Big Event Fail: A Back-to-Back Booking
Megan Long
The goal of every event manager is to make sure that their venue is booked to maximum capacity as frequently as possible in order to generate the most revenue. Sometimes this may even include booking parties for back-to-back events in a single day — which, as one could imagine, would be a hectic day for the venue staff. Megan Long, Manager of Marketing & Events at Bostonia Public House, explains how she handled a stressful back-to-back booking scenario in this week’s Big Event Fail.
“Our event calendar at Bostonia Public House was booked on a particular day for two events back to back in the same private room. The events both had start and end times, assuring that the schedule would allow for this busy day. The event for the first group went well as planned, but once their event time period was over, the group would not leave. At first, I did not say anything, hoping that they would realize the time was now over and leave on their own, but this did not happen. I closed the group’s bill and set them up with free champagne at the bar outside of their event room to entice them to move, but they all just sat where they were. I was now conflicted with remaining professional towards their group while knowing I now had a second group to accommodate.
“Finally, after giving them now 30 extra minutes in the event space, I told the group that we had another event coming into the room. The group did not seem happy to leave their gathering in the event room, but shortly after this the main hosts left and then the other guests proceeded to the bar for the free champagne. Now that the second event would be starting late, I bought them a round of drinks. Luckily, the second event group was very laid-back and understanding of the timeline running a little bit behind.
“After this scenario took place, I learned that it is not necessarily enough to rely on the fact that a group has an event end time scheduled but to specifically tell them that they are the first event in a situation of back to back events. If the group had known this, then maybe they would have planned to leave the event room at the end time all along with the plan to have an after-event cocktail at the bar, for instance. From then on I always tell a group if they are booked back to back with another party.”
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