Should we have a booking cutoff?

People seem to be booking in later and later for Breakfast Meetings.  It's getting difficult to tell the venue the numbers with any certainty and in time for them to make preparations/warn staff.

Should we have a booking cut-off, say 4PM the day before a Breakfast??

Jim

When I give the numbers for Cheltenham I normally add a couple to allow for late bookers but we have the advantage that our venue is pretty flexible.

There's also the occasional late dropout - not everything is as predicatable as we'd like, especially for people coming from further away or who have children at school. etc.

Jim

In a previous position one of my duties was similar to that of an OA for a professional development body.  The number of delegates that actually arrived at the monthly meeting was very rarely the same number who had confirmed to me as there were always non-attendees as well as late comers who'd not booked on.  As I booked the seminar room for the entire ten month period (no summer meetings) I would also confirm catering for something like 60 and if it looked like this was wildly off the mark a few days before I would confirm to the venue a change of numbers.  I guess in this case though it depends upon the flexibility of the venue as to how they can cope with extra bookings.

NO!!!!!!!

Cut off would work terribly for me - whilst I totally understand as a GL the difficulty in last minute bookings, from a personal perspective sometimes I don't know until last minute if I can make it as it often depends on if work is done, meetings are cancelled etc etc. Whilst I always prepare my schedule around what I would call my regular groups the other ones are often only booked evening before as it's dependant on work completed/clients confirming or cancelling etc.

Wouldnt work for me. I could get a call from a US client anytime up until 10pm which means I could spend the night working. So I could book before 4pm and be cancelling by 5pm

Interesting !   I tend to go the other way and give a pessimistic estimate.  I'd rather get a smile from the venue when they hear they're getting more money rather than a frown for  less ;-)

As for booking cutoffs  - no.  I often book late when work plans change and the opportunity to get to a 4N meeting arises.

However if you're booking the evening before it's worth checking with a team member in case there's (eg) been a venue problem.

Thanks all for the feedback.  I have sympathy with most of the above.

Stef, this is about the venue coping not the team - we can manage fine.

Please consider the following:

• Our room is laid out to our stated requirement. If we can't tell them numbers that are reasonably close, it makes 4N look like plonkers.
• Yes, we routinely ask for a slightly higher number than we expect.  ( I personally don't like a room with a lot of empty places, it makes it more cluttered than it need be, and gives the impression of people missing.)
• If we routinely advised a number that was much higher than turned up, the venue might get arsy about having prepared more breakfast food than was necessary.
• The staff who prepare the room are given a schedule of requirements for all their rooms some days in advance.  And as they are the ones working early in the morning they are unlikely to be around to receive messages about late bookings the night before.  So they walk into a surprise in the morning and have to start rushing around getting tables, chairs and place settings.

There will always be last minute cancellations and late bookings, that's fine.  What concerns me is a trend that seems to be happening of more and more people booking later and later.  The number booked for our latest event has increased by 41% since first advised to the venue 1.5 days before the event. 

Jim

Steve: it's mainly to do with the number of places set out. It's easier to take them away than dash around and add chairs/place settings.

We're fortunate that our venue is flexible and also that the chef is used to dealing with us

Why not let the venue know the day before rather than 1.5 days before ? The last 2 days are frequently the most volatile.

At Bracknell we let the venue know the afternoon before.

No. But I do see your point.

When I go to 4N meetings I have been booked on in advance by the team at my main meet.

But at the others I say no as I would not like to let them down. I book sometimes the night before.

I have to be available for work 7 days a week, so do not like to book and then let the team down.

I think if you did this you would have more booked in, but also loads of no shows.

Late bookers I think are more likly to turn up.

The 5 venues I go to seem to have no problem with this. So I think it depends on the venue.

No, unfortunately a booking cutoff wouldn't work.

All that would happen would be that late decision makers wouldn't book and would just turn up anyway. And that's even worse than knowing at 11 the night before. At least the team and venue have a chance to adjust numbers in the 7.30 to 8 slot before people arrive.

By the way, my record at one of my meetings was a booking at 7.53 in the morning. He was sitting in the car park at the venue and booked online then walked straight in, and seemed surprised when we didn't have his placeholder ready for him.

If that happened it would be too late for me to book into Leicester South for tomorrow. Still unsure if I can make it, but would hate to be unable to go because I hadn't booked early enough.

It's also likely that some people don't turn up even though they've confirmed. I think the venues prefer there to be extra coming rather than there being less. If we stopped people booking in late then it would be highly likely the venue would get more annoyed.

Just to put the record straight I never normally book in this late so don't shout at me if I do!