Upd. 02/12/24

Smoke with delivery to your home: all about hookah catering in Bali

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Good hookah lounges in Bali have been around for a long time. They can be found in almost every neighborhood on the island. However, the recent trend is hookah catering. It is ordered for birthdays, presentations, corporate events and just parties at villas. How to choose a quality delivery and how much it costs to treat your party with tasty smoke - we learned from Roman Shershnev, the founder of the hookah delivery service in Bali Hookah Xpress Delivery.

Roman, tell me first, what is hookah catering?

Well, it's simple. Hookah catering is like food catering or bar catering, only instead of food or cocktails, we provide different events with hookahs.

That is, a hookah man arrives - one or two, depending on the scale of the party. We bring hookahs, devices, tobacco, charcoal - everything you need to make delicious smoke in abundance and any guest could smoke a good hookah if desired.

How much does it cost to provide your event with hookahs?

As a rule, companies providing this service have a fixed price of 1 hookah per hour. With us, one device will cost party organizers 150k IDR for 60 minutes. Let's say 5 hookahs are needed for an average company. Approximate time of 4 hours.

That's 150k times 4 = 600k. And multiplied by the number of hookahs - 5! That's 3 million Indonesian rupiah. For this amount of money people get 5 hookahs, unlimited tobacco, unlimited charcoal, and hookah service. The hookah maker can even change the charcoal and bongs every half an hour. The guests do not have to worry about it, the whole hookah story is closed by the catering company.

What are the disadvantages of hookah catering?

The price of catering can be more expensive than delivery. But if we are not talking about smoking in threes by the pool in the villa, but about an event, then you can not do without full service and accompaniment by hookah caterers. Changing coals, changing the bowl, orders for different mixes, depending on what people want to smoke. Brands and flavors of tobacco are negotiated in advance with the customer.

There are already several catering services in Bali. How can you tell a good one?

Without, let's say, a test, there's no way to tell the difference. Absolutely no way. Until you try it, you won't know - it's just like trying a new dish. The difference is in the details, in the little things. Let's say, hookah delivery man arrived on time, 10 minutes or even half an hour, that by the beginning of service he has already arranged everything and was ready to take orders, that the devices were clean, that the hookah master was neat, that spoke at least in English. These details can be listed a lot - brands of tobacco, brands of hookah devices, efficiency.

Who is responsible for the safety of the devices at the party?

If the hookah player is present at the event, all responsibility for the devices that he brings to the guests is entirely on him.

But! If the guests during the catering somehow carelessly touched, moved and so on, the device broke - this is the responsibility of the guests. Because, in a good way, how should it happen? The guests wanted to move, they called the hookah man. He comes over, the guests explain where they want to move to and the hookah man solves their issue.

But if the guests are drunk or something else - stuff happens, they can break the bowl, flask or somehow damage the equipment. In this case, usually charge a standard fine for broken equipment and that's it, problem solved.

What should be presented by the catering?

In an ideal world hookah catering is absolutely full service, starting from a wide choice of tobacco flavors, devices, quality charcoal, good hookah workers, to some details in the form of non-standard stuffing or non-standard bowls. Catering should be adjusted to the guests' wishes.

What difficulties can a client encounter when ordering catering?

If you turn to a good company, there are none. You just need to clarify absolutely all the details, so that you don't get the following: “Oh, you didn't tell me, but you can bring this one, bring this one, this one is missing, but we changed our mind, we wanted it like this”. To avoid this, everything is negotiated in advance.

By a certain time we prepare devices, pack it all, prepare agreed tobacco in sufficient quantities of coals, hookah men we all leave in advance to be on time, taking into account traffic jams.

Nowadays, many people take their hookah with them wherever they go. Where is it better to smoke hookah?

Hookah can be smoked absolutely everywhere where it is allowed. The recommendation is not to smoke where there is wind. The wind blows the coals, the hookah will constantly burn at you. And there is also a danger that the spark will fly off and, God forbid, a fire.

Therefore, where there is a strong wind, a strong fan or something, it is better not to put hookah, not to smoke. On the beach we also do catering and deliveries, but it is better when the space is closed. And ideally it is a closed space with air conditioning, so that it was more pleasant to smoke. With comfortable furniture. If it's a villa, that's great. If it's a garden outside the villa, that's fine too.

What is the difference between home delivery of hookah and catering?

Catering is, after all, from the series of activities for an event. You can order catering at home, too, if a person does not know how to prepare a hookah himself, for example. Only knows how to smoke. If it is one person who does not know how to smoke, he can easily order a two-hour delivery, a hookah maker will come to him, prepare the device, give the client a hose and leave. And when he finishes smoking, our man will come to disassemble everything and take it back. That is, delivery is, in fact, the same kating, but two hours, which will cost less. At home, too, you can order a real catering, if it's a small party, a birthday party, for example. Two or three hookahs with a hookah maker, well, even four with a hookah maker - for a few hours.

Does the quality and service drop significantly if we smoke hookah not in an establishment, but order catering?

It all depends on the catering organizer. We, for example, have a lot of experience, we were one of the first to do this. Therefore, we can guarantee the quality of off-site service. And hundreds of loyal customers confirm this. Today, by the way, more and more orders are for catering. People who organize events, realized that many of their guests like this opportunity. By the way, weddings are now by and large order hookah service. Wedding organizers almost all cooperate with hookah companies to close this issue. But I repeat - the main thing is not to save money, choosing no-name guys without reviews and experience. The difference in price will not be colossal, but a spoiled guests' mood (and a bad hookah will definitely spoil it) compensates for something difficult.