How to Determine Event Minimums: Best Practices for Pricing

Setting the right event minimums is crucial for ensuring profitability while maintaining customer satisfaction when managing events. Whether you’re hosting corporate events, weddings, or intimate gatherings, event minimums help ensure your venue’s costs are covered. Event minimums are nothing new, but determining the amounts can be challenging. You want to be sure you’re offering minimum pricing that’s beneficial for your company’s bottom line, and that makes sense for your customers.

For restaurants, hotels, and unique venues, a strategy for determining these minimums is essential—and this is where tools like Tripleseat come in handy. Let’s explore how you can effectively establish event minimums and how Tripleseat can streamline the process.

What is an Event Minimum?

An event minimum is the minimum requirement that must be met for an event to be held at your venue on a particular date. Event minimums can be structured in several ways, such as:

• Guest count: A required minimum number of guests, which must be paid for even if fewer people attend.
• Food and beverage minimum: A set minimum amount that must be spent on food and drinks during the event.
• Catering budget: A required minimum amount to be spent on catering to reserve the event space.

These minimums can vary based on factors such as:

• Venue size and cost: Larger or more upscale venues typically have higher minimums.
• Event date: Minimums are often higher on popular dates, like Saturdays or holidays, when demand is greater.

Steps to Take to Set Your Event Minimums 1. Understand Your Costs

Before setting any event minimums, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your operational costs. These include:

• Food & Beverage Costs: Calculate the cost of the menu items and drinks that will be offered during the event.
• Labor Costs: Consider the staff needed to run the event, from chefs to waitstaff, bartenders, and cleaners.
• Overhead Costs: Factor in utilities, maintenance, and any other ongoing expenses.

By understanding your total costs, you can set a minimum that ensures you’ll cover expenses and generate profit.

2. Analyze Your Event History with Tripleseat

One of the benefits of using a platform like Tripleseat is that it offers detailed reporting on past events. This historical data can help you see trends in spending and event size. With Tripleseat, you can:

• Track event profitability: Use past data to analyze which types of events were most profitable.
• Identify seasonal fluctuations: Determine whether certain times of the year require higher or lower minimums based on demand and typical spending.

By using these insights, you can adjust your event minimums to align with trends in your venue’s performance.

3. Consider Your Space and Layout

The size and layout of your venue play a significant role in determining event minimums. Larger spaces with more flexibility, such as those that can host multiple events at once, may have varying minimums depending on the size of the group and the setup required. Smaller, more intimate spaces might justify higher per-person minimums, especially if there is a high demand for the space.

With Tripleseat, you can easily manage multiple room layouts and keep track of the different minimums for each space. This helps when communicating with clients who may have specific preferences for their event setup.

4. Assess Your Target Market

Your venue’s event minimums should reflect the spending capacity of your target market. If you’re catering to corporate clients, they may expect higher-end options with higher minimums, while smaller social gatherings may require more budget-friendly alternatives. Knowing your audience helps you set realistic minimums that won’t scare away potential clients.

Tripleseat can help segment your client base, allowing you to tailor your marketing and event pricing strategies. By identifying frequent customers or event planners who book regularly, you can offer customized minimums or discounts through the platform.

5. Incorporate Flexibility for Off-Peak Times and Trends

Event minimums are rarely a one-size-fits-all amount. If you want to make the most of your events program, it’s wise to take seasonality and business trends into account during your calculations. Your Tripleseat reports will show you info on booking trends. This can help you determine when prices can (and should) fluctuate without risking your profit margins.

Off-peak times, such as weekdays or shoulder seasons, may call for lower event minimums to attract bookings. Rather than sticking to one flat rate throughout the year, consider offering lower minimums during these times to boost your venue’s bookings. Using Tripleseat’s calendar features, you can easily adjust minimums for specific dates and promote these off-peak offers.

Restaurants generally have lower minimum spends than traditional event venues because they offer a smaller space. However, they can also afford to increase event minimums during peak seasons and times when business will be the most predictable. For event venues, peak wedding season is the time when you can charge a higher price. For luxury venues during the busy season, you can go as far as to include minimum spend info in your auto-response email. This saves you time by quickly disqualifying those who don’t have the budget.

6. Communicate Clearly with Clients

When it comes to what you are charging your clients, you want things to be crystal clear. Event minimums should be clearly communicated during the booking process. One great way to do this is by including minimum spend info in your events packet. Just be sure you’re creating a set minimum spend pricing that accounts for the cost factors we mentioned earlier.

If you don’t want to get too specific, you can simply say something like, “Our private event spaces have food and beverage minimums that depend on the event type and day of the week, starting at $1,200.”

This part of the events packet should be reflective of the pricing — and it should drive home why your business is worth whatever minimums you set. High-end venues with plain, unbranded packets don’t convey a consistent message. Often, all it takes is some simple formatting and consistent branding. With Tripleseat’s customizable proposals and contracts, you can outline the minimums in a transparent and professional way, reducing the chances of confusion or miscommunication.

7. Revisit Your Event Minimums

Your minimums don’t have to be set in stone. A few times a year, it’s worthwhile to revisit your calculations to make sure you’re on the right track. One easy way to do this is to see if there’s a remaining minimum when you’re closing out your bookings. If a significant percentage of clients aren’t meeting their minimum and end up just getting charged that amount, your minimum may be a bit too high for your customers.

On the flip side, if you’re running into a busy program with razor-thin margins, it may be time to up the ante. This happens particularly with independent venues that can’t shake the “new kid on the block” feeling, even after they’ve been an established business for years. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want — and deserve!

Figuring out your event minimums can sound tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. The above steps will help you arrive at an amount that works for both your business and customers and helps keep your private events program thriving for seasons to come.

Best Practices for Setting Event Minimums Regularly Review and Adjust Event Minimums

Reassess your event minimums annually or bi-annually to ensure they’re still aligned with your costs and market trends.

Offer Event Packages

Consider offering event packages that include popular food, beverage, and décor options, making it easier for clients to meet the minimum.

Stay Competitive

Keep an eye on what similar venues in your area are offering in terms of event minimums and packages. Ensure your pricing is competitive but still covers your costs.

Leverage Technology

Platforms like Tripleseat not only help with tracking data but also streamline communication, making it easier for clients to understand and agree to event minimums.

Make Managing Event Minimums and All the Logistics Easy With Tripleseat

Once you launch your new pricing and start driving leads, use Tripleseat to help your venue manage them. If you’re not a Tripleseat customer and you’re interested in learning more about Tripleseat’s event management tools and CRM features, schedule a demo at your convenience to take a closer look.