beats a famous one across town. Ask for non-smoking rooms, breakfast and a quiet room if the artist sleeps during the day.

Transfers cover every leg between airport or station, hotel and venue, including the ride back after the set. The driver is sober, tracks the flight, has room for the gear and isn’t also running the door. Ask for one named day-of contact with a phone number: that’s who the artist calls when nobody is waiting at arrivals.

For the guest list, state the number of spots and accept a deadline for names, usually the day before the show. Promoters are right to cap the list on a sold-out night; agree it beforehand, not at the door.

What a promoter can reasonably push back on

A rider is a request until it is part of the signed offer or contract. Then it is part of the deal. So the time to push back is before signing, in writing, with an alternative.

Reasonable to question:

• Brand names, when an equivalent does the same job.
• Premium spirits, champagne and long drink lists, especially in small clubs.
• Rooms, meals and guest list spots for people who don’t work on the show.
• Long guest lists on nights that are close to selling out.
• Guaranteed early check-in: a hotel can only promise it if the room is booked from the night before.

Not reasonable to cut: allergies and dietary needs, drinking water, a safe place for gear, a sober driver, a quiet room after a night of travel, and enough time between landing and the set time.

A good counter reads like this: “We can’t do the bottle of vodka at this capacity. We’ll do six beers and drink tickets for your two guests.” Sent three weeks before the show, that’s an easy yes for most artists. What goes wrong is the promoter who says nothing, and the artist who finds an empty fridge at 01:00.

Buyouts: meal, hotel and drinks

A buyout replaces something in the rider with money. The promoter saves the organising, and the artist gets flexibility. Put three things in the offer: the amount, whether it is per person or for the whole party, and how it is paid (cash on the night or on the invoice).

The amounts below are examples for DACH cities in 2026, not a standard. Zurich, London or Scandinavia cost more; smaller cities cost less.

• Meal buyout. Enough for a proper sit-down meal in that city. Example: €25 to €40 per person per meal in Vienna or Berlin.
• Hotel buyout. When the artist stays with friends or travels on the same night. Usually what the room would cost the promoter, or less. Example: €100 to €140 if the room would cost €140.
• Drinks buyout. Rare, but useful when a promoter can’t supply a specific item. Example: €40 to €60 instead of a bottle.

A buyout is not a hidden fee increase. If it is higher than the thing it replaces, it is fee, and it belongs in the fee.

How to write a rider that gets met

Keep it to one page. Promoters read dozens, and the first half page is what gets the attention, so the essentials go there and get marked: allergies, safety, the things the artist really can’t play without. Everything below is a preference, and a rider that says so gets met more often than one that treats every line as a demand.

Write things someone can act on. “One hot vegetarian meal for two before 22:00” can be met, while “catering” on its own leaves the promoter guessing.

Put a date on it, and take out gear and people who no longer travel. A rider that hasn’t changed in three years tells the promoter nobody reads it.

The rider doesn’t override the offer. On a landed deal, flights are in the fee, but the hotel and local transfers usually stay with the promoter. Say who provides what in the offer, and keep the rider in line with it.

Send it with the offer. A promoter can plan for almost anything they know about two weeks ahead, and for very little they hear about on the day.

And leave the jokes out. In a pile of riders, they mostly cost goodwill.

A severe allergy goes in the first line of the rider and again in the advance. Riders get forwarded in pieces, and this is the one line that has to reach both the kitchen and whoever stocks the booth.

A compact example

For [Artist A], a DJ travelling with a tour manager. Amounts are placeholders.

Essentials. No nuts in anything served to the artist (allergy, severe). A lockable space for two bags and a laptop from arrival to departure. A sober driver for every transfer.

Travelling party. Two people: [Artist A] and the tour manager.

Accommodation. Two single rooms or one twin in a clean, quiet 3- or 4-star hotel within 15 minutes of the venue. Non-smoking, breakfast included, late checkout until 14:00 where the hotel allows it.

Transport. Every leg between airport or station, hotel and venue, in a car with room for two people and a record bag. The driver tracks the flight.

Meals. One hot vegetarian meal for two before 22:00, or a meal buyout of [amount] per person as agreed in the offer. If the set ends after 04:00, something simple to eat afterwards.

Drinks. In the booth: six bottles of still water, four soft drinks, nothing in glass. Backstage: six beers or one bottle of red wine.

Backstage. A lockable room or office with two seats, a mirror and two towels.

Guest list. Four spots, names by 18:00 the day before the show.

Alternatives. Equivalent brands are fine. Changes to the essentials are agreed with the agent before the day of the show.

The tech rider, briefly

The tech rider is a separate page. It describes the setup (DJ, live or hybrid), the equipment the promoter provides with exact models and acceptable alternatives, the booth monitors and who controls them, table size and stability, power and connections, and the time needed for setup, soundcheck and changeover. For a DJ it is usually short: for example, three or four Pioneer CDJ-3000 players, a DJM-V10 or DJM-A9 mixer and two booth monitors at ear height. For a live act, add the stage plot, the inputs and the backline you bring or need from the house. The same rules apply: one page, essentials marked, a date, and one contact who can approve substitutions.