It is a week before the event and the Guest has informed us they have invited 45 people when our max capacity is 30. Their story is that at any given time there would only be a few people over 30 and they didn’t think it was important. We have advised them to disinvite guests because we don’t want to cancel the event at such short notice.
I am curious what other hosts charge when the guest list goes over and how many people are you willing to go over? Thanks for your help!
Is 30 your legal capacity or just your preference? If it’s legal, I would tell them that and say something like it voids your insurance if you accept a booking with the potential for more than what’s accommodated under the law.
If it’s your preference, but open to going over, then come up with a fee that fits the hassle.
My experience is that the whole “there won’t actually be XX number of people here at the same time” is always bogus. Often times they’ve invited more people than they’re telling you and just assume you’re not counting heads as they come in.
I’ve never actually hosted an event with even 30 people, but I’ve been thinking, theoretically about how I would handle it if I did to ensure the guests didn’t go over the agreed number. I’ve considered something like handing out tickets, giving out wrist bands, or even having a guest list. Has anyone ever done anything like that?
It’s our preference and we list a maximum of 30 and disclose that we will shut a party down if it goes over the max. We were stern today about needing to uninvite guests so that the party could still happen.
The Guest decided to cancel the event themselves which we are thankful for. I am guessing even the 45 people number she gave wasn’t the total amount. Dodged a bullet today!
Ff you are able to accommodate the additional guests- meaning your space would allow it. charge the booker for it. leave it up to them if they want to pay the additional costs or reduce their head count. Also, don’t be modest in your upcharge for the additional 15 guests. Its a business transaction, you are being transparent and frankly they likely are as well expecting an additional fee otherwise they wouldn’t have given you notice.
They probably had 60 people coming.
I regularly host events at my place and came up with a very effective system for preventing events from going over my capacity preference. My listing for events is my backyard space so there’s no actual legal capacity but I can comfortably fit 100 people. I can definitely fit more than that but I don’t want to book events larger than that.
I have several cameras throughout my space so that I can provide a visual headcount proof to Peerspace if an event has more people than they book. This is very important. Peerspace can’t do anything without you providing proof. So even if the event is within capacity but is more than the tier they booked for, I have the visual proof to charge them the correct hourly rate afterward.
Now the key to discouraging people from going over your capacity and being able to properly enforce it is to have an Add-On option for bookings that go beyond capacity… and make it EXPENSIVE. Peerspace doesn’t allow random penalty fees if someone breaks your rules, and understandably so because that can get out of hand and is a difficult thing to navigate and enforce.
But by having it as an Add-On you can properly enforce it through Peerspace, and by making it expensive you effectively discourage your guests from exceeding your preferred capacity.
So for example… I allow up to 100 people at my place at $450/hr. And for any event that wants to go beyond capacity it’s an Add-On of $250 per attendee. Note… not per hour, but per person. So just exceeding the capacity by 5 people will run them an additional $1250.
I’ve never had to enforce these charges because I’ve never had a guest exceed my capacity. It works.
And obviously most guests are not going to choose to select this Add-On initially, but regardless of that, it is a listed option and charge on your page so therefore you can effectively enforce it afterward if the guest breaks the rule.
Now with 100 person events, depending on the event I may require a guestlist and a doorperson be hired from a company of my choice (so that I can trust they will be working for me and not the guest) to also make sure the situation won’t get abused. That depends on the conversation had with the guest – you can feel that out.
For your place with a 30 person capacity you wouldn’t need to concern yourself with that aspect, though. No event that small is going to have a guestlist or doorperson and shouldn’t be required to. The Add-On for Attendees Beyond Capacity charge will effectively take care of your worries. When necessary you can communicate to your guest that the pricing is for TOTAL ATTENDEES and that you have this Add-On if they feel they need to go beyond capacity.
Obviously you can price this Add-On at whatever cost that you feel is appropriate in relation to what your hourly rate is for your place, but the key is to have it be a price that discourages the guest from wanting to attempt to go beyond capacity. And if they decide to not respect your rules and try to get away with it, then it’s a nice payday for you.
Hope this helps!